The day brought back a lot of memories for me as I used to photograph Jewish weddings in the Kibbutz when I lived in Israel many, many years ago. It is where, essentially, I started my career. So much has changed since those days before digital cameras, mobile phones or the internet, it really was a different world. I could never have dreamed in those days of waiting a few days for the film and prints to come back that in the future I would be able to share these images with you in this way.

It is one of those cities that, like London, does not have a day off and whatever the day or time of the year the streets are crammed with tourists visiting the colleges, meandering through the myriad of side streets or floating down the River Cam on a punt. The date was the fourth of July, Independence day for modern America, and it was because of this that I suddenly realised just how much history this city is steeped in.

A good example would be the College library where Rhiannon and Derek’s ceremony took place, it is just under three hundred years old which is well before the city of New York had even been built. It was a fantastic wedding to document and I hope that I will be fortunate enough to be able to photograph the College and the City again in the near future.

It was a great wedding to document, so much going on, and I was very pleased with what I had captured by the end of the day. By the time of the speeches, the sun was just starting to descend behind the trees at the far end of the grounds and the marquee was suddenly filled with beautiful filtered light, making it a real pleasure to photograph.

I think the Town Hall in Manchester is one of my favorite places to photograph a wedding, constantly working with little avenues of light that are created from the huge windows placed all around the building. The vibrant hues of brown and red that reflect around the rooms are great to work with and are perfect for those warm tones you need in wedding photography.

This was not a big wedding so I had to be careful not to get in the way but I still had to create the images I knew Andrew and Amy wanted. With larger weddings it is very easy to make yourself go unnoticed as there is so much more happening and so many more people to move around with. Although you can stay well back with long lenses there is nothing that substitutes getting involved with the wedding. You need to interact with those around you if you want to create successful documentary wedding images.