Loved Jess’ choice of perfume for her Big Day. She chose to wear ‘Mrs Wright’ a great decision for a Miss Hemmings who was about to become a Mrs Wright. Calm and collected, Jess enjoyed a morning of pampering, courtesy of the fabulous Tracy and Sasha Pallari. Tracy working her magic with hair and Sasha created a beautiful soft bridal look for fair skinned Jess.

It was so refreshing to see such a lovely family getting on so well. Jess’ mum and stepdad had invited Jess’ Dad and stepmum over to the house before the ceremony, where they spent the morning chatting and laughing as the girls got ready. So great seeing everyone getting on brilliantly, which is sadly often not the case when I photograph weddings of couples whose parents have separated.

Jess got ready just a hop skip and a jump from The Church of St Leonard in Shipham. And on such a beautiful day she decided that she would like to walk to the church. It tends to be little spontaneous decisions like these, that are the memories that really stick out for a couple in the future. Lovely to capture the bride and her Dad smiling as they greeted well wishers who had gathered at the Church entrance to see her arrival.

As members of The Shipham Players, Jess and Sam are used to having lots of people hear them speak. And they didn’t disappoint their congregation. Both had learnt their vows by heart, so they had a beautifully seamless ceremony. During their final hymn they kept looking at one another, wonderful to be able to capture moments like these, when a couple can’t keep their eyes off one another.

After a natural receiving line we captured a couple of pictures with parents in the grounds of the church. The gates were then tied, and the couple threw their loose change into the crowd as payment to be let out. Traditionally the coins are given to the children of the village who will gather (in some villages they still do) however with no extra children to be found, the newlyweds baby nephew, and the only child at the wedding, earnt himself about 62p.

Clevedon Hall looked great as always and Jess’ handmade touches were great. She had learnt to make soap especially to make favours and each guest received a bar of soap along with their ‘placecard’ that was their initals made out of scrabble tiles into keyrings. Thousands of paper flowers had also been folded to make centrepieces. The effect was bright, fresh and beautiful and I think every guest appreciated the effort that the couple had put in.

Highlight of my evening was definitely the Macarena. There is something almost magical about watching 40 grown adults dance in formation. ‘Eeeeey Macarena!’ A wonderful day Mr and Mrs Wright. Thank you for inviting me to be a part of it!