A Joyful, Colourful Autumn Wedding at Matara Centre, Tetbury: Alternative Wedding Photographer Cotswolds

Some weddings are completely, unapologetically themselves — and those are the ones I love most to photograph.

From the moment getting-ready began, it was clear this was going to be a day built around colour, personality and joy. The bride arrived in the chair with pink hair, bold tattoos and a stunning rabbit artwork on her shoulder that she’d clearly chosen with as much care as the dress itself. The floral appliqué gown was blush and delicate — bridal in every sense — but worn by someone entirely herself. That combination of softness and individuality ran through everything about the day.

Matara Centre in Tetbury is one of the most distinctive wedding venues in the Cotswolds, and it suits free-spirited, non-traditional couples particularly well. The Japanese-style gardens, the koi pond, the moon gate, the tori arch — there is genuinely nowhere else like it in Gloucestershire. The ceremony took place on the bridge over the koi pond, the couple’s reflection caught in the still water below, surrounded by Japanese maples blazing red and orange in the October light. It was the kind of moment that makes you glad you had a long lens.

The guests came dressed to celebrate, and the atmosphere was warm, relaxed and genuinely joyful from the start. Confetti and bubbles at the exit, laughter at the speeches inside the domed ballroom, a mint-green cake covered in hand-sculpted sugar flowers that was almost too good to cut.

Autumn at Matara has a quality that is hard to replicate anywhere else. The reds and golds are so vibrant, and when the light drops in the late afternoon it turns golden fast. The couple portraits in the grounds made full use of it — blush dress against crimson maples, the veil catching the breeze through the walled garden, the two of them laughing under a full canopy of autumn leaves.

If you’re planning a colourful, quirky or non-traditional wedding in the Cotswolds and want photographs that capture you as you actually are — bold, joyful and completely yourselves — I’d love to hear from you. I work with free-spirited, unconventional and LGBTQ+ couples, and I’m always excited by weddings that do things their own way. Matara Centre is one of my favourite venues in Gloucestershire, and days like this one are exactly why!

Please check my Matara venue page.