Christina and Steven's Wedding in Sunderland and Ramside Hall (aka the one with the amazing first dance)

This was the second wedding of a very busy weekend.  Having spent the day before running up and down the staircases of Langley Castle for Kate and Andy's wedding (images to come in a week or so once they're back from honeymoon), I woke on the morning of Chrissy and Steven's wedding feeling like I'd run a marathon.  


At Chrissy's parents house there was the usual pre-wedding mayhem.  The young bridesmaids Raegan and Lola were excitedly running around, while pageboy Matthew kept a beady eye on baby Luke, who was decked out in the cutest dinner jacket and dicky bow.  Meanwhile older bridesmaids Kathryn and Natalie helped Chrissy get ready.  The wedding dress was a stunning Amanda Wyatt gown.

The wedding ceremony would be held at St Matthew's Parish Church in Silksworth, Sunderland with a backdrop of blue skies...something the weather forecasters hadn't predicted!        Steven and his "entourage" arrived, looking remarkably calm and collected, and as the guests arrived, he joked with friends, family and colleagues.  

With Steven taking his place in the church, the wedding car arrived...a magnificent vintage Bentley which the driver had tirelessly polished earlier that morning, only have to re-polish after a short sun shower at lunchtime.  

The emotions began to kick in as Chrissy entered the church.  Fighting to hold back the tears she followed the bridesmaids down the aisle to be met by Steven who was grinning from ear to ear. 


As the service began and the vicar started to speak a tissue was deftly past from hand to hand to Chrissy, who never took her gaze from the vicar as he spoke.

With early nerves set aside, Chrissy and Steven sat back to listen to a long sermon in which he gave various definitions of what love is from people such as Albert Einstein and the Love Is... cartoons.


All the while, little Lola played on a magna-doodle and then danced to each hymn.  


With the ceremony done, and confetti thrown, everyone made their way to Ramside Hall Hotel, near Durham.

With the sun low in the sky, everyone congregated on the lawns outside the hotel for photographs before heading back inside the ballroom for an informal reception.  Andrew, the best man, though was looking pale.  Nerves had got the better of him and he was starting to worry about the best man speech.  I could relate to this as I had been in a similar situation earlier in the year.  No words of advice from myself or anyone else was helping.  

Both Chrissy and Steven's dads gave short speeches, before Steven took to the floor to give a heart-felt and at times cheeky speech.  With the dinner jacket on and microphone in hand you half expected him to start crooning like a member of The Rat Pack.  And then it was Andrew's turn...his speech was simple and to the point.  "To the bride and groom".  And with that, the speeches were done.

Now, one of the first questions I ask when a couple book me is, "What will your first dance song be?"  I'm a big music lover so I take great delight in listening to peoples musical ideas and preferences.  Sure, I see a lot of dances done to Take That's "Greatest Day" or Lonestar's "Amazed" so when somebody throws a curve ball like Chrissy and Steven did, it makes for a pleasant surprise.  I was expecting Elbow's "One Day Like This".  So when Eclipse "Makes Me Love You" started banging out of the speakers I was blown away.  

It was a refreshingly different, ad-hoc first dance and was great to watch (and photograph).  And with that, my day was done.  With the disco in full swing I left everyone to dance the night away.

A big thank you to Christina and Steven for a superb day and the amazing reaction to the images.  Have a great honeymoon!

Sarah and Tony's Wedding - Durham Radisson Hotel (aka The One with the Poorly Tog)

This was wedding number one for 2011 for me.  I woke with no voice, sore throat, a high temperature, banging headache and ached everywhere.  I had been struck down by the dreaded man-flu!  Feeling sorry for myself I doped myself up with sudafed and strepsils.  To be honest by the time I got to Durham I was starting to feel fine and got on with the job.

Upstairs, the bridal suite was a hive of activity with Sarah, her mum and bridesmaids scurrying around getting make up on and hair sorted while Jamie Cullum played on the TV in the background (Can't beat a bit of the Cullum on a Saturday morning).  As usual, I blended into the background and got on with getting shots of the flowers, shoes and dresses and then headed downstairs to meet Tony.

Tony was the epitome of calmness!  In the 7 years or so I've been shooting weddings I've yet to come across a groom so relaxed and unphased.  In fact I think that's how I would sum up Sarah and Tony's wedding.  It was simple and relaxed.  All the guest were milling around in the bar while the staff sorted out the sound system in the ceremony room.

It was then that a waitress came over and asked "Are you OK?  You don't look well."  To be honest I had forgotten about feeling under the weather but I had noticed that the staff had set the thermostat in the room to the temperature of the sun.  I looked like I had run a marathon.  With the staff giving me a steady supply of water we were ready for the ceremony.  

Tony stood calm as ever while Sarah glided down to meet him, her dress flowing behind her.  Poppy and Emily, the little flower girls stood to one side and played with the bouquets while the registrar went through the proceedings.  From my spot at the front I could see that it wasn't just me who had noticed it was a tad bit warm in there.  Everyone was wafting invitations, Ian, the best man, had beads of sweat on his forehead and I was swaying steadily from side to side with an overwhelming feeling that I was going to pass out.  I decided that the best option was to get some shots from almost floor level, and crouching down against the wall, started to gradually feel less dizzy.  

If I'm truthful, the ceremony was a bit of a blur.  I was on autopilot and thankfully outside the room it was a nice comfortable temperature.  Outside, it was sunny yet crisp.  We headed to the footbridge over the River Wear to get some shots as I wanted to get Durham Cathedral into the background....near perfect backdrop.  

With all the shots done, plenty of high fives from Poppy and Emily when getting their photos done and the meal now underway, I made my way home where I slumped onto the sofa and woke up 16 hours later!  

Sarah and Tony's wedding was stunningly simple.  It was just me that threatened to make it tricky.  

I wish them all the best for the future and look forward to seeing them at Kate and Andy's wedding in September at Langley Castle.

This is my favourite from the day