Gotta love a red bus!

The characaturist was excellent.

Plenty of fun and banter during the group shots.

Steven was unceremoniously dropped after this (and yes, i got pics).

The may pole happened, but perhaps not as the purists would have liked

Show off!

What is a photographer to do when stood in a moonlit car park and the couple say, “What about a shot with Dad’s car?”. Well, light it!

We also had a few requests for night group shots. Not a problem. You want to do a double monkey, no problem

And Dave, as you know, we’ll always have the mound, let’s just leave it as something special

Nathalie’s sister arranged a surprise slideshow which got some great reactions.

This was Mark’s reaction to a pic of him in a Hooters bar… apparently, i didn’t look.

It’s a charming French tradition that the bride has a waltz with her father before the first dance.

Great Harrowden also did its best to better the weather of Hawaii – the honeymoon destination – although it couldn’t deliver on the wild dolphin front.

Fetch the guitar…

“Trraaaayseee” still ringing in my ears! How do you follow that?

As you can see Tracey was exceptionally elegant in her dress..

… but a simple change of shoes allows refinement to transform into rowdy

Finally Spinal Tap fans, Paul’s guitar even went to 11:

[Update]: direct from Hawaii, the happy couple are “chuffed to bits” with the pics. Yay!!

After some interesting encounters with the general public of Northampton town during group shots, we were able to get 10 minutes with the happy couple:

It was then time to make the journey make to Staverton Park for the reception:

Their first dance was nicely done [although anyone who has seen me dance knows i'm no Len Goodman - but then i just need to be able to say "Seeeveerrrn" don't i?]

Looking for a band to really bring the house down?. Look no further than Funkify who more than ably soundtracked the evening’s festivities.

Pete certainly got into it, as you can see:

Although that view did strike fear into the eyes of one very special bridesmaid:

Although she recovered later when the disco played Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies”

Now dear reader, remember the golf reference? Well, David is a performance coach of some repute (just ask one of the fastest women on two wheels, Maria Costello MBE) and has picked up golf along the way. He couldn’t resist hitting a ball whilst we waited for some of the guests to assemble for group shots:

He even sorted a romantic hoon around the course in a golf buggy – he wasn’t even wearing a gaudy polo shirt!

* BA as in British Airways, not BA “I ain’t getting on no plane” Baracus.

However, when i do have time to take recreational photos – not much these days – i often find myself gravitating towards film photography. More specifically, medium format and polaroid using equipment from my collection of vintage cameras.

Unfortunately, with all the folks like us embracing digital, film has taken a hit.  One particularly lamentable day saw the decision by Polaroid to cease manufacturing film.  I feverishly bought up all remaining stocks that weren’t over priced; the remaining packs now reside in the salad drawer of the fridge*.

Today however, i’m one happy [easter] bunny.  For a while i’ve been keeping tabs on the impossible project whose mission has been to try and re-engineer Polaroid film for a new generation.  Honestly, i didn’t think it would happen but yesterday saw the announcement of a new film: PX 100.  It’s black and white and optimised for my beautiful, if a little battered, late-70′s SX-70.

I’ve already ordered some, so lo-fi fun here i come!  Using cameras like this is great fun: getting back to the basics of light and composition.  OK, the pics won’t be flawless quality like we achieve with our professional digital cameras, lenses and lights,  but vive la différence!

* film keeps longer in the fridge; film isn’t more important than salad kids… honest… eat your greens… don’t do drugs.

Now, it would be normal to think the worst when i came back to discover she had received: a bunch of flowers; a bottle of something fruity from Spain; a card; and a tube of Cadbury’s Mini-Eggs!

This however, was a wonderful gesture of thanks from Caroline & Rob after delivering their album at the weekend (which i’ll be blogging some pics of when i get the chance):

“Thank you very much for our wedding album… we absolutely love it and it will be visiting a lot of people soon”. I hasten to add there was a full bunch of flowers and more than 3 mini-eggs – i only ate some of those items – they’re reduced in the pic for artistic impression darling.

They have also penned a fantastic testimonial. We’ve received a number of these and we treasure them all; pressies deserve special mention though! It’s ok to eat mini-eggs before bed right? Carbohydrates are good for training… definitely…

For the reception, we moved to the fab Barrington Hall, a truly beautiful house.

This week’s cameo was Malcolm the cat. When out of his Suitcase Under the Bed™ [look out for it on Dragon's Den], he rampaged through the wedding preparations with feline disregard.

I really don’t know where he gets his belligerent behaviour from though, someone must be teaching him bad habits

Now listen up conspiracy fans, it turns out the vicar father of the bride happened to have a third role (you might call it a holy-ish trinity, but i wouldn’t) = photographer! He has almost as much equipment as me – an almost biblical feat in itself – and has photographed the real actual Queen, he had to make do with me and the D3 on this occasion