Girton College wedding – Gemma & Rhys

Girton College wedding photography

Girton College in Cambridge, the single location for the wedding of Gemma and Rhys. It’s where they first met.

Girton College was established in 1869 as the first women’s college in Cambridge. It wasn’t until 1948 that it was granted full college status by Cambridge University. It then became the first women’s college at Cambridge to become coeducational in 1976. It’s a largely red brick Victorian college, situated on the edge of the city. A bit different to the medieval colleges in the centre of the city. It has the feel of a grand Victorian redbrick building, being designed by Alfred Waterhouse. He also designed Manchester Town Hall, part of Balliol college in Oxford and the Natural History Museum in London. Among Girton’s notable alumni are Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, UK Supreme Court President Lady Hale, HuffPost co-founder Arianna Huffington, the comedian/author Sandi Toksvig, the comedian/broadcaster/GP Phil Hammond, the economist Joan Robinson, and the anthropologist Marilyn Strathern.

The predicted rain held off but the heat of earlier in the week had also cooled off, which was maybe a blessing. It was pleasant English summer weather. Gemma got ready in one of the college rooms, which is where the coverage begins, as Rhys organised the ushers. Gemma’s father then escorted her to the large college chapel, for the wedding ceremony. Ceremonies here are open to Girton alumni. Drinks followed on the lawn and then in the quad. This was just next to the room for the wedding meal. Speeches and then dancing in this Great Hall.

It was also a wedding of familiar faces as I photographed the wedding of Rhys’s brother, Lewis, just nine months before this. A London wedding at Hackney Town Hall and the Peasant pub in Clerkenwell. A bit of a contrast to a Cambridge college wedding.

Here are a few images from the day at Girton College…