When Nicky and Gareth started discussing the organisation of their wedding, they established 4 rules: it had to be unique, intimate, and above all, fun whilst keeping it local. They ended up choosing to have teepees which happened to be just for them! I really love the festival atmosphere those teepees created as well as all the pink touches that were added. The beautiful pictures were taken by Steve Rooney for Natural Touch Photography, out of England.

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The wedding was on August 25, 2013. The ceremony took place at Christ Church – Douglas in Parbold, Parbold Hill, just outside Wigan; the wedding breakfast was on a playing field within the church grounds (a first for the church).

We were so lucky to have perfect weather for our special day, we couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t rain, be cold or even too hot (this is the UK). The celebrations started off a few days before with a festival type theme as the Tee pees were erected, with family and friends helping to fill them with home built and borrowed furniture, a fire pit with a massive bowl of marshmallows then finished off with homemade decorations of pom poms and mix and match cushions.

The Vicar, Simon was really interactive and shared a few embarrassing stories we shared with him which gave a light mood to the service. We had a good friend Skype in from Sydney, Australia to give a reading on the big screen which it was very emotional.  We showed videos and a slide show of pictures of our family & friends which tickled many of the congregation whilst we signed the register. We compiled the Church slideshow music ourselves which came from The Piano Guys & the wedding march was Hans Zimmer – Your So Cool from the film ‘True Romance’ which was just so us – not traditional but just lovely.

The speeches were a highlight and Gareth’s favourite bit of the day, my dad did a great job, followed by Gareth. I had to have my say too which I found quite daunting and worried I would cry, I managed to hold it together… just. The best man’s speech from Gareth’s brother was fab, after a funny start of ‘oh I’ve lost my speech actually no I really have lost it!’ it was all concluded with advice from Gareth’s 8 year old nephew Ollie, – ‘Don’t tell Nicky your real age’ tears and laughter were definitely experienced by all.

Name one thing you regret…

I don’t think there is anything we regret about the wedding but if you ask Gareth he thinks we did too much fussing over small things and wished he wore an orange waistcoat he was contemplating. But I was so pleased about the whole day. I think the small things added to the feel of the day & every one picked up on different things.

… And one thing you’re really happy about/ proud of.

We are so happy how the whole day went, we organised everything ourselves and it was really important that we got exactly what we wanted for the day. It meant that there was a lot of effort required before hand, including making our own cushions for people to sit on with different materials, making pom poms for decorations, up cycling jars with rope & ribbon for tea lights and hydrangea flowers from friends and families gardens, to building frames to put our table plan in & making order of services that doubled up as fans in case it was hot, home-made desserts from family & friends and not to mention the home made bar which lead to several arguments on who was taking it home at the end of the weekend! We used the Church field & Scout Hut as our venue so people only had to walk down a tree lined track after the ceremony. We had games for the children and for the adults including giant Jenga, skittles and badminton and only had our closest friends and family present.

The first dance caused somewhat of a stir. After having had ballroom and Latin dance lessons for over a year and a half, we wanted to impress our friends with the skills we had acquired. We hadn’t shared with many people how interested we had become in dancing. We kicked it off with a slow side step to The Lumineers – Ho Hey, which quickly progressed to a Latin Rumba, my favourite moment was the slow long dip mid-way through the song. I got a glimpse of everyone shouting and clapping and was one of the greatest moments of the day…after saying ‘I do’ of course!

The word of the photographer.

From a photographer’s point of view this wedding was an absolute gem. The weather was great for a start and the reception was in a tepee! But what stood out much more than this was the relationship between Nicky and Gareth and their family and friends. It’s always a joy to photograph a wedding full of emotion and it was so easy to get caught up in the occasion and feel genuinely happy for a lovely couple. It’s this connection with a wedding that I’m always looking for as a photographer. Sometimes it takes a lot of work. Other times, like with this wedding, it happens without much effort at all.