Wedding Photography at The Bay Tree Hotel, Burford, Oxfordshire | Rachel and James

A couple of years ago we were photographers for James's brother, Thomas, when he married Sarah at Waterton Park and it was at their wedding that we first met James and Rachel.  At the time, we had no idea that they were planning to get married but we were over the moon to receive a call from Rachel to ask if we were available on their wedding date and if we would be prepared to travel to Burford in the Cotswolds to photograph their wedding.  As we are Yorkshire wedding photographers, this is where we usually work but we are happy to travel pretty much anywhere and on 23 June, it was our pleasure to be wedding photographers at the Bay Tree Hotel in Burford for Rachel and James.

As it's some three hours' drive away, we decided to travel down the day before so that we could settle in our hotel and also meet up with Rachel and James at the Bay Tree Hotel for a look around the venue ahead of the wedding.  This pretty hotel was impossible to photograph prior to the wedding due to the number of cars parked outside.  However, we noticed that by early evening, most of them had disappeared enabling Alex to get a couple of nice images, even though by now, it was throwing it down.  And we thought we'd left the rain behind in Yorkshire!

As this was a 3pm civil ceremony, we met up with Rachel and the girls around mid-day and what struck us was how happy and bubbly Rachel was.  In fact, she never stopped smiling all day long which made for great photographs.  Wearing her beautiful vintage style dress which suited her perfectly, she looked amazing.

Photographs of James and his attendants were next and with the weather holding up nicely and with perfect soft light, we kept the boys busy for a while in the walled garden behind the the Bay Tree Hotel.  It was lovely to see James's family again, his mum and dad, Mary and Peter, joining their two sons in the garden for photographs.

We were lucky again that the registrars conducting the civil ceremony gave us no restrictions on photography during the proceedings and it was a pleasure to be able to capture it as there were some great expressions and moments to photograph. 

The couple had asked for mainly a relaxed and informal style of photography, some family group photos, a few couple shots and a spectacular shower of rose petals. The rain clouds started gathering whilst we were outside, ominously threatening a downpour, which meant working really quickly but we managed to get everything we needed - just - before we headed off indoors for everyone to sit for the wedding breakfast.  It's quite unusual for the bride to make a speech but Rachel did and it was hilarious as she told the story of how she and James first got together.  

Soon after the speeches ended, the new Mr and Mrs Cass hit the dance floor with a fun routine they'd been practicing, including a bit of air guitar playing from James, making for some great images, before we hit the road back to Yorkshire.

We hope you're having a fabulous honeymoon and a huge thank you for asking us to be your wedding photographers.

To ask about our availability to capture your wedding at The Bay Tree Hotel, Burford please call us on 01977 730159