Jakub & Katie's rainy outdoor wedding at Gotha Gardens, followed by a relaxed marquee reception at their home in Gamlingay with Polish wedding traditions.
Jakub & Katie's Wedding Day
A double-decker bus, an outdoor ceremony in the rain, a marquee they built themselves and a dance floor underneath an oak tree. Add in a few Polish wedding traditions and a fairly ambitious amount of vodka, and Jakub and Katie's wedding was never going to be particularly conventional.
Which suited them perfectly.
I already knew Jakub and Katie pretty well by the time their wedding arrived. We'd originally planned a pre-wedding shoot earlier in the year, but after discovering Katie was pregnant, that became a baby shower at their home in Gamlingay instead. It meant I'd also met quite a few of the family and friends I'd be photographing again at the wedding. I wasn't covering morning preparations, so my day started as everyone gathered to board a double-decker bus to the ceremony.
Getting it moving, however, turned out to be slightly more complicated than simply getting everyone on board.
An Outdoor Wedding at Gotha Gardens
Gotha Gardens isn't traditionally a wedding venue. Jakub and Katie knew the owners, who very kindly allowed them to use the gardens for their ceremony.
The slight complication was the weather.
August had apparently forgotten it was August, and by the time the ceremony arrived the rain had properly settled in.
Jakub and Katie weren't particularly interested in changing plans. Umbrellas went up, everyone squeezed together and they got married outside regardless.
I've always maintained that rain doesn't ruin wedding photographs. A group of people looking miserable about being wet might, but thankfully there was none of that here.
After the ceremony came confetti and drinks before everyone headed back towards Gamlingay.
A Marquee Wedding at Home in Gamlingay
The reception took place at Jakub and Katie's home, where they'd put up a marquee themselves in the garden.
Thankfully, the weather finally decided to cooperate.
The marquee took care of dinner and speeches, while the dance floor sat outside underneath the huge oak tree. It felt considerably more like an enormous party at home than a traditional wedding reception.
Exactly as it should have.
A Few Polish Wedding Traditions
Jakub is Polish, and with plenty of his family there for the wedding, several Polish traditions were woven into the day.
The negotiations had actually started before we'd even left for the ceremony. Jakub's family - with his grandparents particularly involved - weren't going to let the bus leave without some bartering first. Offerings of vodka and sweet treats were made until everyone was finally allowed on their way.
The same thing happened when we returned. Jakub and Katie weren't simply going to be allowed back into their own garden either.
Later, they were welcomed with bread and salt, a longstanding Polish wedding tradition representing prosperity and the inevitable difficulties of married life. This was followed — naturally — by more vodka. The glasses were thrown over their shoulders to smash for good luck before Jakub carried Katie into the marquee.
It was one of my favourite parts of the wedding to photograph.
I'm a quarter Polish myself, and although it's not a side of my family background I've had many opportunities to explore, having a Polish grandfather meant it was particularly nice getting to learn a little more about that part of my own heritage while photographing it.
An English-Polish Drinking Competition Nobody Was Going to Win
There wasn't a band or an elaborate evening setup. Just a playlist, a first dance and a dance floor underneath the oak tree.
It didn't need much else.
Things became increasingly lively as the evening went on, helped considerably by the Polish contingent demonstrating that the English guests had dramatically underestimated their ability to keep pace with the vodka.
They tried.
It didn't go particularly well.
For a wedding that had started on a rainy double-decker bus, ending with everyone dancing outside underneath a tree on a dry August night wasn't bad going.
Planning a Relaxed Wedding in Cambridgeshire?
Jakub and Katie's wedding was personal, relaxed and completely their own - exactly the sort of wedding I love photographing.
If you're planning a wedding in Gamlingay or elsewhere in Cambridgeshire, particularly if you're doing things slightly differently, I'd love to hear what you've got planned.
You can also see the baby shower I photographed for Jakub and Katie in Gamlingay before their wedding, or have a look through more of my wedding photography portfolio.
