Steph and Paul | Wedding

Oh this was a good wedding. It started at Ashover Parish Hall where a Chesterfield bus (from the same year as the bride's father was born) waited in the torrential rain to transport Paul and guests to the ceremony venue of Hardwick Hall. My word, was it raining. Luckily a big golf umbrella shoved down my top meant I had both hands free to capture all the guests without soaking the camera - but we were all resigned to it being a wet day.

Hardwick Hall is quite a venue and included a costumed lute player to walk the couple down the aisle. The ceremony went without a hitch (albeit with a few emotional moments during the vows), and afterwards the doors were flung open to find not a raincloud in the sky, but instead a gorgeously sunny day! VW campervans drove the bride and groom back to Ashover and it stayed sunny just as long as we needed to be outside before afternoon tea was served. It rained during the meal, and then turned into a fine summer evening for after dinner drinks.

I had such a good day - it was a great crowd - and there was a lot of love in the room - including from every speech giver. I loved Paul's speech: it's easy to make the speech about the bride's beauty and effort into the wedding day, but I loved that Paul thanked Steph for how much she invests in their relationship on a day-to-day basis.

After tea there was exuberant dancing, an unexpected visit from a close-up magician, and an outdoor drinking game of Mexican jaegerbombing (the girls won). 

I also loved all the little details, including the ushers ties. When I mentioned this to the groom about where I might be able to buy one, alas he said they were out of stock. Yesterday I opened the post and found that Steph and Paul had sent me one in the post - I was really touched by such thoughtfulness - and I think this gesture sums up Steph and Paul very well indeed.

 All images ©KateCooperPhotography2014