Lucy & Kel live in New Zealand and therefore arranging the details of their wedding photography presented it’s own unique challenges. I met Lucy only once prior to the wedding day and didn’t get an opportunity to meet Kel until the day itself! Normally I’m insistent upon both meeting Bride and Groom ahead of the wedding day and on having an initial and a pre-wedding consultation. In this instance it just wasn’t possible and without a flight to NZ (which seemed a touch excessive) it wasn’t going to happen. Nevertheless it was a great day to shoot and things ran very smoothly.

Lucy’s aunt owns a lovely house in the gorgeous village of Stoke Charity, near WInchester. The village church of St Mary & St Michael is just a stone’s throw away. A more convenient and quintessentially English setting for a wedding you’d be hard pressed to find. St Mary & St Michael is not the biggest church by any stretch of the imagination and, when packed with guests, the pews were jam-packed as were most of the aisles with additional chairs. I tend not to move a huge amount during church anyway, but I simply didn’t have the option in this case!

I photographed the day from the watching of home movies in the morning through until the close of celebrations in the evening, as the dancing wound up. After speeches, Lucy & Kel’s guests lit chinese lanterns. These are a reasonably familiar sight at weddings these days, but they also had a huge bonfire, an event that I’ve not seen at a wedding before and a great incentive to stay outdoors as the evening turned chillier! The 14yo pyromaniac in me enjoyed it immensely!

Many thanks to Lucy & Kel and all their family, friends and guests for being such fun. Now then, how about some pictures?!*

*Of late, my wedding write-ups have been getting longer and longer. I’m going to reverse that trend as I’d like the images to do most of the talking!