Pershore Abbey wedding – Laura & Antoine

Pershore Abbey wedding photography

An Anglo-French wedding in Worcestershire, Laura and Antoine’s wedding, at the very unique Pershore Abbey.

I had always thought I’d been to most places in the UK shooting for The Times newspaper, but when Laura first contacted me, I had never heard of Pershore (a small market town near Evesham – sorry). But what a unique location to get married!

Pershore Abbey

A ‘mini Abbey’ now, much of the large building was was destroyed in the Dissolution. Where the Nave stood is now the walkway along the park that a bride takes to enter the now more lowly status, parish church. The current Nave was once the choir of a more mighty building, just the tower, choir and south transept remain. But it’s still bigger than most churches in the country. It even dates back to an Anglo-Saxon version, around the end of the seventh century.

George Gilbert Scott (Midland hotel, St Pancras, the Albert Memorial, etc) worked on it’s restoration in the 1860s. The twoer pinnacles were added in 1871, to keep in the Gothic Revival vogue. The large flying buttresses were added in 1913, to help support the remaining part of the building. They sit where the long Nave would have been. But still more impressive than your average parish church. See the shot from the tower looking down onto the ceremony. It was quite a squeeze up there. To get to this vantage point you have walk through the roof and squeeze your way across to get that position. Definitely not recommended if you have vertigo. Also no health and safety provions up there. It was then a race back down the tower as the ceremony was moving briskly on.

A relaxed drinks reception followed the wedding ceremony, both in the Abbey and the surrounding park. A bee that somehow found it’s why into the bride’s dress. Rescued. A father of the bride speech in the Abbey. It was then a short walk through the park, to the reception venue, the Belle House restaurant, just across the town square. An Anglo-French cuisine restaurant with an intimate setting, for speeches on the stairs, followed by food and dancing. (Update: the restaurant now has new owners, it’s now an Italian resturant in Pershore)

Here are a few images from the day…a Pershore Abbey wedding…