Ella and Gareth: Perfect Planning

Cast you mind back a few months. W-a-a-a-y back in May, I met up with Ella and Gareth on Reculver Beach at dawn. Lily was there too!

You may wonder what they have been up to for the past 6 months or so. There’s a simple answer. Planning. Or rather Ella has. The shot above isn’t the plan from their wedding. It’s the plan for the flowers at their wedding. The rest of the plan takes another 16 pages. It worked though – their wedding earlier this week went like clockwork.

Very very fun clockwork .

The house was full when I got there. It got fuller. Parents, aunts, uncles, four bridesmaids, pageboy, makeup artist, hairdresser, video crew and me with a couple of Nikons. Oh and somewhere in there was Ella. Having the time of her life.

Gentlemen (and especially Gareth), I believe the word you are looking for is “Wow”. Which is pretty similar to what Lisa said….

Notice that Ella is fully dressed in this picture. You can’t see them here but all her bridesmaids had their dress on too by this stage. Just as well because it was time to travel to the Knowle for the wedding. So what happened next….?

Hmm. Dressing gowns, Spanxx, slipper socks, coats, Ugg boots and tiaras? What’s going on? Well it was about an hour to the venue by vintage Rolls So….dress at the house to check hair and makeup and for pictures, dressing gowns for the journey and change again at the Knowle. It makes perfect sense. Planning

Gareth didn’t have to change – he was at the Knowle. Looking suave, sophisticated and not at all nervous. There were at least 2 lines on the plan that said “keep Gareth calm”. Perfect.

And he needn’t have worried, of course Ella was bang on time. With so much love and emotion in the room, I don’t think there was a dry eye at the wedding.

Not even Lily’s.

C’mon. You didn’t think we’d leave her outside did you? Not when she had a special collar made for the day by Keeley from Bridalway.

As part of the plan, Ella asked if I wanted to shoot the confetti “live” or mock it up later. My answer to questions like this is always the same. You can’t fake reactions like this.

It’s slightly risky but 90% of the day is one shot one chance. That’s why you hire a professional

And there was no way anybody was going to stop Ella making a speech at her own wedding.

And no way anybody was going to stop Jasper from ordering his “beer juice”

And no way I was going to walk away from night portraits on a night like that. And no way Lily was going to miss out.

More pictures when they come back from honeymoon. In the meantime I know Ella and Gareth would love it if you left wishes for them below.

You may also like:

1. Ella and Gareth – all the pictures from the Knowle
2. Ella and Gareth (and Lilly) on Reculver beach at dawn
3. More pictures from Ella and Gareth
4. Carly and Gareth's pictures are now online
5. Planning your wedding – time to call the pros?