St Nicholas Chapel, Gipping, Suffolk, UK Elopement Photo Story Award

Kate and Rob didn't want to spend time away from their guests for portraits on their wedding day. Instead, they shared a few moments of kidding about.

Back in late spring, I was contacted by a bride, Kate, about photographing her wedding near the village of Gipping, Suffolk during the summer. She told me how her late father had been the parish vicar some years ago. When she came to marry, he'd made her promise it would be at St Nicholas’, his favourite church with its simple interior, unique character and sense of ‘special-ness’.

Sadly Kate's dad is no longer with us, but true to her word, the couple married here during one of the hottest summers the UK has experienced in recent years. Her choice of tea-length dress was perfect for the day plus the surrounding trees cast a cool shade for guests to shelter from the sun.

The day began at Bury St Edmunds, Angel Hotel, where the wedding party stayed the night before the wedding. From here to Gipping was a short drive through the Suffolk countryside, looking glorious in the summer sunshine. The wedding guests were joined by several older parishioners who remembered her dad with great fondness. Even the current minister remembered him with affection from his own childhood.

St Nicholas' is a haven of calm, it’s an extraordinary place. Originally a private family chapel built in the mid-15th century, it was never used for parish ceremonies or funerals, so there are no graves in the surrounding grounds. The building is full of architectural features which echo the founders' family crests and history. Speaking to one of the wedding guests on the day, we agreed the chapel felt like a 'thin' place - where the boundary between spiritual and physical worlds blur. The writer Mindie Burgoyne best describes it:

“A thin place is where one can walk in two worlds – the worlds are fused together, knitted loosely where the differences can be discerned or tightly where the two worlds become one. Thin places aren't perceived with the five senses. Experiencing them goes beyond those limits.”

If you find yourself in this area of Suffolk, spare a moment or two and seek out this special place, sit in one of the original 15th-century pews and feel it for yourself.

Following the ceremony, the wedding party enjoyed drinks in the grounds of the chapel, before heading to nearby Tuddenham Mill for a meal in their riverside tipi, shaded by willow trees, accompanied by the gentle lapping of water from the mill race.

Accompanied by her brother, Kate enters the church and sees Rob at the altar, pulling a face out of nerves and self-consciousness. This was immediately followed by the broadest of grins!

Newlyweds Kate and Rob enjoy the congratulations of their guests as they leave the chapel.

Guests mingle and share a few happy moments after the ceremony.

Guests mingle and chat in the (very hot for the UK), summer sunshine.