Summer pastels in pink | Oxford wedding photos
Summer pastels in pink. That was the theme for this fabulous Oxford wedding at St Cross College earlier this year.
The bridesmaids wore dresses of silk chiffon in the same shade of pink although each dress was uniquely selected for the wearer.
Here’s a full-length photo next to the Four Colleges archway in the West Quad of St Cross College.
The chief bridesmaid wore an A-line v-neck dress with cross-over bodice and chiffon flutter sleeves.
Our next stunning bridesmaid wore an A-line one-shoulder dress with a scalloped ruched bodice.
I love the simplicity of this next dress and a perfect choice for our gorgeous bridesmaid. An A-line fitted bodice, with asymmetric neckline and thigh-high slit
Finally, a sleeveless A-line dress with cross-over v-neck bodice and front slit for our pretty petite bridesmaid.
Pastel pink Pusey House florals | St Cross College Oxford wedding photos
Continuing the pastel pink premise. How about this amazing floral display at the entrance to the chapel at St Cross.
I’m no expect in floristry but I was able to recognise pink and white roses, sea holly and sweet peas, plus all the greenery of course. You can find more information on wedding flowers by reading my ‘Love in bloom’ article.
In case you’re not familiar with St Cross College, Pusey House chapel shares its location with St Cross. If you’ve been a student at the college or you’re a local parishioner, you can marry in the chapel.
Otherwise, you will need to host your Oxford wedding ceremony somewhere else – Oxford registry office is very close so that may be an option.
Anyway, back to the flowers. This was the view from the entrance of the chapel. You can see that my bride and groom made a significant investment in flowers for their Oxford wedding.
Fortunately, they were able to reuse most of the floristry for table and room decorations during their wedding breakfast.
Oxford Wedding Photographer | Photographing a wedding at St Cross
Saif and Elizabeth’s Oxford wedding at St Cross College was my first wedding at this wonderful venue. And I’d love to do more.
St Cross College is located in St Giles, close to the city centre. It’s one of the smaller colleges of the University of Oxford but it bares many of the glorious architectural trademarks of its larger sibling colleges in its stonework and facade.
If you’re hosting your Oxford wedding at St Cross, you can of course, concentrate all of your photography inside the college grounds.
But it could be even more exciting to augment it with a short taxi drive to the Bodleian Library, Radcliffe Camera and Worcester College area of the city for some stunning sunset photos.
Saif and Elizabeth were having a late ceremony which meant that sunset and golden hour came right in the middle of their wedding breakfast so it wasn’t viable to leave St Cross.
I took these next few images earlier in the day. They both include a view of the Richard Blackwell quadrangle. The original Tudor Gothic buildings of St Cross are arranged around this quad.
The west quad, is a newer addition to St Cross but of course from this side, you’re still seeing the older buildings of the Four Colleges archway. This next portrait of Saif and Elizabeth was taken under the Four Colleges archway.
I mentioned earlier that we weren’t able to go to the city centre for sunset but we didn’t miss out completely. Here’s a romantic golden hour portrait we took between courses.
Portrait opportunities inside Pusey House chapel | Oxford wedding photographer
Pusey House chapel is a most beautiful, and surprisingly large, chapel on the same site as St Cross College Oxford.
Fortunately, it didn’t rain for Saif and Elizabeth but if it had, we’d still have had a mountain of locations to work with inside the chapel for bride and groom portraits.
I don’t want to keep harping on about rain, but if it does rain at your St Cross wedding, it’s comforting to know that you’ll also be able to get some beautiful natural light family and group portraits in Pusey House Chapel.
Here’s an example of a natural light photo taken (by my colleague) from the galleried first level of the chapel, during the wedding service.
I can’t show you any family pics [in the chapel] in this blog – as I said, it didn’t rain – but here’s another bride and groom portrait I took.
For night time photos, the Richard Blackwell quad is a perfect intimate location where your photographer can be in control of most of the light.
I wasn’t booked for a long day with Saif and Elizabeth but I can definitely see some brilliant opportunities for romantic night portraits against the stone façade of that central quad.
If you’re getting married at St Cross and you’re interested in capturing some night portraits, depending on the time of year, you may need to book a couple of extra hours to get full cover of the bridal prep to night shots.
St Cross College is a charming Oxford wedding venue. You can find more information about St Cross College weddings by vising the college website at https://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/conferences-and-weddings
St Cross College Oxford
61 St Giles
Oxford OX1 3LZ
[email protected]
+44 (0)1865 278 447
Where to park in Oxford?
If you’re attending an Oxford wedding at one of the university colleges, I’d personally recommend using the Park and Ride facilities to get into the city. A day pass and parking for one adult is just £4 and you can pay by cash, card or using the Ringo mobile app.
Park and Ride has stops close to all the Oxford colleges with the last bus leaving the city between 11.15 and 11.22pm (depending on the stop).
On-street parking is not an option for a wedding as there’s a maximum stay of two hours.
If you want to party beyond midnight, Worcester Street and Oxpens car parks are within walking distance (10 minutes) of most of the colleges.
Both Worcester Street and Oxpens are open 24 hours but they’re both small (Oxpens has 179 spaces and Worcester Street has 200 spaces) so you’ll need to arrive early. You’ll also be paying a premium of £28.50 for a six to eight-hour stay.
Worcester Street accepts payment by card, phone or Ringo app.
Gloucester Green (with 105 spaces) is also close to the colleges and the same price as Worcester Street and Oxpens but it closes at midnight so don’t get caught out.
Oxpens and Gloucester green are just phone or Ringo.
The final option is the Westgate shopping centre car park; parking for 6-12 hours will cost you £20 so it’s slightly cheaper. The car park has two levels; Level-2 closes at 9pm but Level-1 is open 24 hours.
Payment for Westgate parking can be made by cash, card, Google and Apple Pay.
If you’re looking for an Oxford wedding photographer and you’d like to know more about my wedding packages visit my Pricing page
You can see more examples of my work here as an Oxford wedding photographer.