Sophie+Laurence // Trunkwell Mansion House

Trunkwell Mansion House wedding photographer

The lovely Sophie and Laurence got married in Trunkwell Mansion House near Reading. It was my first Jewish wedding and I couldn’t wait to be there to capture all of the traditions and the amazing, if slightly terrifying, dancing I was promised. I met up with the girls in the morning just in time to capture one of Sophie’s bridesmaids meticulously lacing up the back of her dress. The bridesmaids were all in matching red dresses and when the flowers arrived I could tell white and red was going to be a bit of a theme. One of the best parts of this theme was the amazing red velvet naked cake with white frosting and strawberries! It was beautiful and I enjoyed a piece of it as a very welcome midnight drive home treat to get me back to London.

The Wedding started with the bedeken in which the groom places the veil over the bride’s head. It took place in one of the many lovely rooms in , Trunkwell Mansion House in front of close family and the bridal party and allowed the couple to have some really nice personal time before facing their hundreds of guests for the chuppah ceremony.

Each of the couple walked down the aisle with their parents and stood underneath the chuppah with their family around them the whole time. You could tell that the rabbi had known them both for a long time, which made everything really personal and emotional for everyone. For someone who hadn’t witnessed a Jewish wedding previously, the rabbi was great at explaining the significance of all the traditions and bringing out all the meaning. They walked down the aisle as man and wife in a cloud of red confetti smiling from ear to ear.

After some photographs, drinks and canapés everyone was ready for a good dance. I’m not sure I was quite prepared for the speed at which the dancing escalated. From just the bride and groom spinning each other around to three or four concentric circles of friends and family all running around in different directions and at great speed. It was intense! Everyone was smiling and laughing and it was great fun to photograph. At one point I took off my shoes to get on a chair and then somehow ended up back on the ground photographing from the middle on one of the circles, I thought I was going to lose a toe! I luckily escaped unscathed, which is more than can be said for Laurence’s brother who managed to damage one of his knees and had to hobble around for the rest of the evening.

To top off the dancing Sophie and Laurence got lifted up onto chairs and brought together surrounded by ecstatic circles of their friends and family, it was brilliant, and the marquee they’d hired had fairy lights in the ceiling so it looked like they were dancing under the stars. I wasn’t the only one who looked exhausted after all the craziness, several of the guests who’d thought ahead even had shirts to change into after the sweat they’d built up. It was an experience I’ll never forget.

This wasn’t the end of the fun though, Sophie and Laurence had met each other when they joined an a capella society at Bristol University and each of them had their quartet with them to sing a few songs. However Laurence had a little more up his sleeve… after the first verse of his quartet’s number, guests started getting up all over the room and joining in behind him until there was a massive group all serenading Sophie. It was a seriously mushy but beautiful moment and there were tears all round.