Tythe Barn wedding, Bicester, Oxfordshire

9 May

Last summer, I had the pleasure of visiting Tythe Barn in Bicester, a stunning barn wedding venue set in the heart of Oxfordshire. Sam and Igor from Another Idea created a styled educational workshop with an incredible team. This was a mix of photographing real couples and sitting down to talk about marketing, editing, branding and all things business.

This was not just about the couple portraits section of the wedding day, we walked through all sections of a wedding day, experimenting with styles and quick, simple methods to get the best for our couples in real life. In reality, couples are not waiting to be posed on their wedding day. They are living in the moment on a fast paced day. While no wedding workshop will ever prepare you for photographing a real wedding, Sam & Igor made it as realistic as possible with a time pressure rather than everyone standing around to get endless, perfect frames. It’s not how weddings work, and if you can’t get the shot in a controlled environment like THIS, there is no redoing anything on a wedding day.

We started out with some ‘scene setting’ shots of the venue, inside, outdoors, as this wedding venue includes accommodation (interiors are something I LOVE to photograph when I’m away!) and moved on to morning prep with the couples. Usually, big TVs in a prep room are my nemesis, however this time I thought outside the box and while I was looking for reflections, noticed how perfect Lydia’s mirror image was.

While I put myself in the documentary photography category, there is no doubt that some moments of the day do need to be orchestrated (confetti, everyone needs organising into two lines. Family photos, the cats need herding again). Another moment that does require a little more organisation would be a first look. These are growing in popularity, so we looked at an outdoor and indoor option, scouting what makes a good space for a reveal and positioning to get those first reactions.

We moved on to details, empty ceremony space, dinner table details etc currently I am obsessed with mixing florals and fruit which Hire Love (event design, style and hire) and Honeysuckle Flower Co (florist) absolutely NAILED!! I think this is something we’ll be seeing more of at weddings over the next couple of years.

An outfit change for our couples (supplied by luxury bridal studio, The Mews Bridal) and we explored new ways to photograph couples in a relaxed way without serious posing. With a hint of a golden hour and a dash of direct flash portraits, that was a wrap.

If you’re looking for a barn wedding venue, this is definitely one to check out!

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