Manchester United Bride

Helen and her family have been huge Manchester United fans for many years. They are regular visitors to Old Trafford to support their heroes.

Every bride is emotional on her wedding day but what Helen was to find out later in the day would move her to tears.

Helen and Pete were married at St Marys and All Saints Church in Droxford, in the beautiful Meon Valley, Hampshire.

After the Ceremony it was time for photographs. Organising guests at any wedding during formal group shots is always a challenge but it was especially so for Helen and Pete's wedding. Partly because of having to shout over the sound of the wedding bells and partly because of having to carefully shepherd guests around the numerous piles of dog poo (grrr). Nevertheless, we had a great time and got some lovely shots.

Then it was off in their wedding car to the Macdonald Botley Park Golf and Country Club, in Botley, Hampshire for their Reception.

Pete was mad about golf so going to a local golf club for their Reception was a natural choice.

Because of Helen's mad keen interest in Manchester United it was no surprise that their wedding colour scheme was the red and white of her favourite team.

The golf course gave lots of portrait opportunities but the clouds were always threatening.

It never did rain but her dad had bought white brollies just in case. They were married in the Summer of 2012, the worst "Summer" for rain we had ever experienced. Considering this it was a very sensible precaution.

He even went to the bother of printing their names and wedding date on the umbrellas.

Just when Helen thought their day couldn't get any better, what she was about to find out whilst listening to her dad's speech was to move her to tears.

Her dad handed her a card and explained that it had been written by the manager of Manchester United Football Club and signed by all the players.

Helen and Pete had a fabulous day, with great guests, great venues, no rain and with nobody stepping in dog poo...perhaps the good wishes of world class football legends had an effect.

The Prickly Bottom Wedding

Jacqui and I shot Martin and Leah's wedding back in May 2012. In July 2013, Martin was Best Man at another wedding we were shooting. Inevitably we talked about our recollections of Martin and Leah's wedding...they differed somewhat.

I remembered that Jacqui had a bad back and could not ride in the golf buggy that was to take us to the portrait shoot location so I had to shoot it on my own (ably assisted by my number one lighting man, my number one son).

What Martin remembered was that in order to get the shot pictured above, I dropped down onto my haunches rather quickly and got what felt like a million of the prickliest prickly prickles in my bottom as I became impaled on a prickle bush. Martin and Leah were in stitches and my son was almost crying with laughter at the pain I was in. Eventually though, once the pain subsided, I re-took the shot ....carefully! 

Of course Martin and Leah's wedding was about a lot more than Jacqui's bad back and my prickly bottom. It was about the fabulous ceremony in St Paul's, Sarisbury Green near Fareham Hampshire.

It was both a touching and light-hearted ceremony which perfectly fitted the bride and groom's characters and it was a prelude to a very playful day.

Some smart Alec had painted HE-LP on Martin's shoes for all the guests to read as he knelt down to pray.

The vicar read their characters beautifully and led a lovely ceremony punctuated with light hearted moments.

After the ceremony we went outside for some portraits and group shots...

Then on to the reception at East Horton Golf Club, Hampshire. Their table naming theme was famous golf courses.

They even had an extra wedding cake with Martin and his friends playing golf.

Apparently it depicted Martin and his friends looking for "Martin's lost balls in the bushes"...allegedly a common occurrence.

The weather was a bit stormy so we shot a few dramatic portraits.

The mood was a bit "Wuthering Heights" and they both got so into the mood I half expected Leah to pitifully cry, "Heathcliff".

Then it was off to the little wooden hut (the one with the painfully prickly bush) for a different style of portrait and their expressions were wonderfully romantic...and completely un-directed from me but fitted beautifully with the stormy and dramatic portraits we shot earlier.

And our other abiding memory of the day? The Best Man, in his speech, was saying how much fun he and Martin used to have round Martin's Mum's house when they were in the same school football team together.

He explained how Martin's Mum was the perfect host for any teenage boy:

She had a welcoming smile, plenty of food...and a great rack! 

...one of the funniest lines I can remember and it brought the house down....and if memory serves me correctly, Martin's Mum buried her face in her napkin with embarrassment...for seemingly the next five minutes.

A fabulously playful wedding...even if we do remember it slightly differently.

LESSONS LEARNED: low camera angles can be painful...and Martin's Mum's got a great rack!

Steve