By Alex Beckett Photography
AS FEATURED IN:
wedding photography sidney sussex COllege Cambridge.
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, has to be one of my favourite places for wedding photography. It's not one of the biggest or grandest of Cambridge colleges, although I think the architecture is still very beautiful. But no matter how many times I return to photograph a wedding here, I always know the day is going to feel really special. The college prides itself on being one of the friendliest and most welcoming, and with good reason - and that always translates to the warm atmosphere of a wedding here. If you’d like to know more about packages and starting prices, click here and we’ll get back to you asap! There are no extra travel charges or overnight stay costs for wedding photography at Sidney Sussex College.
The exterior of Sidney Sussex may be fairly unassuming but inside there are so many lovely locations for a wedding and for wedding photography. This is one of the few Cambridge colleges where you can remain for the whole day's celebrations, holding your ceremony in the chapel, drinks reception in the gardens, wedding breakfast in the hall and evening dance, too. Of course, I'm looking to capture everything, mainly using natural light, but with all the gear for some dramatic evening shots as well.
This chapel is such a special place for a wedding ceremony and I love photographing here. The Rev. Brett Gray is one of the warmest, kindest celebrants I've ever met and fully lives up to Sidney Sussex's reputation for friendliness. A ceremony here is always modern, never stuffy, highlighting the love of a young couple. He always makes the couple - rather than the historic location - feel like the most important element of the wedding. Wedding photographers are lucky these days to be able to use completely silent cameras, so there's no interrupting click while the ceremony is taking place, but I'm always grateful to celebrants who recognise that there should be a record of this most important, and happiest, moment in your life.
Cloister Court and the Fellows' Garden are often the location for a drinks reception after the wedding ceremony and a great place for photographs, not just documenting family and friends but also a few shots in the first hour or so of marriage. Those can always be great ones for the wedding album: I'm always conscious that the photos I take are going to be looked at for generations, by children and grandchildren, so they have to look right 'in the moment' and yet also have a classic timelessness. The great thing is that a wedding venue like Sidney Sussex makes my job as a photographer so much easier!
GETTING MARRIED AT SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE?
Alex has photographed many times at Sidney Sussex College and loves the venue, so we'd be delighted to chat informally about your wedding at the college and how Alex can help you get the wedding photographs you want.
Postscript from a Sidney Sussex College Wedding Photographer
Love poetry
The college founder was the aunt of the renowned Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney, who wrote the ultra-romantic lines:
'My true love hath my heart, and I have his'.
Wedding wine
The wine cellars at Sidney Sussex College are older than the rest of the college, dating back to medieval Franciscans who occupied the site. Some history to consider as you raise a wedding toast!
Haunting moments
Not that they are likely to disturb a wedding breakfast but the college is said to be haunted by the ghostly head of Thomas Cromwell and another armless (harmless?) figure!