reflecting from todays wedding

the cute little Ellie as bridesmaid

14th of december...

today,i shot a wedding. B and P got married at St.Andrews Church with their family and love ones witnessing the event.

i could say, it was a unique wedding because there were so many unusual things about today that made me think and compare to previous experiences of mine with regards wedding (not necessarily as the photographer).

1) the bride B is (heavily) pregnant- not that it was unusual, but she was pregnant with twins and she already have 6 children before this. (now thats unusual for a british family/or at least with people we normally hang out with). and not to mention shes only 28.

2) the bride is heavily tattooed- i only recently learned when i saw her being made up. before this, B normally is wearing sleeved clothing.

3) the families involved were confusing- there was the bride's mom and her mom's children. the bride's brother from her dad.

4) the bride's haridresser stood her up. the hairdresser rang at 8 AM and said, she cant make it. (how unprofessional!). they had to ring a friend to do her hair for her.

and it get's worse....read on.

5) the bride's car hire did not turn up. (she had to ring a cab as she was already late). since its winter and she was freezing outside, adrian and i offered for her to wait inside our car.

6) in the end, as we were really late, we had to take the bride to church. my little car became the bridal car. adrian apologized and said that if he knew, we would've used his car which was bigger and newer. (and much posh than mine,lol).

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* my unusual experience doesnt end there*

7) on the way to the bride's house, adrian said he forgot my tripod and reflector (which we didnt use in the end). he offered to go back while i took photos of the preparation at thebride's house. it was blessing in disguise as he would've felt uneasy being there with most women.

8) one of the bride's brothers was flirting with me (openly) and when he learnt that adrian was my husband (not just my photo assistant, lol) he backed out (a bit)...on saying goodbye to everyone (hugging and kiss/peck on the cheek), he hugged me and kissed me on my neck! (i shivered...in a scary sort of way).

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*church restrictions*

English churches have certain rules with wedding photography. I knew that since churches are quite strict, (and it is the first time i did photography work in the UK), i asked the bride to speak to the vicar for the rules in the church (as each church have different rules), some are stricter than others.

here are the rules:

-no flash photography allowed during the ceremony (shocks! and it is winter). i totally get it as it is distracting to the solemnity of the wedding.

-i am not allowed near the altar before the vows. until then, i can only use photography from their back.
as St. Andrews church is very small, it does not have a small side entrance where most photographers could hide or position. i was left with no choice but to take photos from the back.

-the vicar will signal when i could come near. which is after the vows. and i will be ushered to the vestry where they will sign the wedding license/legal documents. (most churches dont allow this, but the vicar was very good).


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this blog serves as a sharing tool to my creativelens classmate and a broadcast tool (in one go) to my family (saves me time from relayin info over and over again).

this will also be my cribsheet for future weddings.