Featured Wedding - Steff & Charlie
https://vimeo.com/244329068
Could have eaten outdoors. Wanted to eat outdoors. The weather forecast said it would be unwise. It was late September in South West France. It should have been OK, but on this particular day, it wasn't. If I could have changed just one thing about Steff & Charlie's wedding day, it would have been the weather.
As it was, it remained dry and their drinks reception did take place outside, but that planned outdoor meal, as mentioned, dining room. It's a good dining room, but as anyone who knows me or my work will appreciate, I am a big advocate of the outdoor wedding.
So what made this one so special and worthy of being a 'Featured Wedding'? To get right to the point, not prevaricate, not beat about the bush, not waste any time delaying the answer to this most pertinent of questions...well I'll come back to that.
OK, it was them, Steff & Charlie. There is nothing else that will make or break a wedding more important than YOU. It's what you plan, organise and execute. It's how much you want great photography and work with your photographer to make it happen. And that's just what they did.
We had a great rapport from the start. I was never bombarded with questions or answers required for opinions on every single detail, but key questions asked at various points from the point of booking to the day itself. Even then, I can never really be 100% sure what the day will bring. Based on experience, history and sheer gut feeling, I have a good idea, but never really know until I meet the couple in person (prior to their wedding day) and then as it unfolds.
As with most couples (around 90-95%), I met them the day prior with an additional 1/2 days coverage to cover this very meaning and a bit of a practice photo-shoot combined with a site recce. I already knew the venue well as this was something like my 10th visit and I was actually there the weekend prior, but each time I approach it as if it was my first visit.
This meeting crossed the final T's and dotted the remaining I's and I knew that the next day, come rain or shine, would be special.
There are days when the proverbial fat lady sings. The planets align. The ducks are all in a row. That last one is from Yorkshire but I've never heard anyone actually say it (but many farmers actually do say, "eeh by gum"). The weather didn't but sod the weather. Seriously. Sod. The. Weather. It's the only thing you cannot control, but you can plan for it.
There's little more I need to say really... Fantastic couple, people, day = equivalent results which can be viewed above in the production, or in the pics below.
And they had a mariachi band!!
