This rather nice book just dropped through my letterbox.  And I’m delighted that MyWeddingStory is one of only three photographers featured for the entire country.Actually I’m slightly less delighted than I could be.  After all it’s rather a shame that there are so few environmentally friendly photographers around.

The Green Guide loved our Carbon Neutral Policy and the fact that we can produce vegan wedding albums without compromising on quality.

In, as they say, all good bookshops now priced £8.99.  Or pop round to the gallery for a browse.  They were pretty impressed by our timber gallery built by local craftsmen too.  (And anybody who calls it a shed won’t get any of my nice coffee….)

Cast you mind back a few months. W-a-a-a-y back in May, I met up with Ella and Gareth on Reculver Beach at dawn. Lily was there too!

You may wonder what they have been up to for the past 6 months or so. There’s a simple answer. Planning. Or rather Ella has. The shot above isn’t the plan from their wedding. It’s the plan for the flowers at their wedding. The rest of the plan takes another 16 pages. It worked though - their wedding earlier this week went like clockwork.

Very very fun clockwork :).

The house was full when I got there. It got fuller. Parents, aunts, uncles, four bridesmaids, pageboy, makeup artist, hairdresser, video crew and me with a couple of Nikons. Oh and somewhere in there was Ella. Having the time of her life.

Gentlemen (and especially Gareth), I believe the word you are looking for is “Wow”. Which is pretty similar to what Lisa said….

Notice that Ella is fully dressed in this picture. You can’t see them here but all her bridesmaids had their dress on too by this stage. Just as well because it was time to travel to the Knowle for the wedding. So what happened next….?

Hmm. Dressing gowns, Spanxx, slipper socks, coats, Ugg boots and tiaras? What’s going on? Well it was about an hour to the venue by vintage Rolls So….dress at the house to check hair and makeup and for pictures, dressing gowns for the journey and change again at the Knowle. It makes perfect sense. Planning

Gareth didn’t have to change - he was at the Knowle. Looking suave, sophisticated and not at all nervous. There were at least 2 lines on the plan that said “keep Gareth calm”. Perfect.

And he needn’t have worried, of course Ella was bang on time. With so much love and emotion in the room, I don’t think there was a dry eye at the wedding.

Not even Lily’s.

C’mon. You didn’t think we’d leave her outside did you? Not when she had a special collar made for the day by Keeley from Bridalway.

As part of the plan, Ella asked if I wanted to shoot the confetti “live” or mock it up later. My answer to questions like this is always the same. You can’t fake reactions like this.

It’s slightly risky but 90% of the day is one shot one chance. That’s why you hire a professional

And there was no way anybody was going to stop Ella making a speech at her own wedding.

And no way anybody was going to stop Jasper from ordering his “beer juice”

And no way I was going to walk away from night portraits on a night like that. And no way Lily was going to miss out.

More pictures when they come back from honeymoon. In the meantime I know Ella and Gareth would love it if you left wishes for them below.

I love this time of year. Dawn’s pretty late (which allows me to get on the beach for portrait sessions), there’s great colour in the trees and most of all there are fireworks!

Fireworks must be one of my favourite things to shoot apart from weddings.  And fireworks at weddings must be best of all.But the best fireworks around have to be at Leeds Castle.  There’s something about the whole “castle reflected in a lake plus thousands of pounds of high explosives” that I can’t resist.

This year was no exception.  I braved the cold (actually a balmy 12 degrees), the rain (which pretty much didn’t show up) and the high winds (which made things interesting - the rockets were drifting towards the crowd).  At least it kept the smoke clear.

There was also an awesome display by Alchemy Fire Theatre.  Who, err, burned loads of stuff.  Everybody’s got to have a hobby…

And yes it was a huge amount of fun.  What’s that got to do with wedding photography?  Not a great deal.  But people often ask me if I can shoot fireworks at their wedding.  Yeah, I can shoot fireworks - I love it

Slideshow below….

OK let’s see. Gorgeous bride? Check. Fabulous venue? Check (c’mon this is just part of the bridal suite). Willing assistant to spend ages on her knees with a crochet hook buttoning the bride into her stunning wedding dress? Check.

Must be a wedding then. MyWeddingStory style. Despite it being a blustery November day. And err, raining. A lot.

Don’t worry, I’ll stop going on about the fantastic bridal suite at Chilston Park Hotel in a minute. But not before I’ve pointed out that this is Kerry with the best man and bridesmaids in another of the rooms (and no, the pictures from the bathroom won’t be online for a few days…).

And meanwhile her guests wait eagerly downstairs to get the wedding underway.

And just moments later they were married at last in the Orangery at Chilston Park. With all their friends watching. Fairytale stuff!

And what could be better after the wedding ceremony than a chilled glass of ice cold champagne to make you forget the November weather.

Of course everyone wants to see the ring.

But there’s hardly time for that before we start the serious business of the day.

And of course cake.

And we managed to sneak a moment between courses for just a couple more portraits.

Thought he new Mrs Booth didn’t feel like joining her new husband for the last one. What, did you forget I said it was raining?

And don’t forget that the whole wedding will be online soon!

Anthony and Louise wanted a pre wedding shoot or try before you buy as I like to call them.

They live just a stone’s throw from the beach and so that was the logical place to do it. They had also seen the pictures from Ella and Gareth’s beach shoot and so I knew before I asked exactly when they would want to do it.

Dawn.

About two hours before sensible people get up.

Which meant another early morning. Fortunately by what I like to call genius planning (OK, luck) it’s just a few days before the clocks go back. Which made dawn a pretty reasonable 7:28.

It was still pretty early though. And fairly cold. And also slightly wet. One day I’ll learn to read tide tables properly. Let’s just say there was more water on the beach than I anticipated. And a lot of it found its way into Anthony’s shoes.

But we all had a great time and Louise and Anthony seemed quite happy as they went home for breakfast. I was pretty happy too. I’d already seen the pictures.

Why do I agree to these things? Because it lets me create images like this.

Which makes getting out of bed early a pretty small price to pay.

More pictures “soon”…..

For the first of a new feature, I asked them to share the story of their wedding with us.  Read on to find out all the juicy details about how they met, their tips and advice for couple and of course exactly what they thought of their wedding pictures.These are the unedited replies to a list of questions I gave to Felicity and Dave.  Total honesty prevents me from removing the lovely things they said about me

How did you meet?

We met when Dave helped out with the induction for new graduates in my first graduate job as a commercial trainee at Rolls Royce Plc in 2004. Dave started with RR two years before me. When Dave walked into the room the first time we met I knew I wanted to be with him and after a few drunken nights out with the other graduates we got together!

Who proposed, and when and where did the proposal take place?

Dave proposed in Venice in July 2007 – on a gondola! We both love Italy and had both always wanted to go to Venice.

Where did the bride find her wedding dress?

The Bridal Suite

72 High St, Chislehurst, Kent BR7 5AQ

020 8467 7099

Describe the material and style of her dress.

The dress is a strapless mermaid shape with a medium puddle train. The material is ivory silk satin with a crystal beaded asymmetrical overlay around the bodice. One of the things I love most about the dress is it has silk buttons all the way down the back of the dress and train.

What accessories did the bride wear on the day?

I wore a full, crystal studded veil and pearl beaded tiara, both from The Bridal Suite. My shoes were ivory satin from BHS – really good value at approx £30, and great as they looked really elegant but did not cost a fortune, which was important with it being an outdoor wedding and them bound to be getting dirty! My jewelry consisted of a necklace as a gift from the groom and a diamond bracelet as a gift from my Aunty Christine – both from Tiffany’s!

Where did the groom buy/hire his outfit from and what style and colour was it?

Hired from Tux & Tails at Gants Hill, Essex. The suit was deep blue with a gold waistcoat and cravat

Who created your floral arrangements and which flowers were used in your bouquets, buttonholes and decorations?

Merrygardens, 96 High Street, Deal, Kent, CT14 6EE (01304 374228) did my bouquet, the button holes and sprays. The theme was all white roses and foliage to keep the flowers simple and elegant against the varied flowers and foliage in the gardens of Walmer Castle. This worked really well and was relatively inexpensive.

I then did the centerpieces myself – potting French lavender in cream / silver watering cans (which we bought from Homebase) for a rugged garden effect! This again was so inexpensive compared to floral centerpieces and it was important to me on an environmental level to minimize waste so the plan was always to have a living centerpiece that can be given as gifts to the attendants.

I also hired 7 large Bay trees from Ringwould Alpines at: Garribaldi Farmhouse, Dover Road, Ringwould, Deal, Kent, CT14 8HG.Tel: 01304-360034, who were really helpful and enabled me to create a great look in the marquee at low cost.

What car/transport did you use and who was the supplier?

My dad drove an Audi A3 which he was able to borrow as he is a contractor for Audi. We also used a local coach company – Seath Coaches in Deal to take guests from the castle to the Blazing Donkey.

Tell us about your ceremony; what was special, etc?

The ceremony was outdoors in the gardens of Walmer Castle. This was where I have always wanted to get married since a child and is such a beautiful, magical place – perfect for our theme.

Where was the venue for your wedding reception?

The Blazing Donkey country hotel, Hay Hill, Ham, Deal, CT14 0ED, 01304 617362. They have a permanent marquee – perfect for me to use to create our own personalised venue. They also have a great modern restaurant who provided the food for the wedding breakfast.

At your reception did you choose particular decorations, table centres, etc?

The main focus was continuing the garden theme indoors so the hired bay trees were a big part of this. Dave and I decorated them with green satin ribbon, gold decorations and LED fairy lights that we had been collecting since starting to plan the wedding a year ago – Christmas sales were great for getting cheap decorations such as hanging hearts and dragonflies. The tables were scatted with preserved green hydrangea petals from confetti.co.uk. As a concession to Dave’s love of Football I allowed him to have Aston Villa players as the names for the tables!

What menu/type of wedding breakfast did you serve to your guests?

The hotel prepared a special menu for us with a great sharing platter to start. This was a great ice breaker for guests who had not met before to get them mixing! Chicken wrapped in parma ham was for main and lemon tart for dessert.

Tell us about your cake and who made it.

The cake was 3 tiered, white and milk chocolate from Goodchilds bakery in Deal. This was a great local bakers, which helped to keep the cost down – approx £200.

Describe your favours (if you had them).

We made them ourselves from self-assembly boxes from the internet, with tissue paper to help fill them then a selection of our favourite sweets and chocolates from childhood, bought on-line (chocolatebuttons.co.uk). This was fun and inexpensive.

What music and entertainment did you have, and what was your first dance?

We had a string quartet who attended the ceremony then reception for dinner. The evening entertainment was a disco with all our favourite songs and guest requests from their RSVPs. Our first dance was to kissing you from Romeo & Juliet – going into: is this love by Bob Marley!

Was there a theme for your day, what inspired it?

It was a garden theme – to celebrate my love of lush green Kent where I grew up! Also, the garden theme reflected my late mother’s love of being outdoors, and the stunning garden I grew up in thanks to her green fingers.

Do you have any top tips/advice for other brides-to-be?

Best advice I had and benefited from was to take a painkiller just before the ceremony to help with all the smiling throughout the day!

Does the groom have a top tip?

Dave would say to have reliable ushers – like ours were, as they really keep it all going on the day

What was the bride’s beauty/hair product must-have on the big day; which she would recommend to other brides-to-be?

I did my hair myself because after having trials I realized I knew my hair best and could get it exactly how I wanted without a whole can of hairspray being released into my face!

Where did you go for your honeymoon? 

Malaysia – to KL, The Cameron Highlands and then Pangkor Laut private island.

Why did you choose MyWeddingStory?

The portfolios Jonathan showed us were amazing and we just loved the quality of his pictures. We wanted contemporary, arty photos but without compromising being able to capture the day in a traditional way – for example other photographers we saw wanted to take us to edgy locations after the ceremony to get some different photos but we just wanted to have good photos taken in the venue we had chosen!

How would you describe the pictures of your wedding?

When Jonathan showed us the DVD he had made of our highlights we were both quite emotional! The photos had really captured the mood of the day and what we loved most was the emotion captured on everyone’s faces. In addition, the lighting in our photos was amazing! 

Looking back we realized that we hardly noticed that the team were there, snapping away!