The first thing you need in a wedding photographer is that they show up on the day. Simon Whitten gets from Venice to London under an ash cloud …

Thursday AM

I am wrapped up in a honeymoon photo-shoot with clients in Venice when my phone rings: “Have you heard the news? – UK air space is being shutdown this evening from 7pm”.

Oh dear … we are booked on a flight that afternoon to get back to the UK with a clear full day between our shoot in Venice and a wedding on the Saturday.

The airline Jet2.com’s website is useless, as are their emergency contact numbers. Not a single one of their phone numbers work as all of the Press this number now options have been disabled.

Thursday PM

Go to the airport for further info. Of course there’s none … and no one there from Jet2.com.The phone lines still don’t work and both of the single internet connections in Marco Polo airport are out of order.

Brainwave: book a flight now with Easyjet from Venice to Paris, then get home on the cross channel Eurostar train service.

Get photographers Steve Ramsden and Ryan Browne on standby to cover the Saturday wedding. (Steve was already committed to another job, but big thanks to Ryan for covering if needs be).

Get last flight out of Venice to France, the last flight to land in Paris before French airspace is shutdown at 11pm, approximately five minutes after we land.

Closer to the UK, but not there yet!

Close to midnight and we need internet connection in Orly airport … fine if you bought pre-paid access from the shop before it closed at 10pm! Sweet-talk a charming lady at an info desk, who hands over her computer with internet connection.

But Eurostar is booked solid for the next 3 days … Calais to Dover ferry is also booked solid for foot passengers for the next two days … but space is still available for car passengers.

Attempt to book car.

Every car rental in Paris area is booked out.

The airport closes and we lose our internet connection.

Find hotel. It’s 178 euros a night, but at 1.00am, we barter to 148 euros (we
need their wifi connection).

We spend all night checking every conceivable option open to us and in the end manage to book a lunchtime ferry from Cherbourg, 200+ miles away, to Portsmouth in the UK.

Only problem is, the train that will get us there is booked out and not showing any availability for rest of day.

Other options considered:

1: Book a car with a compulsory return-to-Paris option, but dump in it Cherbourg.

2: Negotiate with the night porter for his brother to drive us to Cherbourg. Negotiations break down over costs (he wants 500 euros).

3: Break and enter a WWII Normandy landing museum to steal an amphibious vehicle.

4: Apply for jobs as cleaners on ferry and jump ship on arrival in the UK.

5: Jump on the back of a lorry and enter the UK as legal illegal immigrants.

Friday AM

Go to train station and manage to book lunchtime tickets to Cherbourg and change our ferry tickets from the lunchtime to the evening ferry.

Friday PM

Evening ferry is late, but eventually, just after 11.00pm, we reach England, where a car is waiting.

Saturday AM

I get back home at 5.30am and manage 2-1/2 hours sleep (after 1-1/2 the previous night) before spending all day shooting a wedding.

The irony of the story is that the vicar failed to make the wedding, and the ceremony had to be taken by the curate. Where was the vicar?

Stuck in Venice!

Girls, here’s a tip.

Go out and buy yourself a nice big folder. The ring binder type is good. Something that you can keep adding to.

Call it your ‘Wedding Folder’.

The only reason I know anything about this is because Kayla bought a ‘Wedding Folder’ the day after we got engaged. And the only reason I’m talking about it is because it became our most important wedding planning resource.

Kayla divided it up into sections – receipts, ideas, booking forms, correspondence, stationery… that kind of thing.

In that folder went everything even remotely related to our wedding: pictures of dresses, hair styles, suits, cakes, flowers etc that we liked.

Info packs from venues we’d visited, emails from suppliers we were using, receipts for every-single-little-thing we bought.

Copies of all our stationery, fabric samples of dresses and copies of our vows and speeches.

That folder became our wedding bible and the single most helpful wedding resource we had. Having everything in one organised place in a form we could take to consultations, rehearsals and family meetings, meant no mis-communication or second guessing. About anything.

Now our wedding is over, our wedding folder has become like a journal, telling the story of the path we travelled.

We’ll treasure looking through it, pulling out our invites, laughing at the amount on the receipt for the dress (instead of sweating about it), and remembering one of the most exciting, scary, frustrating and enjoyable times in our life.

Trust me, you’ll come to obsess over, and love, that Wedding Folder.

Cheers, Nigel

Thirteen months ago an outdoor wedding wasn’t even on the cards. We’d seen several friends’ weddings and engagement parties washed out by rain and we weren’t taking the risk.

Come December 12 though, and there we were getting married in a garden.

But we wouldn’t have done it without a rock solid, easy, indoor option at the same venue.

That way, if it rained there’d be little or no impact on anyone but the venue. And even then, it’d be minimal. There’d be no extra cost, no disruption or confusion for our guests, and most importantly, it meant we didn’t have to worry. Whatever the weather.

But as we’d quickly found out when we were making our plans, the fact a venue has a ‘wet option’ doesn’t mean you would want to, or could, get married in it.

Most venues we saw with an indoor and outdoor option had either or both of two problems:

1) The indoor option was much smaller than the outdoor setting and wouldn’t accommodate all our guests.

2) Or they were just plain ugly (compared to their outdoor counterpart).

As it happens we found a venue with two big, beautiful options.

And with a bleak outlook the morning of, we were glad we’d been a little more picky and realistic about the chances of rain. We could relax and know that, no matter what the weather that afternoon, we’d still be married in a beautiful setting.

Cheers, Nigel

(Photography by Johannes van Kan)

Exactly one month ago yesterday, Kayla and I reached the end of a 13 month engagement and tied the knot.

I’ve still got plenty more engagement posts to write – and I’m working on the newly engaged Danny to help me out with them – but let me jump forward a little and talk about the day itself.

It was perfect. Truth is, it was always going to be perfect. No matter what happened.

I had my bride, my friends and my family, we had fun, and most importantly, we were happy. On the day, that’s what mattered.

The weather forecast wasn’t looking great. And the morning of, it poured. Come three o’clock though, the lights turned on behind the clouds. Overcast, but not the threatening grey that would have made for a miserable outdoor wedding.

The ceremony was beautiful – our good friend officiated a personal and meaningful service. One of the advantages of having someone you both know well, marry you.

Our amazing photographer Johannes van Kan had the guests, and us, wrapped around his little finger. His manner and presence during the day was outstanding. His poetic and entertaining direction had everyone captured. And the photos… Well, we were blown away.

Guests haven’t stopped talking about how good he was, and most haven’t even seen the photos yet. He added a element of humour, fun and excitement to the day that people noticed. And that’s important because your photographer does spend most of it with you… A third wheel if you like

The food, the speeches, the dancing – all of it was perfect in its own way.

A couple of weeks in the sunny Gold Coast was just what the doctor ordered for some post wedding R&R before coming home late on Christmas eve to a house full of wedding presents. Needless to say we had a busy christmas day opening presents!

Cheers, Nigel

(Photography by Simon Whitten)

Truth is, sometimes I’ve felt a bit self-conscious writing about our wedding.

Every day I see albums from top photographers around the world of the most elaborate, extravagant and expensive weddings you could imagine.

Sometimes I’ve wondered if what I’m writing is even relevant … because Kayla and I didn’t get married in a castle!

But my intention has been to share our experiences and insights, not to compare our wedding to another. And the truth is that the weddings we’re lucky enough to share in at Queensberry take place everywhere, “from humble homes to palaces.”

Maybe you are getting married in a castle! There are plenty of us curious people out there, so why not share? What have been your frustrations, experiences, highs and lows?

Every engaged couple has something interesting to tell about their wedding planning experience, so if you’d like to contribute a story or insight of your own, please flick me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

Cheers, Nigel

No comment.

Cheers, Nigel