Patrick & Ruby | The Alma Tavern, Clifton

6 Aug

Written By Oliver Holder

Black and white photograph of Patrick and Ruby kissing in a shower of confetti inside The Alma Tavern

Patrick & Ruby

The Alma Tavern · Clifton · Bristol

A Documentary Wedding Story

Fifty guests, three hours and one very good pub. Patrick and Ruby were married at The Alma Tavern in Clifton — the corner of Bristol where they first started going out — by a friend, in front of everybody who mattered.

Before Anybody Arrived

I arrived at half past twelve to an empty pub, which is my favourite half hour of any wedding day. Bunting up, chairs out, flowers on the mantelpiece and a chalkboard by the door reading welcome to the wedding of Ruby & Patrick.

Fifty guests, three hours, one building. That was the whole shape of it, and it is a shape I would recommend to anybody.

The bar at The Alma Tavern in Clifton dressed with bunting before the wedding

The room at The Alma Tavern set out with chairs for the wedding ceremony

A chalkboard reading Welcome to the wedding of Ruby and Patrick at The Alma Tavern

Getting Ready

Ruby got ready with her bridesmaids — no hair and make-up team turning it into a production, just the people who were going to be standing next to her anyway. Patrick and his groomsmen arrived at quarter to one and were immediately handed something to hold.

Black and white photograph of Ruby in the doorway before her wedding at The Alma Tavern

Ruby and her bridesmaids taking a photograph together before the ceremony

Guests Arriving

From one o’clock the pub filled up, and this is the part of a small wedding that a bigger one simply cannot do. Everybody knew everybody. Nobody was being directed anywhere. People came through the door, saw someone they had not seen in two years, and the noise went up a notch every few minutes.

With fifty guests in a pub you are never more than about four feet from whatever is happening, which changes how you work entirely. There is no long lens and no standing at the back. You are in it, and the trick is to be in it quietly.

Black and white photograph of two guests embracing as they arrive at The Alma Tavern

Black and white photograph of Ruby with her bouquet before the ceremony

A guest hugging a friend in the doorway at The Alma Tavern

Black and white photograph of guests greeting each other at The Alma Tavern

Guests arriving beside the welcome chalkboard at The Alma Tavern

Ruby and her bridesmaids in the doorway at The Alma Tavern

Guests talking together in the pub before the ceremony

Ruby and her bridesmaids holding their bouquets at The Alma Tavern

The Ceremony

The ceremony was at half past one and ran about half an hour. It was led by Celia, a friend of theirs, which is the single biggest thing you can do to make a ceremony feel like it belongs to you. She knew the stories. She knew which ones to leave out.

Ruby came in with her dad. Their son Vinny, who is two, was present in the way a two-year-old is present at a wedding — which is to say he took several minutes of it for himself and nobody minded in the slightest.

Family were on the front rows, close enough that you could see every reaction without moving. In a room this size the ceremony photographs are as much about the two rows behind the couple as they are about the couple.

Guests seated closely together for the wedding ceremony at The Alma Tavern

Black and white photograph of guests laughing during the ceremony

Family watching the wedding ceremony from the front row at The Alma Tavern

Celia leading the wedding ceremony for Patrick and Ruby at The Alma Tavern

Guests cheering with their arms in the air as Patrick and Ruby are married

Black and white photograph of guests during the ceremony at The Alma Tavern

Patrick and Ruby with their guests after the ceremony at The Alma Tavern

Ruby standing by the fireplace during the ceremony at The Alma Tavern

Ruby with her father after the ceremony at The Alma Tavern

Black and white photograph of Patrick and Ruby kissing surrounded by their guests

Patrick and Ruby celebrating as they sign the register at The Alma Tavern

A pub wedding with fifty guests is not a compromise on a bigger day — it is a different and often better thing. Everyone knows everyone, nothing runs to a timetable, and three hours of coverage genuinely captures the whole of it. There is more on how I photograph small weddings on the micro weddings page, and more Bristol work besides.

Micro weddings Bristol wedding photography Venue guides

Confetti, Indoors

Register signed, a cheer that filled the room, and then confetti — thrown inside the pub, in the same room everyone had just been sitting in.

Indoor confetti is better than outdoor confetti and almost nobody does it. Outside, it scatters the moment there is any wind and everybody stands too far apart. Inside, in a room this size, guests are pressed in on both sides, it falls slowly through the light, and it stays in the air long enough to actually photograph. It is also a completely different picture: not two people on a street, but two people in the middle of everybody who loves them.

Guests watching Patrick and Ruby walk back through the pub

Ruby laughing with her hand to her mouth as confetti falls inside the pub

Oliver took photos for our wedding at the Alma Tavern in Bristol. We’ve just seen the previews and they are just fantastic, and truly captured the spirit of the day. He was so professional and most of the time, didn’t realise he was there. Thank you Oliver! Can’t wait to see the rest.Ruby · Google review

Fizz, Cake and a Pub Full of People

Then fizz, and cake — a wedge and a napkin rather than a formal cutting, which is exactly right for a day like this. Nobody had to stop talking, nobody had to gather round, and the cake was gone in about ten minutes.

That hour between the ceremony and sitting down is the one I would protect above all others. Nothing is scheduled, everyone has a drink, and it is where almost all of the photographs people end up loving actually come from.

Guests spilling out onto the street outside The Alma Tavern in Clifton

Guests laughing together over a glass of fizz at The Alma Tavern

Black and white close-up of a guest laughing during the celebration

A guest telling a story during the drinks at The Alma Tavern

Black and white photograph of guests in the pub after the ceremony

Guests with drinks during the celebration at The Alma Tavern

A guest photographing Patrick and Ruby on a camera

A guest crouching with a pint on the street outside the pub

The Alma Tavern and Theatre frontage in Clifton with guests outside

Portraits

Group photographs first, then twenty minutes with just the two of them. The Alma sits on a corner in Clifton, which is where Patrick and Ruby first started going out before they moved over to Gloucester Road, so we did not have to go anywhere at all — the street outside is already their street.

Twenty minutes is all I ever want. Long enough to get somewhere good, short enough that neither of you feels you have been removed from your own wedding.

Black and white photograph of Patrick and Ruby with their guests

Patrick and Ruby together during their portraits at The Alma Tavern

Patrick and Ruby sitting together on the bench outside The Alma Tavern

You are in safe hands with Oliver. The quality of his photos speaks for itself — and every interaction with Oliver was a real pleasure as he took photos at our wedding. He knows what to do, how to make people look and feel great and slotted right into our wedding. Highly recommended.Patrick · Google review

Sitting Down

Three o’clock, one long table, everybody at it. That was my cue to leave them to it.

The long table set for the wedding breakfast at The Alma Tavern

Ruby beside the chalkboard sign for her wedding at The Alma Tavern

Black and white photograph of a guest beside the wedding chalkboard

Patrick and Ruby raising their arms as they come in for the wedding breakfast

Black and white photograph of guests in the pub during the celebration

A detail of the chalkboard menu and beer mats at The Alma Tavern

Patrick and Ruby, thank you. A ceremony led by a friend, a two-year-old stealing the show, confetti indoors in a room full of people and a pub that felt like it belonged to you for the afternoon. Exactly the day you described to me in May.

I have photographed at The Alma Tavern before, and there is more on small and micro weddings and on Bristol wedding photography if you are planning something similar.

Ceremony & reception: The Alma Tavern & Theatre, 18–20 Alma Vale Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8
Ceremony led by: Celia, a friend of the couple
Photography: Oliver Holder · three hour coverage

Planning a small Bristol wedding of your own? I would love to hear about it.

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