This Suffolk wedding was an amazing day – really relaxed, a wonderful couple and a miraculous amount of sunshine! This booking was actually a really rapid book-to-shoot affair, with only 2 months notice. The couple approached me whilst I was doing the portraits at a charity ball in Kings Lynn, and asked about their date. On checking my diary, I was actually already booked for another charity ball in Lincoln – so I initially had to turn them down. But this got me thinking, as I’d not heard from the existing booking in a while and we’d arranged to meet up sometime in the 1st half of the year. So, the next morning I e-mailed the clients to confirm all was still on track. I must say I was glad I did, as due to some sad events, they had actually cancelled the event.
Now, I was left with an empty weekend, and a potential client – but I had no way of contacting the couple who approached me the night before! This led me to some amateur sleuthing – the charity ball had been organised by an old school friend of mine, and I knew that many of the guests worked at the same company that she did. So I sent her an image of the couple and asked if she knew who they were – and amazingly she did and passed on an e-mail address. Obviously they were still interested in booking me and I got the gig! I guess it shows that it’s worth always chasing those leads!
I wish I’d taken a screenshot of the weather forecast for that day – as it was showing heavy rain all day. It was looking to be my first proper washout of a wedding day. But I was prepared with umbrellas and extra lights should I need to do indoor group shots, so I wasn’t panicked. Arriving at the Bride’s address to capture the makeup and hair it was indeed grey, overcast, and at times quite drizzly. But from then on, it just got sunnier and sunnier and I had the alternate problem of too much light and squinting guests! That’s the great thing about wedding photography, you never really know what you’ll be faced with and you’ve got to remain flexible.
Long story short, it was a beautiful day, and the couple were totally enchanted with each other. The intimate number of guests perfectly suited this day of love. The venue is perfect for small to medium weddings and the staff couldn’t have been more accommodating – I highly recommend it if you’re in the Bury St Edmunds area.
I’ve put some of my favourite pictures from the day below – I hope you like them!
As I’ve said at the top of this post, I was able to arrange this booking due to a cancellation so it’s always worth getting in touch if your date is creeping up and you’ve not yet arranged a photographer – but in general I’d recommend getting someone (preferably me of course!) booked around a year ahead of the big day – maybe more for popular summer dates, especially bank holiday weekends.
Thanks for reading – Al.
