Back in 2020 I shot a good handful of wonderfully intimate weddings in between lock downs. I got rather attached to these smaller, often DIY style home weddings, and they became important reminders to guests and suppliers alike of the significant chapter a wedding is in ones’ lives. One particular ‘Back Garden Wedding’ was that of Ellie and Barney. Fast forward several months and I’m sitting in front of my PC putting these words together thinking how lucky I am for them to have passed on my details to their dear friends, Lydia & Robin. Like their friends, they too were planning a home wedding but given the luck of the draw, their late August wedding could go ahead as planned. So it was full steam ahead for a one hundred plus guests wedding and a big blow-out party…
I arrived at the family home at just the right time. Bridal preparations were just about underway, there was much scurrying about from excited children, adults, and dogs alike, spaghetti was being used as a form of communication between youngsters, and the marquee might as well have had saloon style swing-doors given the traffic passing through it. As with any Bridal party preparations, there were ebbs and flows, so during an ebb I nipped off to catch a little of the boys getting ready. Getting the timing right with this is a mix of luck and science, as the boys seemingly take just a few minutes to get ready, usually after a particularly drawn out breakfast. I arrived with ties in full swing, and a certain crescendo of urgency in the air…a perfect taster of the boys getting ready before going back to Lydia and Co.
The wedding ceremony was a delight to capture, with a wonderful sense of space in the church along with some awesome light. The vicar herself was charming and light-hearted which made an already very special moment between Lydia and Robin all the more emotional and memorable. After the ceremony, some rather unexpectedly heavy gusts of wind tried to take the confetti for its own, but there was still more than enough to cover the new Mr and Mrs Kyle.
Earlier on it had been an overcast start to the day, but moments before Lydia and her father entered the church, the sun tried to break cover. I decided at the time that this was to be a good omen, and after a tussle that lasted several hours the cloud cover finally gave way during reception.
The remainder of the speeches followed later in the evening after the awesome DJs/Sax player had set up for what would turn out to be the mother of all parties. The sound to which Robin took to the stage to say a few words was deafening, always a good sign that this was going to be something special and Robin certainly didn’t disappoint. Neither did his Best Men, who managed to perfectly navigate that fine line between dropping the Groom in it and bringing everyone else down with him. 🙂
The evening was kicked off by a First Dance followed by the DJ & Sax and I’m still not sure how they didn’t literally blow the roof off. The sound system was a proper set up i.e. they could probably hear it in Suffolk, and they had this well-honed knack of getting the crowd up and keeping them there. Epic.
Thank you and congratulations Lydia and Robin, it was a unique and amazing day!
R
