Imagine your wedding day comes around and its absolutely bucketing it down, would be pretty shit right! Now close your eyes and imagine the groom standing in the rain under an umbrella, in-between 2 massive trees waiting for his bride, for their first look. How fkn awesome would that be! Now that’s not exactly what happened with Alex & Mandy’s first look, we did theirs inside however it still seemed like an awesome idea hey? Although it may be raining on your day there are still so many awesome ideas you can still do to get great photos/videos all you need to do is talk to your creatives and have a can-do attitude!

I arrived at Serafino and made my way to Alex’s room (both were staying at the venue just different sides to keep themselves apart). Alex opened the door to the room and straight away I could see the nerves start to kick in, he said he was fine but the constant walking around and moving things said otherwise. The lads started to get ready and I started to access the lighting situation. The best lighting is natural light, which is why I’ll always turn off all the lights, open the curtains and place the subject in that natural light, oooh yeah! The light was perfect and the in camera shots of Alex were looking banging! For some reason my favourite shots are the close up of closing up a suit jacket or sorting out the shirt/jacket sleeves. Weird hey. I dunno.

I wondered around the courtyard  (in the rain trying not to slip the fuck over) to Mandy’s room. Only VIP’s were allowed inside and it felt like I had to know the secret code to get in, it was that secretive! I mean Mandy didn’t want anyone to see her and that’s completely reasonable. I walked into the girls having their make up done by Annie Dinh and their hair styled by Selina Chhaur. As I mentioned earlier the original plan was to do the first look outside under the two massive but awesome trees, now because it was raining we had to alter the plan. So a quick chat to Mandy laying out some alternates and coordination with her wedding coordinator Jo we’d come up with the next best thing which I think turned out pretty good in the end!

The girls were all ready and now it was Mandy’s turn to get into thee dress she’d had hidden away for many, many months. I still remember how stoked she was to remember her dress had pockets in them. Apparently that’s a big deal, I’m a guy so what would I know!? 

With Mandy all ready to go, photos taken and flowers in hand it was time to meet her man for the first time on their wedding day. Madeline Georgia Photography and myself went ahead to grab Alex and get him in position, ready for the first look. We’d found this cool wine room in one of Serafino’s restaurants that had cool brickwork and was a good back up spot to place Alex to await Mandy. As he stood there facing the wines, back turned to us you could see the nerves starting to set in. Feet were shuffling and hands fidgeting. Mandy arrived and made her way to Alex one small step at a time before she was right behind him. A small pause which lead to a tap on the shoulder was enough build Alex needed to let the water works start. He was instantly letting out emotion as soon as he saw Mandy and it was the rawest fkn moment, I loved it! THIS IS WHY I LOVE FIRST LOOKS! The two of them just held each other and whispered a few small words to each other just soaking in the moment.

We’d invited the wedding party back to join Mandy & Alex and got cracking into bridal party photos and couple photos. After lots of laughs and epic portraits being taken we were met with Mandy & Alex’s dog Kara who was in the safe hands of Veils & Tails. Kara was VERY excited to say the least. Jumping round the place and at any slight chance she got she was trying to give her Mum a big hug! Love a doggo at a wedding, every wedding should have a doggo. I think so anyway.

We commenced a traditional ceremony, exchanged rings and bing bang bosh the two were married! Congratulations were in order, drinks were flowing and everyone wanted a piece of the newly weds. However Maddie and I had spotted the clouds breaking and sunset peaking through. We grabbed the couple and placed them down at the waters edge and just asked them to hold each other. It was all they needed to warm into each others arms and get some great shots with some sick lighting.

It was reception time. The bridal party entered, couple cut the cake, yada yada ya and finally it was time for the first dance. What started off as a nice romantic couple dance escalated into a full on dance floor which literally ended in Alex personally break dancing infront of me. For the camera. Like we were in a dance off and he just schooled me. I have never been so surprised, shocked but laughing my head off, it was hysterical. I didn’t know what to do. Looking back I should’ve put the camera down and gave him some moves back. Ah well, ill save it for the next time I get schooled on the d-floor.