Some days this job can be pretty hard.  Stressed people everywhere, nothing on time, bad weather and so on and so on….  And then there are days like this weekend.  Lucy and Hary’s wedding.  Imagine you have a bride who runs her own creative company who has lots of very creative friends and who has spent a year making sure that every last detail is perfect.  Add in one of the most laid back grooms ever (yes, he really is a drummer in a rock band…) and just a dash of luck with the weather and well, look what you get.

Did I mention Lucy liked to plan?  This is her fridge planner.

Whilst in the other room everything was beautifully arranged with all the dresses on custom made hangers.

 

I often joke that brides measure the time to get ready for their wedding in hours while for grooms it’s minutes.

Here’s Lucy and her flower girl part way through getting ready…

Meanwhile on the other side of the village, Harry is in shorts and a T-shirt.  He’s overseeing some of the last minute touches in the village hall where the recpetion will be.

Moments later, he’s in a suit and…..drinking tea.

While Lucy was putting on a beautiful customised Alfred Angelo creation.

So…..any last minute doubts, Harry?

(In the interests of journalistic integrity and full disclosure I’d better admit that Harry was looking as relaxed as ever.  Until I said “can’t you look just a little bit nervous for me?”)

And….here comes the bride.

 

 

You know that tense bit after a wedding when the photographer asks if anybody has any confetti, and a few say yes and lots say no?  I’ve often thought I could do a small sideline in selling confetti out of my car boot on summer Saturdays.  Anyway Lucy and Harry had solved this perfectly.  Each order of service had a little packet of confetti on it!  Let’s see how that works out later.

Because first, it’s time for Lucy and Harry to get married.

 

You can see how happy Harry is.

 

Now remember that everybody in the congregation has a packet of confetti.  Everybody.

 

Yeah.  That’s a lot of confetti.

Now you’ve already seen the bride and her “team” walk from the house to the church.  But the reception in the village hall wasn’t far either.  So they walked there.  And just in case people couldn’t find the way, they had a drum major to lead them.  See?  Lucy really does plan very well.

 

 

 

Now with one exception, every single wedding I’ve ever photographed has had formal groups.  There was a trend not to do these because they broke up the “reportage” nature of the day.  But how often do all your friends get together in the same place, in nice clothes and relatively sober?  Exactly.

Though formals is a bit of a loose term.  Some of them are pretty informal.

 

And if the bride has planned a photobooth complete with polaroids they can get very informal indeed.

 

Even bride and groom portraits don’t have to be that serious…

 

 

Now you’re probably thinking that enough attention to detail, a bunch of creative friends and a lot of planning, a simple village hall could look rather special.  And you’d be right.

 

In fact, after every wedding I have several folders of pictures called things like “ceremony”, “bride and room” etc..  And there’s always one called “pretty things”.  After Harry and Lucy’s wedding I have a very big folder of pretty things.  Like these.

 

And these.

 

And most of all, these.

 

One of the nice things about this time of year is that it gets dark pretty late.  Which means that after the wedding breakfast the light is pretty gorgeous.

 

 

But enough of that.  Time for space hoppers!

 

Ordinarily, I never take pictures of people eating.  Who looks good eating?  But when it’s ice cream, well everybody looks good eating!

 

There weren’t supposed to be any speeches at this wedding.  For one thing it didn’t really fit the theme of a village fete, and for another, anybody who knows Harry knows that he doesn’t really do public speaking.  But how could he resist?  One of the most moving speeches I’ve heard all year.  Plus a song he’d written for Lucy.  Yes, for somebody who doesn’t do public speaking, Harry set the bar pretty high.

Now of course, wedding shoes are all very well and pretty and girly.  But you can’t really dance in them.  And Lucy intended to dance.  A lot.  So obviously she needed a change of footwear.

 

And who could resist dancing when Harry had brought his band along?

 

And pretty soon everybody was dancing.

 

Lucy and Harry are flying off (see what I did there) somewhere warm soon.  But you can leave your thoughts and wishes for them below.  Or just hit “like” to post this to your wall on Facebook.