Emma & Paul’s Salisbury Wedding – And What a Party It Was
Salisbury Registry Office, Hamptworth Golf Club, rain, confetti and a saxophonist who absolutely packed the dance floor
Now this was a fun wedding.
Some wedding days are elegant and quiet.
Some are beautifully understated.
And then some involve 125 people, questionable dance moves, light-up foam sticks and a saxophonist in the middle of a completely packed dance floor.
Emma and Paul’s wedding was very much the latter.
They married at Salisbury Registry Office before heading out to Hamptworth Golf Club for the reception, and from pretty much the moment they arrived, the day was all about celebrating.
Exactly as it should be.
A Salisbury Registry Office wedding
Emma and Paul kept the ceremony intimate, with around 45 people joining them at Salisbury Registry Office.
And I really like smaller ceremonies like this.
You’re close enough to see every reaction.
Nobody is disappearing into the back of a massive church.
And because the room is smaller, you get all those little looks between people that are so easy to miss.
Emma came into the ceremony with everyone already waiting for her.
And you can see Paul at the front trying very hard to look composed.
I’m sure he was completely relaxed.
Obviously.
The reactions are normally better than the pose
There are photographs you know you need to get at a wedding.
The entrance.
The vows.
The rings.
The kiss.
But quite often the photograph I like more is the one just before or just after.
This is exactly why.
It’s not a posed wedding photograph.
It’s just Emma having an actual moment.
That is always going to mean more than me telling someone to smile.
And yes, obviously we got the kiss too.
I’m not completely useless.
And then came the rain
This was an August wedding.
So naturally it rained.
Because Britain.
And, as usual, nobody melted.
Emma grabbed an umbrella, Paul helped out, dresses were lifted and everybody carried on.
I actually quite like photographing weddings in the rain.
Nobody wants it when they’re planning the day, but it gives you little moments you simply wouldn’t have otherwise.
And I’d take a real moment over pretending the weather didn’t happen every time.
On to Hamptworth Golf Club
After the ceremony everyone headed out to Hamptworth Golf Club near Salisbury.
The numbers grew from the smaller ceremony to around 89 for the reception, with even more joining later in the evening.
And the difference in atmosphere was almost immediate.
Ceremony done.
Drinks in hand.
Time to enjoy themselves.
Confetti still hanging around.
Heart-shaped sunglasses somehow appearing.
Emma and Paul walking through everybody laughing.
Perfect.
That photograph tells me more about the wedding than twenty carefully posed portraits ever could.
A wedding that was actually about the people
Emma and Paul had lots of family they wanted photographed.
Both had children.
There were bridesmaids, groomsmen, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandparents and close friends who all had important parts in the day.
So yes, we did group photographs.
Quite a few, actually.
But that doesn’t mean everybody has to stand bolt upright like they’re having their school photograph taken.
The trick with wedding group photographs is organisation.
Know who you need.
Get them together.
Take the photograph.
Move on.
Because nobody came to a wedding hoping to spend an hour standing in a queue for me.
And then sometimes we just let the group photograph go completely wrong
This one is much more my thing.
Technically a group photograph.
Practically, mild chaos.
Exactly how I like it.
Once we’ve got the photograph Mum is going to want for the mantelpiece, I’m quite happy for everyone to start behaving badly.
In fact, I actively encourage it.
The moments between everything else
One of the things I love about photographing a wedding like this is that something is happening almost constantly.
The big moments matter.
But there’s so much going on around them too.
A hug.
Someone arriving.
A reaction.
Kids doing something completely unexpected.
Friends seeing each other.
That’s the stuff I’m watching for all day.
It’s why I’ve never really liked the idea of wedding photography being one long photoshoot.
If I’m spending the whole day telling people what to do, I’m missing all of this.
Speeches with a difference
Emma had also handed some pretty important jobs to her closest friends.
Vickie and Sarah were taking on the “father of the bride” speech, which tells you quite a lot about the sort of day this was.
And speeches are another point where I spend almost as much time photographing the people listening as the person speaking.
This photograph is why.
Their children as the best bridesmaids are standing there.
Paul is watching.
Emma is wiping away a tear.
That is the photograph.
You can almost hear what is being said without knowing the words.
BBQ, more guests and then things escalated
Wedding breakfast was a BBQ.
Which, frankly, feels completely appropriate for a relaxed summer wedding at Hamptworth Golf Club.
By the evening the guest list had grown again, this time to around 125 people.
And that was when things moved up another level.
Because there was a saxophonist.
The saxophonist arrived. The dance floor never really recovered.
This is where the wedding properly went off.
The saxophonist came out into the middle of the dance floor and within minutes the place was packed.
Not politely busy.
Packed.
People singing.
People waving light sticks.
People dancing around the saxophonist.
People who I suspect had told everybody earlier in the day that they “don’t really dance”.
We’ve all met them.
This is also exactly why I stay into the evening.
If I disappeared straight after the first dance, I’d miss half the story.
By this point nobody is thinking about photographs anymore.
Which is brilliant.
Because that’s when the photographs become really honest.
This is what a wedding should feel like
Emma and Paul’s wedding wasn’t about disappearing for hours of couple portraits.
It wasn’t about turning every five minutes into another staged photograph.
It was about family.
Their children.
Their friends.
Laughing.
Crying.
Confetti.
Rain.
A BBQ.
A very busy bar.
And a saxophonist causing absolute carnage on the dance floor.
Most importantly, they actually spent their wedding celebrating with the people they invited.
And my word did they celebrate.
That’s what I want the photographs to show.
Not what the wedding looked like.
What it felt like.
Planning a Salisbury or Wiltshire wedding?
If you’re planning a Salisbury Registry Office wedding, a reception at Hamptworth Golf Club, or pretty much anywhere else around Wiltshire, and you want wedding photography that feels relaxed and real, that’s exactly how I work.
I’ll organise the photographs that need organising.
We’ll get the family groups done.
We can disappear for a few minutes for some lovely photographs of the two of you.
Then I’ll get out of the way and let you enjoy your wedding.
Because the best photographs normally happen once everybody stops thinking about the photographer.
And if you’re having a saxophonist…
Even better.
