Charlotte & James were getting married on 15^th June at St Mary’s Church in Swindon and having their reception at the Kings Head Hotel in Cirencester. A couple of months previously, Charlotte had asked me if I could try and find a location between the church and the hotel in which we could go off and do some Bride & Groom photos, as the Church is on a busy main road and the hotel, lovely as it is, doesn’t have any suitable outdoor areas.

Fortunately, I have a friend, Chris, whose mum, Mary, owns a lodge at the stunning South Cerney lakes and Chris offered me, along with Charlotte and James, the opportunity to come and have a look around the lakes there. As a one-off favour, he was willing to facilitate a Bride & Groom shoot on Charlotte and James’s big day.

A couple of days later, I picked up Charlotte & James from their home and headed towards the South Cotswolds. The lakes are situated in a private area but Chris had let security know that we were coming so we were able to access the area. Even as we were driving in and parking up, all three of us knew that we had found a perfect location for photos.

Chris took us on a tour of the lakes. I had a camera with me so I was busy firing off shots of some potential spots that would make for a nice photo on Charlotte & James’s big day. There were almost TOO many!!

Charlotte mentioned that she loved weeping willows, and asked Chris if there happened to be any. Chris walked us round a corner and pointed across a lake towards a lovely example of one!

Everything was falling into place. We loved the location so we made the decision to go there on the wedding day. Chris and Mary kindly made the necessary arrangements with security and we kept in touch in the run up to the day.

The wedding day came and in the morning and early afternoon in the run up to the ceremony, the weather was, quite frankly, horrible. Absolutely chucking it down! The shoot at South Cerney was definitely at risk.

But miraculously, just before the Bride arrived at the Church (in the gorgeous retro VW camper van they had hired as their wedding transport), the rain stopped. There was hope again! By the time we came outside again an hour later, the sun was out in full force! It was windy, but the situation was a whole lot better than it had been.

We did some group shots in the church grounds and then the guests headed off to the reception. I then drove to South Cerney with the VW following behind me and we arrived at the lakes, to be met by Chris and Mary. Chris ushered the van into the prime parking spot they had been keeping free for us all day, overlooking one of the biggest lakes. He then presented Charlotte and James with a wedding gift and card, which I thought was a lovely touch and then we got straight to work taking photos, as we only had half an hour to spare before we had to be in Cirencester.

Although the sun was being incredibly difficult to work with, I managed to keep the pesky shadows on faces as minimal as possible and we got some beautiful shots of Charlotte & James in front of lakes, on bridges, and (perhaps most importantly for Charlotte) under the big weeping willow that Chris had pointed out to us a couple of months beforehand. Chris accompanied us around the whole time so we had no problem re-finding all those lovely little spots we had picked out previously.

The lakes are a residents-only community, guarded with security gates at every entrance and I wouldn’t ask Chris to host another wedding shoot, so although I wouldn’t be able to use this particular amazing location again I am so grateful to Chris for making it possible for us to shoot there and Charlotte and James now have some beautiful photos to look back on 😊