voco Oxford Thames

Thirty acres of Oxfordshire garden run down to the Thames at voco Oxford Thames, and that’s where most of your day happens. There’s meadow that turns gold at the end of a summer day, mature trees, clipped hedges and a hedge-lined path, with open countryside behind for the wider frames, and the ceremony sits at a garden pavilion by the water. The group photo is worth knowing about before you book. The hotel lets us up to an upstairs window, everyone arranges on the garden below, and your whole guest list comes out with every face visible instead of a back row of foreheads. Indoors, the Oxford Suite has a huge roof window that drops daylight straight onto the tables, so your breakfast and speeches shoot clean without us lighting anything. Come back out to that pavilion at dusk, because it holds the last of the light. Then a saxophonist wanders onto the dance floor and the evening looks after itself.