#3: the first one
This is probably the first wedding I ever took pictures at.
There was no grand design, no plan, no ulterior motive of ever wanting to do this. I just wanted to take some pictures. I’d bought my first digital camera and was proper chuffed with it – an Olympus-point-and press-type-affair-dontchyaknow.
This was taken ten years ago today on the morning of my sister’s wedding. At the time bridal prep shots were largely of brides getting ready in their underwear – genuinely. Anyone else remember that? I think it was the fashion at the time but something my sister was not being part of: no way, never. So in the morning, it was just us.
It was lovely and serene for a while: matching dressing gowns, champers, hair and makeup production line completed. Nice, calm, relaxed. Then, we all remembered that we were actually going to a wedding and all hell broke loose. My 20-month-old niece started with a raging temperature, sweating and crying so she was dosed up with calpol and nursed to sleep on the couch. The house was then peppered with the following bits of conversation:
[Knock knock knock knock]
Me: Who is it?
Clare: It’s me.
Me: You can come in but I warn you, I’m totally naked.
Clare: Not bothered! Dead man’s click on touche eclat – arggggghhhhhh. You got any?
Me: Here y’ar. Is now the time to put my knickers on?!
Helen: Yeah – I just have.
Dad: [shouting from downstairs] Cars are here!!
Mum: Sarah – can you do up my necklace?
Hayley aka Bride-to-be: CAN SOMEONE HELP ME GET IN MY DRESS???????
But in the midst of all of the madness, I grabbed a couple of shots. This one, this one made me go: yeah, I’d like to do more of this.
It’s not perfect. It’s not edited. But I’m still proud of it. It’s the light through her dress, the girls I’ve known since I was four years old, it’s the house I grew up in. It’s everything I love about capturing a wedding day.
Happy tenth anniversary to Hayley and Marc. xx
(PS. Whaddya buy people when a tenth wedding anniversary is TIN?!).