Wedding Story
The Marriage of Sarah Storey and Paul Andrews
Marwell Hotel & Marwell Hall
There are weddings, and there are weddings!
In the words of the groom... "Trying to organise a wedding photographer five weeks before the event was a pretty poor idea"
The couple had contacted the Marwell Hotel, where they were getting married, and were given a shortlist of photographers - all of which were available for the event but wanted to charge in excess of £1,500 for their work. As the bride and groom had already spent most of their budget on a wonderful honeymoon in Italy, they could not believe the "spot of bother" that they had found themselves in. The groom happened to work for the same employers as one of the A1Photoimaging photographers and was amazed at the difference in price and the willingness to travel to a location outside of Kent
The groom wanted to see the quality of their work and arranged to meet them...
Everything started out as normal, the two photographers met the couple, over an informal drink, at The Roffen Club in Rochester Kent to ensure that they understood the photographic needs for the day. Examples of previous work and new ideas for group photography were shown to the couple and a selection of image styles was chosen
Saturday 12th August 2006 - Marwell Hotel
The two main photographers who had previously met the couple had decided to enlist the help of an apprentice. They did this with the married couples blessing. Justin Kent was a pupil at the Howard School in Rainham Kent and had recently joined the same Camera Club that the main A1Photoimaging photographers frequent. It was beneficial for Justin to gain some insight for wedding photography and should assist him in his quest to become a professional photographer. Justin Kent and Glen Diamond had an early start (5 a.m.), met the primary photographer Mike Davis at a service station en route, and got to the venue in time to have breakfast with the groom and guests at the Marwell Hotel. A1photoimaging believe in showing up earlier than expected and will seek out either the bride or groom to ensure that they know that we have arrived
After breakfast the photographers split up to cover the bridal preparations (with studio lighting), the groom getting ready, and the table settings. The lady who was applying the make-up stated that she found the studio light to be a really helpful
The photographers had taken a walk around the Hotel grounds and the various event rooms to get an idea of lighting conditions
The marriage ceremony and signing appeared to go ahead without any hitches with many top-class images being produced
Although the groom had been tipped-off, the bride, the guests, and the photographers were blissfully unaware that a clerical error had been made to the marriage license documents. After the ceremony and signings, the registrar took them to one side and the civil wedding was declared "Null" because the words "Marwell Hall" had been typed instead of "Marwell Hotel!" The registrar explained that they would have to legally be married at the Marwell Hall - which was across the way and was actually inside the Marwell Zoological Gardens!
As luck would have it - the Hotel manager was good friends with some of the security staff at the Zoo, and found that the Marwell Hall was being "made ready" for an exhibition and that no events were taking place on that day... so the not-so-married-couple, bride's mother, and best man got a lift through the zoo in the registrars car, and two of the photographers legged it across to meet a security guard who bundled them into the back of a van and across the zoo to the Marwell Hall! -- all in a day's work!
At Marwell Hall the newly elected marriage procession was met by some bemused exhibition workers who were having a sandwich break! The registrar explained our predicament and the civil marriage and signing was completed in a make-shift environment in one of the rooms with a few guests as witnesses!
The wedding timings were then jeapardised and the planned wedding group pictures were abandoned until later whilst the main dinner party took place and the photographers took lunch. The after dinner speeches were photographically recorded
The light was fast fading, so all the guests were asked to take part in the large confetti group picture and whittled down to selective groups, "fun wedding group images" styles of which were known to the married couple and the photographers at the earlier meeting, some intimate images were also recorded.
The groom was especially pleased that the photographers did not "bully" any of the guests and a relaxed approach to "people arranging" was preserved throughout the latter parts of the afternoon
A1Photoimaging wedding photographers will be on the lookout for unusual or challenging images and they were really pleased with the groom's daughters' image taken whilst the photographers had their bubble machines running
The photographers stayed on for the evening barbeque and Marwell Hotel Wedding Reception and left at approximately 6pm to return to Kent by 9:30pm