Wedding Photos at Bedern Hall + St Williams College, York

Last Saturday we joined Hannah & John to photograph their wedding in Central York

Their ceremony was at the ace Bedern Hall, nestled away in a surprisingly quiet back street of Central York, and afterwards guests strolled over to the beautiful St William’s College, essentially over the road.

I hope you enjoy my story of their lovely day!

Hannah’s dress was sheltering from sequin-dulling rays under sheets in a darkened back room, but I thought it was time for it to shine in the mum & dad’s hallway!

It’s all about the shoes!

Here’s the beautiful blushing bride! (Possibly say in the best light going!)

The bridesmaids were great fun and were dancing around on the grass in their fab floral 50’s style dresses (this was before they put in the underskirts), so Hannah joined them, bringing a bit of veily saily fun!

Love this one. I love to pop a scene with punchy flash, but here’s a moment where that just isn’t required. Timeless.

I also look for interesting ways to present the flora, and found this cool old stepladder chilling in the back garden, so got it involved.

I love getting a shot of all the bridesmaids ‘maiding’ the bride into her gown.

I try to stage as little as possible on the wedding day, but we had a few moments with the gang in the sunny back garden before the cars were due to leave, and caught this classical full-length portrait

And from the back…

Here are the ladies set to party! All the dresses look magic eh?

A few details of the flora & dress combos.

Meanwhile, over with the guys, Clare shot a few of the chaps preps in an apartment in central York.

John’s a pro-cricketer, and the guys spent a lot of the morning listening to cricket through the TV!

I like this ring shot of Clare’s

Once the guys were ready, off they set through York to Bedern Hall.

It looked stunning inside, with giant windows flooding the place with light (Yey! We likey)

Ready to rock, the girls hit the road

Ready and (semi-nervously) waiting!From the front of the rolls I caught this lucky snap of one of the amazing gate’s along central York’s walls.

Here comes the bride.

It was a fab place for a ceremony.

The rings…

(Hannah mentioned her mum’s concern at my cutting the heads off in one of these pics from another wedding!)

… the kiss …

… signing the registers …

…and down the aisle as man & wife!

As it’s the best time to catch everyone together in one space, we did squeezed off a quick shot of everyone…

before dropping a confetti bomb!

While guests wandered over to St Williams, we dived in the Rolls and did a few pics outside the Minster.

I’ve a feeling they’ll be staring in a LOT of tourists facebook galleries, as we developed quite a crowd!Afterwards we stopped for a quick stroll in the Museum Gardens (around the Hospitium, where I’ve photographed many times before)We did a few pictures around the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey

While I was changing lenses I caught Hannah doing this pose and loved it.

I also like this one with all the space at the top.

Once we were done I rang Clare to alert the gang that we were on route back to St William’s and guests greeted our happy couple back in with a shower of bubbles!

This 50mm f1.2 shot might be my fave of the day!

They then mingled the reception away with guests in the St William’s College courtyard

Interspersed by a few semi formal groups

I much prefer semi-formal!

The wood beamed hall looked mint, and tables were named after cricked positions!

Speeches were grand, and Hannah got her chance to speak too, which I like.

On their pre-wedding practice shoot (check their rainy pre-wedding wander around Central York here) we had a nosey round St Williams, and a super helpful member of staff there called Tony showed me up some secret stairs to this cool viewpoint.

You’ve gotta have a picture cutting the cake. I think it’s the law.

At the start of the evening reception we ran our photobooth for guests to mess about in front of! It’s an ace way for the couple to get studio quality portraits of and with their guests having fun!