Christine and Lee's Wedding Day - Houghton le Spring & The Sunderland Marriott

Those of you that read my blog entries regularly will know I'm fixated by the weather.  And with Christine and Lee's wedding this was no different.  My problem was, i had read 4 different weather forecasts and they had all given four different predictions on what the weather would be like in the North East.  And this made things a bit tricky to plan what photos to do and where.  I decided the best approach would be to take things as they come....and to be honest, that worked a treat! 


I initially met Christine and Lee at a wedding fayre in 2008 and over the following year had met and chatted a few times.  My over-riding feeling was that here was a young couple, totally in love, totally into each other and completely relaxed about what they were about to do.  I loved the fact that instead of telling me what sort of things she liked in terms of photography, Christine chose to tell me what she didn't like.  And that was a refreshing change to the norm.  


On the day itself, there was the usual panics.  Christine's dad later commented that his main concern was everything seemed to be running too smoothly which spooked him, hence the phone call I got as I was driving down to Houghton le Spring double checking I was still going to turn up.


But despite this, at the respective "camps", both Lee and Christine were amazingly calm.  No sign of nerves...nothing!  At the church things didn't change.  Even the vicar commented to me that he had never seen a groom so calm!  The vicar was a star.  A relatively young man with a distinctive Scouse accent, he was fairly light-hearted in his approach and gave me plenty of tips about where best to get shots during the service.  St Michael's Church in Houghton le Spring is a photographer's dream...as long as you can be discreet enough not to attract the vicar's attention during the service! 


Fearing that the heavens would open I opted to do the group shots in the shade of the trees in the churchyard before heading to the Marriott Hotel in Sunderland.  Of course I forgot that it was the opening day of the football season and that Sunderland were playing at home...and I opted to take a route right through the middle of Sunderland as the hordes of fans were making their way to the Stadium of Light.  Luckily, Christine and Lee's driver took the same route, so we were as late as each other getting to the hotel.  


After a few shots by the seafront, the happy couple made their way back into the hotel and settled down to their wedding breakfast and speeches, before the room was transformed for the evening reception and disco.  In the darkened room, their Wishing Tree looked amazing, lit up by tungsten fairy lights.  


The first dance arrived to the sounds of Will Young's Evergreen, a choice which I approved of...yes, I am not ashamed to say it, I am a huge Will Young fan!  Christine and Lee continued to dance as everyone else joined them on the dance floor.  It was like a scene from a movie.  They just disappeared into the crowd.  


As the tunes blasted out, I made a quiet exit happy with a job well done, knowing there was a Chinese Take Away waiting for me at home.  I went away on holiday a few days after the wedding and was sat on a sun lounger in Ibiza when my iPhone pinged to say I had an email.  Reading the email a grin spread across my face. "We love the pictures..."


Now where's that Will Young cd?