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Cotswold Wedding Photography Louise is a professional photographer based in the Cotswolds and specialising in Weddings & Portraits. Louise lives in Blockley, Gloucestershire, near Moreton-in-Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold close to many of the Cotswolds' most beautiful wedding venues. As a wedding photographer, Louise loves getting to know the couple & feels privileged to be part of their very special day. She has a friendly & relaxed style which enables her to get the best out of the people she photographs. Louise also offers contemporary, fun family portraits either at her Cotswolds studio in Blockley or at a location of your choice. Louise is a member of the SWPP, the Society of Portrait & Wedding Photographers - a worldwide trade association for professional photographers.

Mickleton Hills Farm

Mickleton Hills Farm Styled Shoot

May 15, 2019 admin

I was lucky enough to be involved in my first styled shoot at the amazing Mickleton Hills Farm just outside Chipping Campden here in the Cotswolds (and round the corner from where I live in Blockley!). This was all coordinated and styled by The Cotswold Wedding Company and was such a lovely day working with some amazing local wedding suppliers.

Mickleton Hills Farm is the perfect wedding venue, based around the original 18th century barn, surrounded by beautiful Cotswold countryside, and recently refurbished and expanded by the lovely owners David & Sammy. They built a new barn, so that the ceremony and wedding breakfast are separate (save all that turning the room round palaver!), and a new play and games area at the back.

Lyla & Ian from the Cotswold Wedding Company were our models for the day, as well as their gorgeous son, and we started with bridal hair and makeup, expertly done by Natasha Louise Hair & Makeup in the Wool Store, which is the gorgeous honeymoon suite at the venue.

All the absolutely stunning flowers were done by Flowers by Dawn Keitley – which included a bridal bouquet, buttonholes, flowers in the ceremony room, and amazing table centre pieces for the wedding breakfast.

The ceremony room chairs were decorated in white lace sashes provided by The Cotswold Wedding Company as well as the hexagonal backdrop with flowers.

The ceremony was performed by Lynne Tierney Ceremonies – such a lovely celebrant who will tailor your ceremony to your wishes creating a truly personal and unique day for you.

One of the elements Lynne can do is tying the knot in a hand fasting ceremony.

A Wine Ceremony, where the bride & groom drink from a single glass of wine, symbolises drinking from the cup of life and sharing life’s experiences.

Our bride and groom also ‘jumped the broom’ in a ceremony which dates back to centuries of tradition and is an important wedding custom in many cultures. It has its roots in the Celtic, Welsh, Scottish, Druid, African, Gypsy and some aboriginal cultures.

Couples celebrate this rich cultural heritage, irrespective of race, religion, and nationality.
The most important thing is it’s significance;
– Honouring and respect of ancestors, their legacy, and rich family heritage.
– Coming together of both families, and commitment to each other as wife and husband.
– It represents strength, love, togetherness, loyalty, and respect which is essential for a successful marriage.

Catering was done by Ross & Ross Events

The wedding cake was supplied by The Cotswold Cake Bee

Suit hire was Beaus & Balls Formal Menswear Hire

The new barn was styled for the wedding breakfast by The Cotswold Wedding Company with linen hire from Plato Catering Hire, beautiful wedding stationary from Hand Drawn by Katie, and of course the flowers by Dawn Keitley. It really did look stunning

The new play/games area at the back is perfect for little page boys to play in!

A really fabulous day at a stunning venue with wonderful wedding suppliers! (love those light bulbs!)

Cripps Stone Barn

Sonya & Matt – Stone Barn Costwolds Wedding

May 8, 2019 admin

Sonya & Matt’s Stone Barn Cotswolds wedding started for me with the girls getting ready in a lovely nearby cottage. Sonya’s bridesmaids kept everyone entertained and laughing all morning with their hilarious antics! Olivia (Olivia Mills MUA) was also in stitches most of the time whilst expertly doing their hair & makeup!

Their ceremony was in Cripps Stone Barn – beautifully decorated as always by Beth from Go Wild Flowers – with her amazing foliage ring suspended from the ceiling.

It was a lovely ceremony which had laughter and hankies (as all good ceremonies should), and the reception was kicked off with confetti throwing under the twinkly lights of Stone Barn.

They were such a good crowd and there was lots of laughter & fun throughout the day. The food was amazing as always from the huge indoor barbeque at Stone Barn – three whole lambs cooking on it! The cake cutting & first dance kicked off the evening’s entertainment which was from Henry Marten’s Ghost – a lively Irish band who had everyone jigging around!

The Swan Hotel Bibury

Nathan & Emily | Swan Hotel Bibury Wedding

April 9, 2019 admin

My first wedding of 2019 was a very blustery day in Spring in one of the Cotswolds’ most beautiful villages, for Nathan & Emily’s Swan Hotel Bibury wedding. We were keeping our fingers crossed all morning that it didn’t rain as Emily had her heart set on photos in the pretty Arlington Row…it didn’t!

Emily’s face was such a picture when she came downstairs to her Dad and the page boy (ring bearer), and they had a lovely ceremony in the hotel.

This was followed by drinks, canapes and confetti in the yard outside. Emily then braved the wind for photos in the village. All credit to Emily, not many bride’s would have done that, it was pretty blustery! Because of the wind, we had some great veil action, but also nearly lost it in the river! The fairly short walk from the hotel up to Arlington row is actually quite long when you’re wearing high heels and a wedding dress, and being blown to bits! That’s British weather for you…but as I said…it didn’t rain!

It was a really lovely day and a pleasure to photograph for such lovely people.

Cotswold Weddings

Cotswold Wedding Photography: Roundup of 2018

January 7, 2019 admin

As we start 2019, I’ve done a roundup of my Cotswold Wedding Photography in 2018 and here is a very small selection of all the wonderful weddings I was privileged to photograph last year.

We had some quite extreme weather thrown at us, with The Beast from the East (which kept coming back) in the Spring, and the hottest summer on record turning green grass yellow.

I was back at lots of my favourite local venues and also at some fabulous new ones, and after photographing over 40 weddings I am now enjoying a quieter January & February before the fun starts again!

Some of my most local venues are Blackwell Grange in Shipston on Stour, and the amazing Hyde House in Stow-on-the-Wold. One of my favourite churches to photograph is St. James Church in Chipping Campden. I love The Manor House Hotel in Moreton-in-Marsh, Charingworth Manor, and was excited to photograph my first wedding at the fabulous new venue Lapstone Barn also in Chipping Campden.

Other amazing venues include Eastington Park, Stanton House Hotel, and Rousham House & Gardens.

Some lovely new barns for me: Jenners Barn, Stratton Court Barn & Winkworth Farm.

And I was back at the lovely Wool Barn in Frampton upon Severn.

My first time at the amazing Elmore Court with it’s wonderful Gillyflower reception area, and also my first time at The DeVere Cotswold Waterpark Hotel with it’s beautiful lake views.

I was back at the stately Eynsham Hall near Oxford.

A stunning marquee on a very hot day.

And back at some trusty favourites of mine Cripps Stone Barn and The Barn at Upcote near Cheltenham

A couple of Christmas weddings at The Greenway Hotel & Spa and Charingworth Manor rounded the year off nicely for me. Happy New Year!

Hyde House, Hyde House Stow

Howard & Cheryl | Hyde House Wedding

December 15, 2018 admin

Howard & Cheryl had their whole Cotswolds wedding at Hyde House – always a good idea as they have everything you could possibly need, and guests don’t need to go anywhere else! Especially now they have the new Grange barn for ceremonies…and photos later!

Cheryl and her Bridesmaids got ready upstairs in the barn, with hair done by Samantha Middleton from Redmill Hair, Banbury; and make up by Nicole Bessell from NB Makeup. While the boys were busy getting stuff ready downstairs, fixing balloons and sorting out tiny little jam jars…they did all the decorations themselves, and the end result looked amazing – especially the table centre pieces which each told a little story of the people on that table, very clever indeed.

This was my first ceremony in The Grange and I loved it, it’s so light and spacious in there, great for photos. It was decorated beautifully with flowers by Flower Thyme, and all the bouquets were stunning as well with very unusual colours. The weather wasn’t behaving, so we had to delay confetti until it had stopped raining later, but that did give us some dramatic skies for photos!

The speeches were hilarious, with Cheryl very bravely getting up to do the first speech and making everyone ‘Whoop’ every time she mentioned their name.

They even managed to get outside to eventually do their pinata in the dark, which had been hanging on the tree all day!

They danced the evening away with music from DJ Cotswold Discos Entertainment.

Fabulous day with fabulous people and thank you for asking me to photograph it!

Blackwell Grange

Kayleigh & Dan | Blackwell Grange Wedding

December 2, 2018 admin

It was such a pleasure to photograph Kayleigh & Dan’s Blackwell Grange wedding – Kayleigh was so super-excited about absolutely everything, it was very infectious! Blackwell Grange is a beautiful all in one barn venue surrounded by fields and stunning scenery here in the Cotswolds.

The Potting Shed is a wonderful area for getting ready (and very close to everything, so Kayleigh could keep popping out to see the amazing cake and flowers arrive!) The Thatch Barn is where Kayleigh & Dan had their lovely ceremony. The little page boy Jacob very bravely led the wedding party in to the barn holding his ‘Here Comes the Bride’ sign, and gave the rings to Kayleigh & Dan during the ceremony – a very important job!

Their dog Pippa made a guest appearance during the reception for some photos. Being a gin lover myself I very much approved of the gin bottle table decorations and the whole room looked amazing, with some very funny and emotional speeches after the wedding breakfast.

We had some dramatic skies at sunset and I had such fun photographing their lovely day at such a lovely venue.

Lapstone Barn, Weddings

Pippa & Alistair | Lapstone Barn Wedding

November 6, 2018 admin

Lapstone Barn, near Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, opened it’s doors as a new wedding venue earlier this year, and is just around the corner from where I live, so I was very excited to photograph the lovely Pippa & Alistair’s Lapstone Barn Wedding there in the autumn. Pippa and her bridesmaid got ready upstairs in the Hayloft – a fantastic space for getting ready – and hair & makeup was done beautifully by Lucie Richmond.

Unfortunately the weather didn’t exactly behave, but that really didn’t matter at this venue. Pippa didn’t have to go outside at all to get to the beautiful ceremony room downstairs, which was decorated with stunning autumn colours by Sue at The Bay Tree at Campden. The guests could throw confetti indoors, and there is a lovely courtyard with a covered area which is perfect for group photos and couple photos if it’s raining. Pippa, Alistair and all their guests were very cosy inside all day (apart from when I dragged them all outside for the big group photo…it did stop raining for a short time!)

They did their first dance and then were entertained by the brilliant band Resident Heroes. A really wonderful day for a lovely couple.

Charingworth Manor

Shelley & Gemma | Charingworth Manor Wedding

September 5, 2018 admin

It was an absolute pleasure to photograph Shelley & Gemma’s Charingwoth Manor wedding in the Cotswolds. The weather wasn’t so great on the day – and I think this was the last rainy day before the big heatwave of 2018 hit us! But that didn’t spoil their day at all – Charingworth Manor is beautiful inside as well, so plenty of photo opportunities!

Lyla from The Cotswold Wedding Company provided the 12 bridesmaids (5 for Shelley & 7 for Gemma) with their beautiful dresses, and was even there in the morning dressing them!

It was hilariously complicated trying to avoid Shelley & Gemma seeing each other before the ceremony, at one point Shelley’s bridesmaids ended up hiding in the kitchen!

It was a beautiful ceremony in the Orangery and very emotional speeches later on. The Orangery was decorated beautifully by Finishing Touches Gloucester .The rain eased up later so that we could do some photos outside, and the highlight of the dancing was everyone singing ‘Come on Eileen’ to Shelley’s great aunt Eileen who was 101! They rounded off the evening with an amazing firework display by Cotswold Fireworks on top of the hill there at Charingworth.

Many thanks as well to Christy Blanch Photography for second shooting for me and being amazing.

Winkworth Farm

Sarah & Dane | Winkworth Farm Wedding

July 2, 2018 admin

This was my first Winkworth Farm wedding and I very much enjoyed it – an absolutely perfect place for a wedding! I know Sarah’s family quite well having photographed her sister’s wedding as well, and what a lovely bunch they all are, as were Dane’s family, mostly from Australia.

The girls got ready in the perfect little cottage on site there (I love it when everything is in one place!) and the ceremony was in the barn.

Nicola Lewis from Tangled Hair & Beauty in Oxford did Sarah’s hair and those beautiful flowers were by Scentiments in Tetbury.

This was a Spring wedding and so far the Spring had been awful – Sarah and Dane were however incredibly lucky to get one of the few beautiful and actually warm Spring days of 2018!

The catering was done by Warings Catering and they had a fun photobooth in the evening by The Two Bonnys.

There are so many lovely little spots for photos so I loved photographing there, and Sarah & Dane had a fantastic day.

Cripps Stone Barn

Stuart & Kelly | Cripps Stone Barn Wedding

June 19, 2018 admin

We had a pretty awful Spring this year and were hoping that the weather might have warmed up a bit for Stuart & Kelly’s wedding at Cripps Stone Barn at the end of April – it should be warm by then…but no, it was pretty freezing still!

We had a lovely fun morning getting ready in Bibury, thanks to the lovely hair & make-up girls – Stacy from Updoo doing her hair and Jade Withers MUA.

As well as the boys getting ready next door, their dog had a little ribbon to wear as well, and watched the ceremony very quietly at Stone Barn before jumping up at Stuart & Kelly when they were finally married!

The barn looked amazing as always with a magnificent floral ring and other flowers by Beth from Go Wild Flowers.

Despite the freezing weather we managed to do photos outside – Kelly was great fun, laughing all the time and didn’t mind me dragging her in to the lovely yellow rapeseed field at all!

A fabulous day all round with music from the fabulous Mister Kanish, photo booth from Party Foto Pods and rounded off with marshmallows toasting in the firepits and sparklers.