Hotter than July.
You ask me am I happy
Well as matter of fact
I can say that I’m ecstatic
‘Cause we all just made a pact
We’ve agreed to get together
Joined as children in Jah
When you’re moving in the positive
Your destination is the brightest star
Words I don’t recall being sung nor uttered on Alex & Ben’s wedding day but none the less, it was hotter than July. And sometimes I’ve even seen it snow in April.
Cool as cucumbers. The Sun must have got to my head. Alex & Ben’s wedding day saw relaxed preparations, very relaxed indeed, a touching ceremony (I wish everyone could see such things from the position I’m afforded, the looks are… something, something of great value to see; I can offer the photographs in return for that privileged viewpoint), fine food and company then one humdinger of a party into the night.
Alex got ready at the Richmond Hill Hotel; The Richmond Hill Hotel, though you knew that already. Very relaxed the preparations were too, and full of fun. It certainly adds well to the mix when you have good friends that are talented with hair and make-up, Tom & Marie doing the honours in this respect, respectively. Tom, it transpires, is also a particularly talented photographer; I was blown away by a good number of his photographs that I didn’t even see him taking throughout the day (unobtrusive skills galore), that have surfaced on Facebook. To top it all off bridesmaid Emily entertained with her dance routines.
I was joined on this occasion by mild-mannered deeply insightful London wedding photographer Joseph Lovell. Jo spent the afternoon with Ben and his Best Man Joe before teaming up with me at the ceremony and through to the wedding breakfast. The commensurate second shooter (and his Web site bears testimony to his being the commensurate primary shooter too) he consistently echoed my predominant style of composing images whilst also throwing compositions of his own style into the mix. Jo and I had synched our camera clocks prior to the day and I found it rather gripping to see what Ben might be doing at exactly the same moment Alex might be doing something else, regardless of how simple those things might be; I dare say for them, seeing what each other were up to in the hours before they came together might be somewhat profound.
What with Ben being a keen fan of polo* and with he and Alex choosing to marry at Ham Polo Club in Richmond**, an appropriate spot of television viewing would help get Ben into the swing of things for the day…
*I might have made this up. **This much is certainly true.
This is the first time I’ve actually seen a groom polish his shoes pre-wedding, and I wasn’t even there to see it. Such is the importance of the photographic record! Ben was grateful to Jo for the tips on how to bring the leather to a good shine…
A split doorway shot. Thank you Jo!..
Tom has the hair-dryer set to cold blow. Indeed it was hotter than July…
I adopt an avowedly not-intercessory approach to photographing weddings (aside from when I don’t) but The Richmond Hill Hotel really does have a tricky set up for getting tickets out of the barrier machine. I thought Ben might appreciate the additional little turn of service, though I had harboured an inkling of an image of the minor struggle that would have taken place otherwise. Perhaps best saved for the buttonholes later on though. Jo certainly has the requisite Ninja skills; I was wondering if they’d left him behind when the car showed up but the preceding photographic record suggests otherwise…
It’s something about kinetic vectors, the things that hold my interest, a personal form of punctum as Barthes might have it…
And so it begins…
I’d seen this very same group of groomsmen struggle with their buttonholes at a wedding just prior to Christmas, that of Kim & Huw and on that occasion through the photographic eye of Simon Fazackarley whom had joined me to shoot for the day. It was doubly amusing to see it all over again through Jo’s eyes. These lads, Ben included, were a particularly bright bunch amidst a particularly talented cohort of students I had the privilege to be involved in teaching several years back. I thought they’d have been dab hands at it all, second time around (though I’m not so secretly glad to see that they weren’t :~)…
Tom didn’t get a First for nothing. I seem to recall he excelled in his Innovations project too…
No such struggling back at the bridal suite. I’ve seen button-up dresses delay proceedings by a significant amount of time and keep meaning to pack a crochet needle in my camera bag after receiving sage advice from a wedding photographer colleague on the matter. This one came with a special tool though…
To think it’s designed for correcting converging verticals…
The Registrar delivered the rules for photography to me good and proper. I was under strict instructions to go wherever I wanted and do what I liked. I salute such partners in the process of creating lasting, meaningful records of these significant events…
Brother Sam…
(Actually, Mister Jo. I couldn’t afford to pay my designer to put together a derivative logo…)
Alex & Ben’s brothers served as witnesses…
The Show Stopping Case of the Wrong Rings. They weren’t the wrong rings though, just in the wrong order, and the order doesn’t really matter so the show certainly wasn’t stopped. It made for an amusingly confusing moment though; something that does nothing but add further pleasure to any ceremony…
(And Mister Jo again. Sorry Jo!..)
(Maybe I could ask my designer if I can buy the complete typeface set. Jo seems to shoot a lot more portrait format compositions than I do… :~)
And off Alex & Ben ran, into the Sunset. Though not quite. It’s a good thing they chose a 4.00pm ceremony time. It was still baking hot at 4.30 and then some. Hotter than July.
Contact Surrey Wedding Photographer Phillip Allen : phill@misterphill.com : 07870 696248
by Phillip Allen
show hide 3 comments
Andy Brooks - Very nice indeed. Some great compositions from you both (and oft difficult to tell where there is a change in shooter). My thoughts on buttonholes are that they were created by a devious woman somewhere and designed to fox even the most intellectually capable of us.
Vitalii Kukresh - B & W portraits are very beautiful and so emotional! Nice job, Phill.
Phillip Allen - Thanks Andy and Vitalii :~)