If I had a gun held to my head and I had to describe the wedding of Tom and Emma in 2 words, those 2 words would be without a doubt: Perfect and Sticky.
Tom and Emma were amongst the couples who were lucky enough to have their wedding amid a very hot and unseasonable heatwave in September. Whilst they'd both planned for a very autumnal day, the weather was a welcome change to what has been a very soggy summer overall for weddings this year.
Kicking things off at the beginning though, myself and Rachel arrived nice and early cameras in hand at Arnold Registry office where we greeted Tom and the smattering of guests slowly arriving for the upcoming ceremony. There was definitely a good amount of sweating on Tom's part, but for his sake, I'm going to put that down to the hot weather, him wearing a suit and definitely not because he was feeling nervous.
Despite the heat, Tom remained composed as he made his way to his interview with the registrars. Meanwhile, indoors, the guests had settled into their seats, eagerly awaiting Emma's arrival. The atmosphere inside was sweltering, creating a standing room only situation that felt more like a summer jam-packed concert than a wedding.
The indoor setting resembled a sauna, with guests fanning themselves and loosening their collars to cope with the rising temperatures. It was a hot, sticky affair, and everyone longed for a bit of cool relief. Fortunately, the event planners had thought ahead and positioned two trusty floor fans strategically around the room, which offered a tiny bit of relief as we moved around the room to get shots of people chatting away prior to Emma's arrival.
Emma looked fantastic as she made her way down the aisle, and it was an absolute pleasure to capture the heart-warming moments they shared as they recited their vows to each other in the blazing heat surrounded by all their friends and family.
Ceremony: Done, we headed out into the grounds for group shots, and a few more informal photos of Emma and the bridesmaids she'd requested before hand. As you can imagine, there were no shortage of laughs and giggles and despite the heat we even got them to don their matching denim jackets for just a couple of quick photos.
As we finished making our way through the list of shots Emma had provided, the guests headed over to the next venue, while we hung back with Tom and Emma on their own for some shots of them on their own. The grounds at Arnold registry office are lovely, and basked in the unseasonable sunshine, made for an exceptional backdrop for a couple of more intimate photos we'd spoke about beforehand.
Couples shots completed, we followed the red pickup (Emma's request, I'm told!) over to the next venue with them both to catch up with their guests. I always like to get myself positioned ahead of the newlyweds, so when we arrived, we made our way to the entrance as quickly as we could ready to catch them both enjoying their welcome drinks and making their grand entrance together as husband and wife.
The scorching heat had everyone feeling the burn, so a quick change of plans was in order once Emma and Tom had settled into their seats. The icing on their beautiful wedding cake was starting to show signs of surrender to the relentless temperature. With that in mind, it didn't take long for us to decide on a shift in their schedule.
Almost as soon as they had taken their seats, we promptly had them back on their feet. The goal? To get that cake cutting ceremony done and dusted early on, ensuring there wouldn't be any cake-related disasters looming on the horizon.
From then, the couple sat down to enjoy some time with their guests, whilst we backed up our cards and had a few cold drinks. We'd still got speeches and a photo dash left to complete before we rolled into the evening reception, so we took a little rest and respite whilst the guests had some food and got our lighting out ready for the first dance later that day.
Once their food had been cleared away, the next order of business was Speeches. We definitely had a few more people to hear from than are usually planned, but honestly, it was lovely to hear about some of the funny stories involving Tom and Emma, and equally some of the genuinely heartfelt things their friends and family had to say about them both.
Next on the agenda was the photo dash, where we had each table come up to the dance floor to greet the newlyweds for one serious and one funny photo. Photo dashes are becoming more common place at weddings, and they're such a laugh when you've got a big group of fun loving guests the way same way Tom and Emma had. The aim is always to get all the photos completed in one song, even though we did run slightly over, it was still a massive laugh and we got some hilarious shots.
As the evening guests arrived, the last thing left to capture before we headed home was the first dance, which unfortunately brought our time with the couple to close.
Tom and Emma are a lovely couple. I always harp on about how I forget I'm at work sometimes, and how I just genuinely love spending time with some of the most fantastic and hospitable people around. Tom and Emma are the absolute epitome of this and are just the kind of couple I adore photographing. Emma is every bit as fun loving, smiley and welcoming as she seems on the surface, and Tom is just an absolute gent who was nothing but accommodating the whole day.
That's it for this week!
Peace, Love and Photo's.
Jono x
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