Before the wedding, whilst having a lovely coffee in the Queen Ann's Cafe, Jeremy and Mandy told me they wanted a relaxed wedding, with no stress or worries. Their plan, as far as I could tell, was to do away with any traditional wedding aspects that they felt were resticting them and just do as they felt in order to make the day nice and easy.
I gotta be honest here, I was not convinced they'd make it happen. I agreed that it was an excellent idea, but if there's one thing you can be sure with weddings no matter how careful you are, something is inevitably going to find a way to go wrong. As someone-von-something once said, "no plan survives first contact with the enemy" - the enemy here being, uh, the guests. In a friendly way. So whilst the idea of a relaxed wedding seems appealing, actually achieving it is a real struggle.
But damn, if this wasn't the closest I've ever seen a wedding come. I was under strict instructions from Mandy to get shots of Jeremy looking nervous beforehand, pacing around before she came in. I snuck into the room of the ceremony, camera ready to snap him nervously reajusting his tie or checking the plans for the hundreth time, or maybe even just pacing back and forth. But I didn't make it more than a few seconds before he spotted me, lit up and bounded over to greet me. Damn. No nervousness there then. Sorry Mandy. I did consider telling him I saw someone in a white dress take off in a car just down the road to the tune of "Highway to Hell" on the way here. That might have done the trick.
A great example of this was when I was about to leave. Classically for half-day weddings I was only hired until the evening meal, which meant I was leaving right as the incredible food started appearing. Probably the saddest part of the day. And then someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I wanted a plate, and before I knew it Mandy was calling me over to their table and Jeremy was getting me a seat from the side, and I spent the entire wedding meal sat opposite the bride on the head table, chatting away to them about theatre and life plans. Life lesson; if you offer me food at your wedding, you can bet I'll stay overtime to eat it.
One thing Mandy made sure she stressed was the importance of shots at a gate. I think it must have come up as a "oh, and of course, there's a gate..." point about 9 different times in the course of our pre-wedding talks. I have to say though, I was nicely suprised when it turned out the gate itself was actually a resounding 15 meters from the hall where the reception was being held. What a useful gate.
Anyway, have a look at a few of the photos here below!
