ESTER & CHRIS – STOKE PARK CLUB wedding photography

Ester & Chris had their reception at the very wonderful Stoke Park Club in Bucks. It was an almost photography free service in Surrey (those vergers are giving me a headache!!). I was told to stay at the back, and no pictures allowed after the first hymn. As the bridesmaids were stationed in the aisle until well after this, my creativity was somewhat impaired. I did however manage to steal some photos when the verger was snoozing 🙂  

Guess what happened to me. There I was dutifully standing at the back of the church as directed by said verger. At the very crucial moment a mobile phone goes off. “That’s not my ringtone” thinks I, “and anyway my phone is switched off, because I am in a place of worship, so why does it sound so very close to me, when I am standing at the back, on my lonesome?”  Hmm. Paranoia struck – had I set some kind of freak alarm that would ring even if the phone was off?  Was I being punished from on high for sneaking pictures when I shouldn’t have?  I moved swiftly towards the church door and checked my phone – nope, definitely not me.  The only trouble was, the entire congregation had swivelled round and were looking at me with that “it’s YOOOOOOUUUUUUU!” look.  

Well, it got worse. I had moved to the church door. But right next to the door was a handbag. In the handbag was a mobile phone, and it was clanging away. I had parked myself right next to it – and as soon as I put my phone back in my pocket, the darned handbag phone stopped ringing! I couldn’t have looked guiltier if I had knocked the font over. I got a picture of the handbag and will be passing the evidence on to Ester and Chris on their return. Mobile Phone Guest – you know who you are – be afraid…be very afraid!

We hot footed it back to Bucks for a super stylish reception – many guests had flown in from various parts of the world and I had a great time trying to remember everyone’s names. By request I managed to create a slideshow of the days highlights just in time to be shown on a plasma screen during the evening. 60 images chosen and retouched  between five speeches, each speech delivered between a course of the wedding breakfast. I managed to get all the speeches, do the slideshow, eat my chicken caesar salad (Stoke Park’s speciality in my book!!) all in the nick of time – and no it’s not a service I will be offering in the future!! It was a great challenge though, and we enjoyed watching it as the evening guests arrived. 

I also enjoyed hanging off the back of Ester and Chris’ golf buggy when we took it to the bridge, getting some cool action shots. There you go – you don’t get that kind of service from rookie photographers with no insurance!