A classy black tie affair at a beautiful historic building.
I'm a bit of a latecomer to the idea of Christmas weddings. Until I became a wedding photographer I'd always had the mindset that weddings happen in summer and anything other than that was sheer madness. I remember the first Christmas wedding I shot, I went along thinking that it was a bonkers idea and that 'Christmas' would massively overpower the magic and purpose of the wedding and the whole thing would be weird. I was quite surprised when I realised it can actually make the two things a bit more special and that the decor can be particularly magical in a way that just isn't the same for summer weddings. These days December is actually one of my busiest months which is pretty handy income-wise considering it's also a very expensive month!
Billy & Jenna were one of my favourite couples from December. I'm generally very fortunate with my clients in that they always seem to turn out to be really lovely humans and it's a real pleasure to spend time with them. It's not like I wasn't expecting this for these two, but throughout the day it just became so much more evident that these were two very special people. Their children who played a prominent part throughout the day were also genuinely absolute treasures. Anyway, story-time;
I've been to The Assembly House in Norwich once before, around the same time the previous year for another lovely Christmas themed wedding. I've got a bit of a soft spot for pretty buildings and this one's got a really rich history which always gets me excited. Bit of a history geek. Annoyingly though it was surprisingly hard to discover much about it in any great detail.
I met Jenna and a selection of her favourite people in one of the hotel's suites in the left wing, where she and her bridesmaids (plus the children) were all getting ready. The major distraction for me was that the kids were watching the new chicken run film which I'd not seen yet so I was desperately trying to ignore it to prevent spoilers.
A note on kids at weddings btw; I know it's a bit of a controversial topic and as a parent myself I'm slightly biased, but despite making life more complicated, they do also make it a lot more fun so overall I'm very much in favour.
Jenna was rather fortunate that her mother works as a seamstress at Camilla Brides, a Norwich bridalwear shop so she had the special experience of wearing a dress that her mother had helped to make.
We had a fleeting moment of beautiful emotion from her dad once the dress was on. Then once everyone was ready, we were off to the church, Jenna driven by her father.
After a short ceremony involving some beautiful readings from friends and family, everyone went outside for the traditional confetti throw. Space was a bit tight as there wasn't much distance between the start and the end of the path so everyone was a bit squished up, particularly towards the end near the gate to the road, but I think that actually made it feel a bit more exciting. It also increased the amount of confetti in the air at once which is only ever a good thing.
After picking petals out of their hair (some more than others), Billy & Jenna headed back to The Assembly House to start the party. Whilst everyone got settled inside, they took a few minutes to spend some time together out the front where the videographer (Dan Oaten) & I took a few portraits for posterity.
It didn't take long for us all to get cold - it was a beautiful day but it was still December - so after a few minutes we went back into the warmth of the Grand Hall to their awaiting guests for champagne and Christmas canapés.
Just off the side of The Grand Hall where we had welcome drinks is a gorgeous, much larger space called The Music Room which was set up with a simple but really classy feel to match the rest of the day. After a few drinks and a catch-up, we all headed through to sit down for speeches and dinner which also had a christmassy vibe.
Jenna's day job is what she describes as "princessing" which is essentially dressing up as various Disney princesses and attending parties and events in character to make children's dreams come true. Something which when I explained the concept of to my daughter was pronounced "literally the very best job in the world ever". As you can see above, even on her wedding day Jenna was still entertaining the kids and making sure they had an amazing time, which I found to be particularly endearing. It's also exceptionally rare to see children on the top table which demonstrates just how close a family they all are. We were even treated to a speech from their daughter whose opening line was "If you don't know my dad (and you probably don't because he's bald), then I'd ask you give him another chance, because despite being bald he's actually really lovely." Naturally the entire room nearly died with laughter and I temporarily lost the ability to hold the camera still.
After dinner, the staff cleared the tables away, a DJ appeared, and the party really got started. Billy & Jenna started things off as traditional which was followed by an emotional father / daughter dance, sung live by an incredibly talented friend of the family.
This wedding was slightly more challenging for me to photograph on account of me having broken one of my ribs the previous week. Despite the pain settling down, you may not be surprised to discover that carrying around two cameras, heavy lenses and a bag full of other heavy kit did not play well with the pain. Driving was, to my great surprise however, actually the worst bit. Every time I turned the steering wheel at lower speeds I could audibly hear my rib clicking as the two bits of bone moved slightly. It was absolutely sickening and incredibly painful.
You don't have sick days when you're self employed and people invest a huge amount of time and money in choosing a photographer who they connect with, so to send someone else to cover the wedding to avoid "a bit of pain" seemed unthinkable to me, so off I went with a lovely supply of strong painkillers to shoot it anyway. I did have the foresight at least to hire an assistant for the day who was able to manage the fetching, lifting, carrying and other general errands that meant I didn't have to move around quite so much or hold heavy things any longer than I needed to. It did make me feel a bit of a diva for having brought an assistant however and rather foolishly I kept getting embarrassed to ask Lauren for help, so kept powering on and causing myself more pain until she rightfully told me off. The next day was extremely very not fun at all. Overall though, all things considered I was actually quite pleased that despite the challenges, the drugs and searing pain that I didn't let on (much) that I was struggling and actually delivered a standard of work which I was still proud of. All in, a bloody good day, if not somewhat harder work than usual.
