Helen & Pol: Convocation House and Cherwell Boathouse, Oxford

Helen and Pol got married on the first Saturday in September, and Oxford, for once, did exactly what it was told. Blue sky, warm stone, not a cloud worth mentioning.

The ceremony was in Convocation House at the Bodleian Library, and the party was at Cherwell Boathouse. In between there was a walk through the middle of the city, a lot of confetti, and a white Citroën 2CV that got more admiring looks than most of the colleges.

The morning

Getting ready was the usual mix of hairspray, fizz and somebody looking for an earring. Helen laughed through most of it, which makes my job very easy.

Pol, with the dress hanging behind him, looked a good deal calmer than most grooms do at that point in the day.

Walking to the Bodleian

Rather than piling into cars, everyone walked to the ceremony. A wedding party moving through Oxford on a Saturday morning is its own small event: tourists stop and stare, cyclists swerve, and nobody seems to mind.

Convocation House

Convocation House is dark oak, tall windows and stone floor, and on a bright September day the light comes through those windows in long, hard slabs. I don’t try to soften that. It’s the room, and it looks better left alone.

It’s worth knowing what you’re standing in. Convocation House was built between 1634 and 1637 as the lower floor of an extension to the Bodleian, right next to the much older Divinity School. In 1665, with plague in London, Parliament sat here. These days the room is licensed for civil weddings, and the benches that once held Royalist MPs hold aunts with handbags on their knees.

A cellist played them in. Helen and Pol walked up together, which I always like: no handover, no march, just two people arriving at the same place at the same time.

Pol’s family had come over from Spain, and it made the whole day louder, warmer and a lot more fun. Two families, two languages, and a great deal of hugging. I got to use my Spanish, which doesn’t happen often at an Oxford wedding, and I enjoyed that more than I probably let on.

Confetti and a few quiet minutes

They came out under the Bridge of Sighs into a shower of confetti, which is about as Oxford as a wedding exit gets.

After that I borrowed them for a few minutes around the Bodleian: the lanes, the Divinity School doorway, and back inside Convocation House once everyone had gone. A little direction, mostly leaving them to it. They were good at that.

The 2CV and Cherwell Boathouse

Then the 2CV, white with ribbons, parked under the trees and very pleased with itself.

Cherwell Boathouse sits right on the river, with the punts tied up along the bank. Give a crowd of wedding guests a pole and a punt and someone in a suit will always have a go.

Dinner was in the marquee by the water: long tables, red wine, flowers in the same pinks and peaches as the bouquet, and plenty of toasts.

Two families, two languages

Weddings where half the guests have travelled from another country have their own energy. Everyone has made an effort to be there, and it shows.

A few things help when your families don’t share a first language:

Tell me who’s who: A family list with names, and which side each person is on, matters more when I can’t rely on calling people over in the right language.

Pick a helper from each side: One person from each family who can round people up in their own language makes the group photos much quicker.

Give both languages a moment: A reading, a line in the vows, a toast. It doesn’t need to be long. People notice.

And if your photographer can manage a few sentences in the other language, it helps more than you’d think.

If you’re getting married at Convocation House

The light: The panelling is dark and the windows are bright, so there’s a lot of contrast. I work with it rather than trying to even it out.

Walk if you can: If you’re getting ready in the centre, walking to the Bodleian gives you photographs on the way and gets everyone talking before the ceremony starts.

Portraits are close by: Radcliffe Square, the Divinity School doorway and the Bridge of Sighs are all a few minutes’ walk away, so you don’t need to leave your guests for long.

Expect company: The centre of Oxford is busy on a Saturday. Portraits go in the quieter corners, or straight after the ceremony while the visitors are still working out what’s going on.

Getting from the Bodleian to Cherwell Boathouse

Cherwell Boathouse is on Bardwell Road in North Oxford, about a mile and a half from the Bodleian. By car it’s a short hop through the city, even in a 2CV. For guests, taxis or a minibus are easiest, and anyone in sensible shoes can walk it through the University Parks in about half an hour.

The drive itself is worth having. It’s ten minutes on your own together, which on a wedding day is rarer than it should be.

Cherwell Boathouse for a reception

Cherwell Boathouse is a converted Victorian boathouse on the River Cherwell, with a marquee that takes up to 120 guests and the punts moored alongside. It feels more like a long lunch at a riverside house than a function room.

Use the punts: Drinks by the water with the punts right there is half the entertainment. The venue can include punting as part of the day, and somebody will always want a go.

Let the daylight work: The marquee looks out over the river and the trees, so natural light does most of the work until the evening.

Keep the gap short: If you’re coming from a ceremony in the city, the shorter the gap between the two, the less your guests drift. Twenty minutes from the confetti to the first drink is about right.

There’s more on the venue itself on my Bodleian Libraries wedding photographer page, and my notes on getting married at the Bodleian cover the light and the rules. If you’re planning something similar, the Lookbook has what I charge and what’s included.

Two families, two languages, and a city that behaved itself for once.