Wedding Photography - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

I attended a wedding at a small country church. Access to the church was via a long and very muddy path. The bride stepped out of the bridal car, walked a few paces along the path, slipped, and fell face down in the mud. Fortunately, there was a seamstress in the congregation, who raced back to her car, produced a tin full of pins, and proceeded to tuck the muddy parts of the front of the dress out of view. Luckily, the dress was quite a flowing item, so there was plenty of capacity to allow this re-adjustment. Another lady cleaned the bride’s face, and more make-up was applied. Job done.

St. Marks church was the location for the next item. Some kind soul had managed to get hold of the groom’s shoes, and painted ‘NOES’ on the sole of the left hand shoe, and ‘CAPE’ on the sole of the right hand shoe. This caused uproarious laughter when the bride and groom knelt down at the altar.

I followed the bride and groom into a hall where the reception was being held. At the opposite end of the hall was a table containing a three tiered wedding cake. It had been a very warm day, and just as the married couple were getting close to the cake, one of the pillars holding the second cake layer decided to sink into the cake below. The upshot was that the top two cake layers ended up on the floor. Oh crumbs!!

A vicar, who was clearly well beyond the normal retirement age, began the wedding ceremony by saying “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the passing of.....”

AA to the rescue. This bride had booked a beautiful vintage car to arrive at the church in. Unfortunately, the car broke down several hundred yards from the church. A group of guests were deployed to push the car the rest of the way to the church. Once the bride was inside the church, the driver rang the AA to see if they could help. It just so happened, that a patrol vehicle was literally only a mile away. The patrol man duly arrived, diagnosed, and sorted the problem out before the bride and groom exited the church at the end of the service. How’s that for service?

Slightly different transport story. Bride and father arriving in a horse drawn open top carriage. Horse gets spooked and decides to bolt. It was slightly over an hour later when the bride and father re-appeared in a taxi. This was at a time before mobile phones, so no one had a clue what was going on.

Another small country church on a private estate. The church was behind a walled area and had only ever been used for 14 weddings in its entire history. Everyone had arrived but no key to the large wooden gate could be found. The wedding had to be postponed, but the reception took place.

Multi-tasking photographer. A bride who was a keen campanologist had booked bell ringers to ring, both before and after the wedding service. News arrived just prior to the bride’s arrival that one of the bell ringers was sick. I am not that proficient in the campanology department, but was able to do sufficient to get by before the wedding ceremony, then dash outside to take the formal photographs. Straight after the photographs outside the church at the end of the service, I made my way back to the belfry, to finish bell ringing activities, before dashing to the reception to complete the job I’d actually set out to do in the first place.