Two families, one weekend
Charlotte is from Bath; Henry is from Chicago. Rather than asking one family to do all the travelling for a single day, they rented a Cotswolds manor for the whole weekend — rehearsal dinner on Friday, ceremony on Saturday, a long farewell brunch on Sunday. By the time the vows began, the two families already felt like one.
We photographed all three days. The Friday and Sunday galleries are quieter — hugs in doorways, borrowed wellies, board games after midnight — and the couple tells us those frames mean as much as the ceremony itself.
Blending traditions
The ceremony wove both sides together: a string quartet that slipped from Pachelbel into a Chicago blues number, readings in two accents, and a best man’s speech that needed no translation to bring the house down.
Our job on days like this is mostly anthropology — learning quickly who matters to whom, so the right groupings happen without anyone being herded. A good wedding photographer is half family diplomat.
“Half our guests had never met before Friday. By Sunday it felt like a reunion. The photos prove it.” — Charlotte
The manor portraits
English light in May is a softbox the size of the sky. We used the walled garden for the couple’s portraits — ten unhurried minutes while guests enjoyed canapés — and the stone staircase for the family groups, arranged tallest at the back in under four minutes flat.
Our approach
Multi-day coverage changes the rhythm of the work: Friday is for observing, Saturday for performing, Sunday for the gentle epilogue. If your families are crossing an ocean to be together, give them — and your photographer — more than one day.
Bringing two families together?
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