Helen & Alex | Forty Hall Farm wedding – David Burke Photography

Here’s my take on Helen and Alex’s amazing Jewish wedding ceremony and reception at Forty Hall Farm in Enfield! As usual with my wedding photography blog posts these days, you can watch a quick video slideshow of the images of their day below, or see a smaller selection throughout the blog post whilst reading about their day!

Bride & Groom prep

The day after Flora & Rory’s epic London wedding, I was up bright and early and on my way to meet up with Helen and the girls for bridal prep at their hotel. Whilst I shot bridal prep, Craig met up with Alex and the boys for groom prep.

The whole wedding had a really chilled-out, personal vibe; Helen was soon sorting out the bouquets for the bridal party while hair and makeup was going on – great for me to photograph. Most of the bridal party was made up of siblings, and Forty Hall Farm is very near to the couple’s hearts!

All too soon the boys were off to Forty Hall Farm whilst I stayed to document the finishing touches to bridal prep, then I made my way over for the ceremony.

The Ceremony

The Chuppah looked amazing in the open-sided barn area of Forty Hall Farm – a really rustic feel to the whole set up, with great thought having gone into the decoration. The guests all milled around waiting for the groom’s arrival, walked in by close family, and then we waited for Helen’s arrival by car, right up to the barn.

Onto my second Jewish wedding of the month (first one to come soon!) – this time, a full Jewish ceremony. Great to photograph something a bit different and document all the different rituals throughout their ceremony.

Reception

After the ceremony the guests made a bit of a mad dash through to the Black Barn for the drinks reception as the much-promised rain showers had arrived a bit early! I kept Helen and Alex back for a few quick portraits in the barn. As soon as we had a clear window we made our way back to the guests for drinks and canapes.

Again – in a slight break in the weather – we quickly made our way back to the barn for some group photos – lovely and dry, with the added bonus of top shade for great lighting. I don’t normally include group photos on the blog, but the addition of the little tractor made me chuckle!

Jewish Dancing

And then onto the Jewish dancing. This really was a first for me, so with a bit of trepidation I set myself up ready – I’d wondered if there was a set order of things and where things would happen – wow. What followed was probably 40 minutes of great fun with a bit of mayhem and quite a bit of danger thrown in!! Chairs, table lifts etc. I so enjoyed this part of the day but was sweating almost as much as the participants by the end!

Wedding Breakfast, Portraits and Speeches

After the dancing, the guests made their way through to take their seats for the wedding breakfast. After Helen and Alex’s entrance, prayers were said and bread was broken. Everyone then settled down to some amazing food platters!

After food, we quickly headed back out for some portraits as the weather was looking a little ominous…surely enough as we got back in the heavens opened during the speeches!

Some amazing touching moments during the speeches, and some fantastic emotion afterwards, with lots of hugs all round – maybe a few too many by then as Alex’s face showed!

First Dance, Party and Sunset

After speeches the guests made their way back through for the cake cut and then first dance, with vocals from one of Helen and Alex’s wedding guests which was such a lovely, unique touch.

Once everyone else was invited onto the dancefloor, the fantastic band got everyone dancing!

I’d popped outside to keep an eye on the weather – it had been pretty dramatic during the speeches and sure enough, once the rain stopped we got the most AMAZING sky. I quickly nipped back in to beg the guys to pop out one last time – once they saw it, we all knew we’d get some great stuff! I always impress on the couple that it really is worth stepping out for these final 5-10 minutes of shots.