Melissa and Mark: Abbot's Barton Hotel

It’s always fun to compare how brides and grooms prepare for their weddings.

Melissa and Mark got married at Abbot’s Barton Hotel in my home town of Canterbury on Saturday.

Here’s Melissa, looking every bit the beautiful bride.  Notice that she’s perfectly ready for the wedding, making a final check of her makeup in the compact that Mark bought for her, in the calm surroundings of her room.

Meanwhile the guys are downstairs.  They are also pretty much ready.  And they are also making good use of a thoughtful gift from Mark.  But given that it’s guys at a wedding it has to have a theme.  And there only seem to be two choices – cufflinks or alcohol.  And they already had cufflinks

That’s Mark on the left and his 3 (count them – 3!) best men.

But of course everything ran to plan, everything was set and when Melissa walked in the room for their wedding you could hear Mark gasp.

And then it was time to make it “legal” with the signing of the register.

But the marriage itself is never the whole story.  Not by a long way.  Especially when your flower girl has arrived equipped with not just confetti but a confetti bomb.

But of course they are more fun when you set them off.  A lot more fun.

There was time for a few more “controlled” pictures though.  Or rather ones that wouldn’t take quite so much clearing up after them.

Now when there are not 1 but three best men you can expect some great stories in the speeches.  But it’s even more fun when the girls get involved too.  Here’s bridesmaid Lauren getting ready for her speech.

I uppose you could forgive her being just a little nervous when the setting is as grand as this.

Weddings are also great for catching up with friends and family that you may not have seen for a while.  Or in this case for one very proud grandfather with somebody you may never have seen awake before!

Now here’s a great idea.  Mel and Mark had met me down on Whitstable Beach just a couple of days before the wedding.  It gave them a chance to relax with me and get used to the camera.  I also managed to get some rather nice pictures of them.  And they also had a lasting memento of their day – I printed up one of their pictures and mounted it for them.  Family and friends signed the mount and left messages for them.  After the wedding it will be framed and hung on their wall.

If you want to see more from their shoot on the beach, then there’s a whole gallery here.

And of course no wedding is complete without some serious dancing.

And very few MyWeddingStory weddings are complete without a signature night portrait…

Loads more pictures when Mr and Mrs Orders are back home!  Please leave your thoughts and wishes for them below.