My favourite type of wedding to photograph is a DIY one. (Check out my DIY Wedding Ideas page for inspiration!) They are usually a lot more work for the bride and groom but arm yourself with an efficient brigade of bridesmaids and you get the perfect wedding that reflects every aspect of your personality. This is exactly what Jennifer and Mark did for their big day.
I started the morning at the Eleven Didsbury Park hotel where Evka and Sarah from Evka Modern Vintage worked their magic on the bride and her bridesmaids. The girls looked amazing with their vintage hair styles and their Hell Bunny dresses.
Jennifer had everything ready to assemble the buttonholes in the morning and decided to surprise Mark by ordering four cakes (or French patisseries) from his favourite bakery, Bisous Bisous in Didsbury as their wedding cake.
As I was leaving the bridal prep, it started to rain heavily. One of those torrential showers which gets you soaked. The bride was let down at the last minute by a no-show taxi but was kindly rescued by some guests checking in at the hotel and luckily for me, the makeup artist was kind enough to drive me to the Didsbury Parsonage.
Jennifer walked down the aisle of The Old Parsonage to a cover of La vie en Rose by Louis Armstrong (originally sang by Edith Piaf).
Vintage Wedding Bus and Gypsy Jazz Duo
Later on, the whole party made their way to Birch Community Centre on a vintage double decker bus to the sound of the fabulous gypsy jazz duo Los Firuletes and had a bit of singalong. When Jennifer told me, I made sure that I was on the bus to capture the fun.
We arrived at the reception venue for the wedding picnic. Each table had a picnic basket with everything you can imagine as well as a buffet of salads and treats. The room was decorated in the style of an old village fête meets chemistry lab – bunting and fairy lights everywhere and lab flasks on stands made a quirky centrepiece.
The desert was waiting outside as Jennifer and Mark had chosen to bring Ginger’s comfort emporium’s ice cream van. I sampled the hibiscus and white chocolate flavour that was made especially for them.
The guests were competing for the highest score at Hook a duck or headbanging on some old school rock tunes. My Monsieur Click photo booth made an appearance and was used well into the night with every prop in the box being used.
Honestly, fun and personality were the best words to describe the day!
