Tipi wedding // Anna and Dan.

‘Hi Dave,

Thank you so much for all your hard work on the photos. There are a huge number of amazing ones that really stand out so I think we are going to have a hard time picking for an album!’

Anna and Dan’s top tipi wedding

There are few things as cool as a tipi wedding. To me they are just the picture of an English summer wedding in the countryside, with gin and pimms, big hats and giant jenga. They are always relaxed and fun with a festival feel and look awesome. I love how you can decorate them however you want and how cosy they become as the sun sets and fairy lights, fire pits, and disco lights illuminate them up until the early hours.

St Leonards church in beautiful Downham followed by ice cream

After photographing the girls and guys (thanks to Jim Ross for helping out) getting ready we headed to St Leonards in the postcard picture village of Downham. I always love weddings here - apart from the stunning scenery, it’s ALWAYS great to work with Andrew Froud. He is the best vicar ever and makes weddings fun - as they should be. After the service the whole wedding party walked down the hill into the heart of the village and descended on the local ice cream shop.

Tipi celebrations

Once the ice cream cones were all finished off it was on to the family land for the rest of the day. What Anna and Dan had done here was so so cool. On arrival the guests were treated to drinks and canapes on the top field by the family home, before following a path down the hill and through the woods to the lower field by the steam where the huge tipi was set up. Anna, Dan and myself went last so I could capture them enjoying the walk down together. It was a really lovely emotional moment when we got to the edge of the woods and Anna saw all her family and friends at the tipi, and all the months of hard work come to real life.

After a couple of hours of drink and jenga induced laughter it was into the tipi for a bbq and speeches. Tipi’s can be a bit notorious for being tricky to photograph in as they don’t let in much natural light and cast an orange glow over everything, but bit of extra ‘pop’ from some off camera flash and they look great. The atmosphere is captured as it looked and no one notices the flashes going off. After that, it was straight into the party - no further words necessary!

Massive Thanks again to Anna and Dan for having me, and to my good friend Jim Ross for second shooting with me.

‘This is Reportage’ and ‘Masters’ awards

I was so happy to receive my 5th Story award from ‘This is Reportage’ for a set from this wedding alongside a ‘Masters of UK wedding photography’ award for the photo at the top with the best man playing a song during the speeches.

Story awards are made up of 20 images from one wedding and are possibly the hardest to win out of all competitions as they represent consistent strong story telling images throughout the day rather than single ‘hero’ shots. It’s a worldwide competition with an insanely high standard, only around 2-4% of the entries out of thousands are awarded. Last year I came in 9th place for the whole year, and am also currently ranked top in the UK with the ‘Masters’ for lifetime awards.