Siân.  Finally I’ve found it.  TBH I’m too afraid to put it in the title as it might make the web url go wacky.  But you now have your ‘thingy’ over the A.

Congratulations to Siân and Ben.  Married on Saturday in St Albans and then back to Battlers Green Farm for a most fantastic party in the garden.  I rarely respond to ‘pressure’ situations but when you knock on the door, it opens and on the other side is the groom going “its great to meet the man behind the camera.  We’ve been stalking your website for a year.  We love [this, that, something else]…no pressure.”  Yeah…exactly what I was thinking [palms begin to sweat].  I have to admit though, that at first, we weren’t entirely sure if the crowd were going to open up.  They seem a bit…protected.  Not S&B, but the guests.  Phah!  That didn’t last long.  Amazing what 150 bottles of wine will do for you.  With it being one of the hottest days of the year even Darren and I found ourselves at the drinks tent…no wine for us however.  We simply shotgunned a few beers each (lying…its the way to the top).  Three things you didn’t know about Siân and Ben (well for some).  Number 1:  Ben is a concert promoter and rubs shoulders with so rather amazing artists.  Number 2:  They both got ready at home, in the same house, at the same time.  Number 3:  If something goes wrong, Siân can kick Madrid’s arse.

I mentioned I might do something a bit different today.  I am.  Not that big of a deal, but I’m going to post Darren’s tomorrow or Wednesday.  Also, I’ve made a big who-ha about guests which you can find in the verbal below.

Also…if you are interested in being notified when the entire gallery goes live and get a discount code for 10% off an online order do get in touch

Elvis was a more than a little miffed I discovered his dirty little secret

Gran…gone, but not forgotten

Devil in a blue dress…literally

With the ink still wet, fold over 2/3ds to reveal a striking mirror image

Ben gets the call he was waiting for Gran (obviously not the Gran in the photo above) is going to make it out of hospital to take part in at least some of the day

The Bride & Groom’s first kiss — in the toilet — I like where this is going

As The Who would say..’Blue are you…blue, blue — blue, blue’

Grandad’s hands

Laughter is contagious…see below

..we’re on a roll!

FWIW, I was praying these photos would come out too!

Cheer if you love Glee (and yes, that is what I said…apparently Ben is a big fan).  Clearly second from the left just didn’t get it.  Probably a High School Musical fan!

Body doubles for the M&S England suit ads

Ladies and Gentlemen…welcome to Hell! (photographically speaking of course)

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocisous

OK…a whinge.  I wish more people would realise that weddings are about people.  The Bride and Groom are important…sure.  So are those table decorations, Vera Wang perfume boxes, etc etc etc.  But let’s be honest…when its all over do you want to look at a hundred photos of place cards and a 300 pictures of yourself.  Surely what makes a wedding is mix of people, your friends, family and the reason you’re all there…the couple.  Lately, whilst photographing it, I’ve been errant in showing this on the blog.  Caught up in some sort of self infatuation with the two main characters I seem to have forgotten to remind you why you do it.  Because if you didn’t like them that much it would be a hell of lot cheaper to dispense with the lot and get married with a couple of witnesses and hit Pizza Express on a 2 for 1.  So above, is just a selection of the images I took during the first part of the drinks reception.  Taking these isn’t anything new…just reminding myself why I’m there.  I do, admittedly, have a bit of soft spot for the girlies from Ben’s work.  They just gave me so much fodder!  All I say is…there’s plenty more where that came from!

I was delighted with the Backstage pass Ben got me for the speeches

Speaking of Ben’s work…its time to open the obligatory ‘Best Mans Envelope’

…cue much laughter and mayhem

Time for round 2 of the speeches…

Yes Ben…you SHOULD have had them outside like the first two :)

Its almost as if someone moved my Tithe Barn road

You say silo, I say solo let’s call the whole thing off

Its my Just One…go on, you know you LIKE it.

Tunnels with near white walls makes for excellent tri dimensional lighting

Dermot in his latest promotional portrait for this year’s X-Factor

British Drew Carey

Don’t Stop….Believin’!

Can’t Touch This (and I think what he meant was his sporren)

MC Grandma (actually she’s not a Grandma — ok, maybe she is, I don’t know…but worked a lot better than MC Auntie)

COOOOOOOGGGAAAHHHH!

Sending highly flammable paper based products complete with roaring flame into the sky — or you can call it a Chinese Lantern launch

A bit of rain and we’ve got Shawshank

I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll burn your house down!

Remember…if you are interested in being notified when the entire gallery goes live and get a discount code for 10% off an online order do get in touch