One wedding dress, ivory – check.  Or rather a fabulously gorgeous dress and a whole host of pretty things – check.

Three rather lovely teal bridesmaids dresses with accessory shoes and individual wrapped gifts for bridesmaids each one labelled so they don’t mix anything up: check, check and check.

You see, the thing is, LJ (our bride) likes to plan.  A lot.  Like many brides she had been planning this day for a long time (3 years actually) and like a lot of people she likes to make lists and check things off.  A lot of list.  Really, a lot….

In fact, here’s what I found on her fridge, 4 lists and a calendar already printed with the wedding venue.

In fact pretty much everything was labelled.  Including bridesmaids, brides’ mother, bride….

In fact even, the lacing of the dresses was perfectly planned.

Actually, I’m going to (mainly) shut up now.  There are a LOT of pictures to show you and really there’s no point in teasing people about their lists when what they did was to make sure that the day ran perfectly from start to finish.  So here are a few of my favourite pictures from the day.

And then that magic moment when daddy’s little girl is all grown up, all dressed up and ready to get married.

And of course her carriage awaited…

Meanwhile, over at Cooling Castle Barn….

(Some of these pictures were taken for me by Patrick O’Reilly who was assisting me on the day)

Two things are constant about Cooling Castle Barn:

1. You have to do a picture in front of the towers as the bride arrives
2. You need to make sure you cover that entrance down the stairs.  Nobody ever trips – but all their friends always look at them with their hearts in their mouths just in case

And then of course, even on the most perfect summer’s day here in Kent you can get just the tinniest bit of what I like to call “liquid sunshine”, but the shower passed very quickly and we were all outside for group pictures and the all important confetti.

Remember back at the bride’s house where everything was labelled for me?  Yes, I like things simple.  In case I lose track of the two best men.

If the greatest of days always start with a dress, then the very best ones end with cake.

Cake and dancing, obviously.  Oh and #selfies.

Actually, when I mentioned the two things you have to do at Cooling Castle Barn, I missed out the third.  It’s pretty much mandatory to drag the bride and groom away for one last picture in front of the towers.  Although this close to midsummer’s day it still wasn’t dark.  Just a lovely glow in the sky.