It was an honour and a privilege to photograph the wedding of my Niece, Jess to her fiancé Keiran. And what an eye opener it was as well. Especially as I still recall Jess being an 8 year old when I met her Auntie (my wife) in the December of 1997.
That’s the one of the fantastic things of photographing weddings in a documentary style. Being present during the bridal prep, when proseco is flowing and the girls are chatting and past experiences or just telling stories from their ‘youth’… Some of the things you get to hear and see… ahem… anyway.
Jess loves unicorns. I went to great lengths to explain that they weren’t real, but not to Jess. So when a carriage turned up pulled by two ‘unicorns’ (horses disguised and unicorns in case you were wondering, I knew the day was going to be special.
The only thing was the fact that the priest would not allow any photography during the ceremony. None at all, even from the official photographer. Basically their wedding photographs have everything except their actual wedding. Not even coming down the aisle.
After several lame reasons why he didn't allow it, the priest (Father James of St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Radcliffe, Manchester) turned around to me and said, “if you do get any before or after, make sure I’m not in any.” And there we have the real reason.
Not wanting this to spoil their special day I managed to get some from the back of the church covertly.
The wedding moved onto the Last Drop Village and Hotel in Bolton. This is a lovely location and even though it rained heavily all day we had a great time and I was able to photograph their day as I usually would do. Lots of special moments, dancing, tears, laughter and hugs caught on camera as I wandered around taking snaps.
I shot through the evening until around 10.00pm. I have never been to a wedding as a guest or a photographer that saw such a full dance floor from the first dance to the end of the night.
A fab day, an absolute pleasure and a wonderful couple.
Congratulations you two!
