St Nicholas’ Church, Gipping | Discovering ‘Thin’ Places

If you’re the type of person who spends a lot of time on wedding photographers websites, firstly you should probably get out a bit more and secondly, the chances are you won’t have seen many blog posts about churches. Wedding venues yes (because it’s a good way of currying favour with google, we all blog about those like crazy), but churches probably not.

Why is that? Especially when you consider that a good number of couples still choose to celebrate their marriage in church. OK, so it’s a minority, but still enough that we should spend a little time considering their place in modern weddings.

Now, full disclosure, I’m not a religious person. There, said it…

There once was a time when you’d call me a militant atheist. The irony wasn’t lost on me as I quietly photographed church weddings, wondering if I’d be proved wrong in my beliefs and struck down by lightning.

However, you can’t be a wedding photographer without being conscious and respectful of the place spiritual belief has in many couples' lives.

Over the years I’ve found my stance softening and have become interested in the idea of ‘thin’ places. Have you ever been somewhere and felt the boundary between the spiritual and physical worlds blur? Blogger Mindie Burgoyne best describes it:

“A thin place is where one can walk in two worlds – the worlds are fused together, knitted loosely where the differences can be discerned or tightly where the two worlds become one. Thin places aren't perceived with the five senses. Experiencing them goes beyond those limits.” https://bit.ly/3K4YHLJ

So what’s that got to go with a church in rural Suffolk then?

Back in late spring, I was contacted by a bride, Kate, about photographing her wedding here during the summer. She told me how her late father had been the parish vicar some years ago. When she came to marry, he made her promise it would be at St Nicholas’, his favourite church with its simple interior, unique character and sense of ‘special-ness’.

I’ll not misquote a whole bunch of online sources about the church’s history (go and take a look yourself though, it’s truly fascinating). Suffice to say, on the wedding day at the height of summer, the ancient and near past merged with the present and created an atmosphere all of us there were very aware of. Something precious, fleeting and unique in a moment of gossamer thinness. I find myself welling up at most weddings these days (after what we’ve all been through over the last few years, being in the midst of friends and family coming together is a pretty emotional thing), but had to take a moment to collect myself and carry on shooting while wiping away a tear behind the camera at my eye.

If you find yourself in the area just north of Stowmarket, spare a moment or two and seek out this special place, sit in one of the original 15th-century pews and feel it for yourself.