It has been four long months since I captured a wedding. Four months since I polished my lenses, inventoried my equipment, made my lists and allowed myself to give in to the whimsy of a wedding day, remaining both near to my couple and capturing all that beautiful joy from afar. I missed it more than I can say.

My heart aches for the dreams and schemes and plans and lives forever adjusted and altered and, most devastatingly, lost to this pandemic. We entered the roaring twenties at first elated but then quickly cautious and fearful, terrified of close connection. We stayed home, we celebrated the heroes fighting this faceless (and still many-faced) war, we waited. We slowed down, we baked, we grasped any connection that would have us and held on at arms length and then vigourously washed our hands after. The mixed messaging, the vague communication, the absence of leadership shook us and confused us and frustrated the hell out of us and meanwhile our heroes are in brightly-lit hospitals tending to those valiantly fighting this demon. And we lost. We lost so much.

It has been a challenge to a hopeful spirit, this year of loss. An invisible, shapeshifting, inconsistent bully has consumed our lives so any moment of sunshine and peace and positivity and POSSIBILITY cuts through the darkness like the bright rays of late-afternoon sun through the trees and we take a deep breath in of that good stuff because, my word, that joy never left us - and at it’s most potent concentration, two people, joining their lives into one in front of their very dearest family & friends is the exact extraordinary supernova event that we need to propel us forward.

Clare & Bobby got in touch with me in 2019 after we met one year prior when Bobby was groomsman to his old friend Liam. From our first conversation, there was an INSTANT connection and ease and comfort and when they shared their exciting plans for their June 2020 Cheshire Woodland wedding, I was fully invested and eager to do their day justice. In the first few months of 2020 we remained cautiously optimistic that the worst would be over until the reality of our lives took hold and real-life superhero/NHS nurse Clare made the executive decision to push back their day until April 2021 - a prescient decision - and they would reduce numbers to whatever guidance allowed and we’d collectively cross fingers and toes that some semblance of their Cheshire Woodland wedding would materialise.

Throughout the uncertainty of 2020 and the very gradual reopening of 2021, Clare & Bobby’s patience and persistence payed off and April 17th 2021 truly was one of the most glorious wedding days I’ve had the privilege to capture. The magical soft golden sunshine and warmer temperatures combined with a truly spectacular (and impeccably run) venue, the birdsong, the beautiful, emotional faces of close family and friends included to witness the joining of these remarkable humans was the stuff of wedding dreams. Clare & Bobby set out to plan a wedding that felt both relaxed and elegant, stylish and still vaguely rustic and I can honestly say it was all of those adjectives and so many more.

I drove away after a golden hour first dance on the lawn and some beautiful heartfelt speeches as the happy couple and all of that magical ephemera wrapped them in a joyful embrace, the sun a bright tangerine setting slowly to my left, windows down and Phoebe Bridgers singing me home; and I was reminded that for all the loss of the last year, we can begin to hope again - we can plan, we can dip our toes back into connection and we can allow ourselves to be swept away by that breathtaking JOY.

What a perfect reminder of humanity.

Here’s a sneak peek of some of that wedding magic…so much more to come…

Cheshire Wedding Vendors

Venue - Cheshire Woodland Weddings https://www.cheshirewoodlandweddings.com/

Hair/MUA - Vicky at Glamorama https://www.glamoramamakeup.com/

Wedding Dress - Allure Bridal at The Bridal Lounge https://thebridalloungecheshire.co.uk/

Suit - Moss Bros. https://www.moss.co.uk/

Florals - The Secret Florist https://www.hannahwilliamsonflowers.co.uk/

Cake - Cheshire Wedding Cakes http://www.cheshireweddingcakes.co.uk/

Pizza Van - Woodland Rover http://www.woodlandrover.co.uk/

Vintage VW Camper Vans - I Do Camper Vans https://www.idocampers.co.uk/