Dougie and Adey’s wedding, Cliveden House, March 2025
Some bookings find you in the loveliest of ways. I first met Dougie when he was Best Man at James and Poppy's wedding in December 2024 - a day I photographed alongside my second photographer Anita. Dougie and Anita and I got on immediately, and when Dougie got engaged to Adey and she moved to the UK in early 2025, they came to us. That's one of the things I value most about this work - the way one day can quietly open the door to the next.
Dougie is British, Adey is Ethiopian, and together they are one of the most photogenic couples I've had the pleasure of spending a day with. Not in a manufactured way - in the way that comes from two people who are genuinely at ease with themselves and with each other. The day was intimate and unhurried: arrival in a beautiful Jaguar E-Type roadster, a ceremony with Adey's immediate family, drinks on the terrace overlooking the gardens, couple portraits with Anita and I, and then afternoon tea back inside with their families. Pared back, personal, and all the more powerful for it. It felt less like working a wedding and more like spending the day with friends.
Their words say it better than I could:
"Capturing us, not just the day. Choosing Simon as our photographer was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding. From the very beginning, he candidly invested time to get to know us and who we are as a couple - not only to build a relationship but to capture photos that perfectly reflected who we are. That effort to build a genuine connection meant so much, and it came through in every photo. On the day, he guided us with such ease and presence, giving us the space and encouragement to simply be ourselves while he quietly captured it all. When we saw the photos, we were genuinely blown away. He didn't just take beautiful portraits - he preserved the essence of who we are as a couple. Every image feels intentional and full of meaning."
Cliveden House is an opulent stately home located in Taplow, Berkshire, nestled amidst 376 acres of National Trust parkland and overlooking the River Thames. A Grade I listed 19th-century Italianate masterpiece, the house is filled with antique furniture, period features, luxurious fabrics and priceless art - with iconic features such as the Grand Avenue and the Fountain of Love adding an exquisite quality to arrivals and portraits alike. Winners of the 2026 UK Weddings and Honeymoons Awards, Cliveden carries its grandeur lightly - the ceremony spaces feel intimate despite the scale of the property, and the terrace and gardens offer a natural, unhurried setting for drinks and portraits that the house's more formal interiors perfectly complement. For a photographer, it is endlessly giving - variety, light, texture and history at every turn.
This gallery reflects a day that was quietly extraordinary - intimate in scale, rich in feeling, and photographed with the kind of access that only comes when a couple genuinely trust you. If Cliveden House is on your radar, or you're planning a similarly intimate celebration anywhere across Berkshire, London or beyond, take a look at what follows - and do get in touch if you'd like to talk about your own day.
