For Sasha and Alex’s wedding, I travelled up to Abingdon in Oxfordshire where their celebration was to be taking place at The Crown and Thistle. I had been looking forward to their wedding for such a long time especially since they had filled me in on lots of the unique things they had planned.

Firstly, Alex would be wearing a kilt (ok, so not totally out of the ordinary) but Sasha had decided to dispense with the traditional white dress and would be wearing black instead (spoiler alert - they both looked amazing!). I had also been excited to hear that they were planning to do a “first look” prior to the ceremony before walking down the aisle together.

I arrived nice and early and was even able to catch up with Sasha and Alex before they headed off to get ready. They had decided that they didn’t want their preparations captured so my first job was to grab detail photos of the venue and ceremony space. I particularly loved their heptagon backdrop which reminded me of my very own brand logo! It was then time to find Sasha and Alex and prepare for their first look - always such a joyful and emotional moment to capture.

The rest of the afternoon unfolded at a super-quick pace with the ceremony, confetti-run and drinks reception whizzing by extra fast! Thankfully, the weather was dry and actually rather warm for the time of year so we were able to proceed with their plan of heading across the road for photos in the Abbey Gardens. The beautiful spring blossoms and Trendell’s Folly acted as the perfect backdrop.

Returning to the Crown and Thistle we squeezed in a full group photo before everyone headed inside for the food and then the speeches. Sasha was the first to give a speech followed by Sasha’s Mum, Alex’s Dad and then Alex himself. All of the speeches were emotional and amusing but I was also introduced to a new tradition. Sasha’s Mum described a Polish wedding tradition whereby the newlyweds are offered two shots - one of water, one of vodka - the person who then drinks the shot of vodka is deemed to be the “dominant” one in the relationship. Keep scrolling to see if you can work out who received which shot!

It was then a case of documenting the cake-cutting and finally the first dance before I headed off leaving Sasha, Alex and their guests to their celebrations.

Below you will find a very small selection of my favourite images from the day. To view the full gallery, please contact Sasha or Alex.

Suppliers

Venue - Crown and Thistle, Abingdon
Flowers - Go Tell The Bees
Cakes - made by Sasha, Alex and family
Stationery - Sasha Stowe (the Bride)
Dress - StylishBrideAtelier
Kilt - MacGregor & MacDuff