Engagement photoshoot near the River

An early start today for Lauren and David's engagement photoshoot at Hammersmith Bridge in London. It is a glorious sunny day, the first spring one. The idea was to meet up early, to miss the multitude of people jogging, cycling, and walking along the River Thames. But well, we just learned that today the annual Hammersmith Head of the River Race, HORR, was taking place. The area was so busy, literally like Oxford Street at Christmas.

We walked up and down to try to miss the heavy crowds. It proved very challenging to escape the enormous amount of people.

The sun is out, and the spirit is high. We have been looking forward to this pre-wedding photoshoot for some time now. Lauren and David are getting married in the beautiful Cotswolds, in a barn, and I can't wait to photograph their wedding.

Hammersmith Bridge engagement photos

They chose Hammersmith Bridge for the engagement photoshoot because often at the weekend, they'd walk along the river and enjoy alfresco eating and drinking.

Lauren and David are very relaxed as a couple. When I asked about their love story, Lauren sent me this.

David and I met 4 ½ years ago at a festival on the Isle of Wight called Bestival. We bumped into each other a few times over the weekend, but it was when he was dressed as a giant green alien and I was in my finest ‘space-girl’ get-up that the deal was sealed! We continued to meet up in London, as this was where David lived, when I was working in the capital, as I was living in Cheltenham at the time, and 9 months later, I decided to move down. The rest is history... We will now be getting married exactly 5 years after our initial meeting date and 1 year to the day from our engagement (all totally by chance, rather than David being romantic though!).

David and I have quite different jobs, David is a social housing manager in Kensington and Chelsea and I work in fashion as a knitwear buyer.

I met Paola at my very first wedding fair in Battersea and loved her work, after meeting at her home to discuss our wedding plans and look at some more examples of her work we were sold. It was after this we decided that Paola would be a great choice to photograph our wedding.

Their wedding day, 14 September, is a date dear to my heart, as it is my wedding anniversary. At first, I was reluctant to take on board this wedding. But then, the idea of exploring the Cotswolds area with my family made me rethink.

After the engagement photoshoot, we stopped at The Blue Anchor gastropub for a refreshing drink.