First post-lockdown wedding photography

It’s been a pretty weird summer for wedding photographers, so I was doing my happy dance on my way to my first post-lockdown wedding shoot of 2020!

Tamsin and Ben are just the loveliest humans and they’ve certainly been busy the last few months, not only with wedding admin but working as Doctors on the front line of the NHS as the UK battles a global pandemic – absolute superheroes! They had to postpone their main wedding due to the uncertainty and restrictions brought about by COVID-19, but they still wanted to tie the knot this year and managed to organise a mini wedding on 18^th July 2020 with just a few family and friends. They’ll still have their big day in 2021 with all their guests and we’ll be there too!

Their beautiful family wedding at Folly Farm Centre in Pensford, near Bristol was a perfect celebration of their hard work, kindness and love for each other.

I arrived in the July sunshine, feeling excited to be back behind the camera doing what I love. Ben and his brothers (he’s the eldest of three) were having enormous fun as they prepared for the ceremony. Tamsin’s best friend was helping her get ready, they’ve known each other since the age of four and are like sisters. Tamsin’s dress was bought from Oxfam, it really looked like it had been made for her and the fact it was a charity shop find made it even more meaningful to this truly humanitarian bride.

With the current restrictions on the number of people able to attend weddings Tamsin and Ben set up a laptop so friends and family who couldn’t be there could tune in to be part of the day from a distance. Their intimate civil ceremony was streamed live on Zoom and then, instead of confetti the newly-weds were showered in homemade pom-poms before gin cocktails on the lawn.

We then made our way to the woods, stopping to capture some group portraits with their guests assembled on hay bales. Folly Farm Centre is set in a 250-acre ancient woodland nature reserve, I took a few moments to capture some beautiful, playful portraits of the couple in the sunny fields before they joined their guests for drinks in the cool shade of the woodland.

Here are just a few initial highlights from their beautiful day. As lockdown eases, if you are planning a small ceremony and reception please do get in touch, I’ve put together a special ‘mini wedding’ package specifically for this type of event at Folly Farm Centre.