Ok, where to start with the wedding of Hannah and Matt? This blog is a little different, since Hannah and I are friends and we all got rather merry together at the reception, so I get to file this under ‘personal’ as well as ‘weddings’ which I’m absurdly excited about. Hannah and I worked together for a short period last year, just as I was leaving to make photography my full time thing, and since I’m constantly popping in to visit my former workplace with Bingley (and occasionally cake), we’ve kept in touch. I was so pleased to be asked to shoot her wedding and even more pleased to score an invite to the reception!
For me the day started at the local hair salon, Moira’s. When I say local, this was definitely the most local wedding I’ve done. Moira’s is three minutes walk from my front door so it was actually quite surreal ‘working’ on my streets. Hannah and her bridesmaids were all there in various stages of getting ready. It was lovely meet her friends and her sister Emily, and really nice to be doing a portion of the ‘getting ready’ stage in a salon, a first for me! Once hair and make up was complete we went back to Hannah’s mum’s house, where they tucked into breakfast and I was able to shoot my zen segment of the day; the bridal details. Around this time Joey’s day started; he headed to Hannah and Matt’s house to shoot the guys getting ready and their rather stylish walk to Old Gala House. I LOVE those photos, haha.
Hannah’s car arrived a little early and rather than wait at the house we decided to take a small tour of Galashiels (super fun in a white limo!) We also popped by Hannah’s work to say hi, which was lovely. Eventually it was time to turn the car towards the ceremony. I shot a wedding at Old Gala House around this time last year so it was quite nostalgic for me, though this time the sun was blazing so we were out in the gardens for the ceremony; magic!
The ceremony was beautiful; the flowers were blooming and tears were shed. It was filled with lovely personal touches, with lots of sweet readings from friends and family. And just like that, they were married! With the ceremony over the champagne was popped and it kept flowing! I loved the way Matt kept checking out his wedding ring after; it was very ‘oh hey, this looks gooooood!’ while Hannah had me in stitches swigging from the bottle. The two of them had arranged their coverage so that I could capture the ceremony but also the start of the evening reception at the Volunteer Hall, so after group photos and some sweet snaps of just Hannah and Matt, Joey and I found ourselves walking home for a few hours break and to get ourselves suitably attired for the evening.
We arrived at the hall when the evening was in full swing, just before the speeches and first dance. I don’t usually wear tight dresses and high heels to receptions, so again this felt very surreal! The speeches were amazing and had everyone in bits. The first dance was lovely and we were all taken by surprise when they pulled on a string and a huge pile of balloons came falling from the ceiling! I kept my camera out to capture the cutting of the cake and then Joey was sent home laden like a mule with light stands and camera gear. I wasn’t doing that walk again in heels! He came back and proudly showed me the hip flask filled with single malt whiskey he’d nipped at during his walk; with that, we let our hair down, and to be perfectly honest my memory gets a little fuzzy from this point onwards. I have flashes of all of us up on the dance floor belting out the words to the Pokemon theme tune, and lots of antics in the Photo Booth (Joey and I were hooked, we NEVER get photos of the two of us). I remember a hog roast, and ooooohhhhh it was good. I’m fairly sure I did the macarena (I don’t know how to do the macarena.)
It was such a fun filled day and night, with honest emotion and no one taking themselves too seriously. Can we do it again please?
Lovely Vendors:
Ceremony Venue: Old Gala House
Reception Venue: Volunteer Hall
Hair: Joyce at Moira’s Hair Salon
Make Up: Dawn Pringle at Blue Skies and Butterflies
Dress: Blue Belles Kelso
Flowers: Flower Expressions
DJ: Chris Stevens
Cake: 3d Cakes
Catering: Reivers Farm Foods
