Where's the coaches?

We've just done a wedding at which two luxury coaches were laid on to transport most of the guests to the church and then to the reception venue. It was a very cold day with a very strong wind, and as the couple came out of the church, it started raining heavily.

We arrived at the reception venue just before the bridal party, who were followed in by several guests who'd got there in their own cars. And in due course the bride's father got a phone call to say that the coaches hadn't reappeared at the church as planned, therefore all the remaining guests had gone back in and were now patiently waiting (in a country church with no loo). In the end the coaches turned up, everybody got to the reception, and a good time was still had by all.

As we never tire of saying, you can't plan for every eventuality - but a considerable amount of stress could have been avoided if somebody had been given the coach firm's phone number and been tasked with staying at the church to ensure that all went according to plan.

It's always worth remembering that most people switch off their mobiles just before the ceremony, then forget to switch them back on until much later in the day ...

Table settings #2

This was really simple but the effect was seriously cool. Plain white napkin loosely folded, with place name written in silver marker on white card and a single freesia blossom - yellow for the girls, blue for the blokes.

Veils and curls

This is a picture of Emma and Matthew grinning on their wedding day. Emma went for a long veil, and she now says ...

"I had my hair done in curls piled on the top and back of my head with my tiara in front of them and a long veil from directly behind the tiara, over the curls.

It looked lovely but when I wanted to take it off after the meal, I was horrified to discover that all my curls had been squashed by the weight of the veil! My sister came to the rescue and re-did the curls for me but I wish I'd thought about that beforehand and gone for a hairstyle that could survive the weight of the veil!"

The State Bed

Here's a picture of Nicola and Chris and a bed, and it was taken earlier this year during their drinks reception in Mr Speaker's State Apartments in the Houses of Parliament, when they snuck off with us for ten minutes to chill out away from their guests.

That bed is actually a bit special as old beds go, in that it's the State Bed in which a future King or Queen of England traditionally spends the night before their Coronation. Rather them than us, we say, because not only does it look uncomfortable, it's also in that room, which is very nice but very red.

Seriously red, in fact.

As in "Gosh! This is a bit red, isn't it?" ...

He did what?

For Saturday's wedding, the couple had engaged a very experienced toastmaster, who stationed himself just inside the doors of the ceremony room after the bride and her dad went up the aisle.

Everything proceeded as normal until the couple had completed the declarations, at which point it would seem that the toastmaster could stand it no longer. As the couple stood facing the registrar, who was in full flow with the next bit of her spiel, they were alarmed and astonished to have their wrists grabbed from behind and their hands joined together!

The Man In The Red Coat obviously thought it remiss of the bride and groom to be standing there and not holding hands, so he had marched up the aisle in the middle of the ceremony and in front of 90 guests and rearranged the couple to his liking.

The expressions on the faces of the bride, groom and registrars were a picture, but unfortunately not one that either of us took. It's not often that anything surprises us at a wedding any more, but we have to admit that this did catch us out.

And tempting though it is to say more on this subject, I'll be good ...

Music - news just in

We've just heard from our source of all knowledge regarding civil ceremonies in England that the rules on what music can be played during a civil marriage are about to be relaxed to some extent. One example talked about is Aretha Franklin's "Say A Little Prayer For You" which is currently a no-no, but which could well be a goer before much longer.

Apparently mission control (The Office of the Registrar General) is set to issue new guidelines to registrars before the end of the year, and we'll post an update on The Blog in due course.

(Thanks Clive)

Ann's Pudding Picture #2

Zoe C says ...

This happy smiley person is Zoe C. She's being all happy and smiley in this picture because it was taken during her wedding ceremony, and now that she's recovered from the party later that evening, she's kindly sent a few handy hints including ...

Groom's speech notes

Use standard desktop index cards for your notes rather than sheets of A4 paper. They fit in the inside pocket of your jacket, it's easier to keep your place when referring to them, and it just looks so much better when delivering your speech!

Groom's suit

Going for something other than a hire suit really does help make the groom feel that it's his special day as well, and it also gives both of you something else to remember the day by. If going for a bespoke outfit that's more flamboyant than an everyday suit, see if it can be altered afterwards to make it into something more suited (!) for normal wear.

Involving parents when they're not paying for the wedding

We found it difficult to make our parents feel involved when we were financing everything ourselves and organising most of it, but we got them to source the best (or most embarrassing) photos possible of all the guests. These were then copied and displayed at the reception where people were waiting to sign the guest book.

Bacon sandwiches

We arranged for bacon sandwiches to be served at 10.30pm, and despite our guests having eaten a sumptuous four course meal and then partaken of the evening buffet earlier on, they were very well received indeed! They probably helped to soak up a little more alcohol, and the timing worked out just right for a midnight end to the party.

Cheers Zoe!

Wedding Ideas magazine

Just discovered that the first "Real Life Wedding" featured in the December 05 issue of Wedding Ideas magazine is one of ours.

Usually, pictures are submitted to UK bridal mags by the photographers, but in this case Rachel and Ryan did it themselves: they bought the Digital Negatives of their wedding photos and subsequently sent in a selection.

Typically, we forgot about it until we got the email from the mag asking for permission to use the pictures, but that was ages ago, so of course we'd forgotten about that too ...

KM Summer 2005

Our only sighting this year of Karen Millen's "Roses" summer dress with matching peep-toe shoes ...

Signing the register

OK, basically you do what the priest or registrar says i.e. usual signature, with the pen provided, brides sign in their maiden name and then your witnesses sign. That's about it really except to note that technically the marriage certificate is the bride's property.

When it comes to the vexed question of photographing the signing of the registers though, it can all get very silly indeed. Sometimes there's no problem, but often there is. We've been told that we can't photograph the signing because of the Official Secrets Act. Because of the Data Protection Act. Because It's Illegal. And "Because I say so".

A photographer we know in Northants can justly claim to have got the wackiest one though: "You can't photograph the signing because it's done with a special ink and you can't photograph that". It is a special ink actually (in that it's permanent), but to use that as an excuse is just plain bizarre.

The reality of the situation is that it is legal to photograph the signing of the registers, but not the entries in them. That explains why we are often to be seen on our knees when photographing a signing: we haven't suddenly got religion, it's just the best way of reassuring a concerned priest or registrar that we're not photographing the actual entries!

The other reality is that most celebrants assume that having done the deed, the happy couple will then delight in sitting there with an empty pen and a blank page, "pretending to sign" while everybody gets a "nice picture" of them.

If that sort of thing fills you with horror, all you have to do is tell the celebrant that there's no way you're going to do that, thank you. And if we're photographing your wedding, all you have to do is tell us beforehand what you want, then leave the rest to us ...

Cakes #1

A chocolate cake with fresh fruit from Fancy That at Rebecca and Oliver's wedding at The Dairy, Waddesdon

Table settings #1

Nice simple setting for a summer marquee wedding: all white except for blue ribbon and yellow lemon slices!

Going to the loo #3

This just in from Zoë R ...

"The only way to go to the toilet in a portaloo whilst wearing a big dress is to sit on it backwards i.e. facing the cistern with your back to the door. It's the only way to get all of the dress out of the way of toilet going whilst ensuring you don't get that nasty blue disinfectant stuff all over it. This tip has been used by two others brides and they agree it's the way forward (or backwards !!!)"

Thanks Zoë!

Nun's Belly Button

Just wanted to share my delight upon finding that among the vegetable seeds that Ann got in the mail this morning is a French bean called Nun's Belly Button.

Sitar man and tabla girl

At an Anglo-Indian wedding we photographed at Dartmouth House in Mayfair, the music during the ceremony and the drinks reception was provided by this amazing pair. I'm 99% certain the blind sitar player with the baby Marshall amp is Pandit Baluji Shrivastav, but even if he isn't, that gentleman is one seriously talented musician.

So too is the young lady tabla player who accompanied him, and between them they made a wonderful sound. Thanks to him I now know that you can break a lot of strings on a sitar before many people notice, and thanks to her I know what the tin of Johnson's Baby Powder was for ...

Maltesers

This is Gen (short for Genevieve) on her wedding day, which was maybe three years ago now, and we just came across this picture of her.

Gen was the bride who, when asked before her wedding what she was most worried about, instantly replied "Eating. If I don't have something to eat every half hour I'll fall over". Gen was probably a UK dress size 8, by the way ...

We found out that Gen was particularly partial to Maltesers, so on our way to photograph her wedding, we stopped off at the shops for a party bag of them. Three of the small bags went into my camera bag, and three into Ann's, by means of which we were able to keep Gen supplied from before she stepped into her dress to when she sat down for the wedding breakfast.

So, thanks to Mrs Gen Carter-Medici, here's the proof that you can in fact eat Maltesers on a warm summer's day while wearing white cotton gloves without getting chocolate on them ...

Place name / favour idea

Pewter picture frame with guest's name, which guest can take home as a memento of the wedding!

Tea lights on tables

We got an email this morning from a couple who are still on honeymoon in Zanzibar, and it starts by saying "Thanks very much for the part you played in our big day. If Ann hadn't stamped out those embers on the carpet it could have been memorable for the wrong reason!!"

That's a reference to the incident during their wedding breakfast when a napkin caught fire on a tea light and a passing waiter obviously thought that the best thing to do with a burning cotton napkin is to wave it about vigorously so that pieces of it fall in flames onto the carpet.

Last time we saw that happen it was a menu that caught fire and it was me that put it out, but that's twice we've seen things set alight by tea lights on dining tables in this year alone.

So, it's perhaps worth bearing in mind that tea lights can look very nice on dining tables, but they can and do set fire to napkins, menus, foliage and sometimes the most unlikely things ...

Oh, poor bells!

So I said to the bride ...

"Are you in a silly mood?" She said "Why?" And I said "Because if you've ever wanted to be a statue, now's your chance."

Whereupon Jane, with the assistance of her new husband, hitched up her skirts and hopped up onto this ledgey thing in the Italian Gardens at Hever Castle.

Needless to say, after we'd taken a few pictures of Jane being a statue, Alex decided he wanted in on the action and hopped up alongside her, much to the consternation of the castle's General Manager who was with us at the time.

The masonry survived though, and here's proof that from time to time we take some very silly pictures ...