Category Archives: Photojournalism

Scott and Kirsty’s Wedding at Moorpark House Hotel

By trevor | Published Tuesday, 30 October, 2012

Scott is a bit of an oddity in the world of weddings. I could tell straight away when I met him with his fiancée Kirsty to discuss their wedding at Moorpark House Hotel two years before the actual day itself. Never before had I come across a man so excited, and interested, about his wedding day. Often it is the bride who comes to meet me, by herself or with her mother / sisters / bridesmaids. On the rare occasion that a groom comes along they sit opposite me, trying their best to be fascinated by the albums on offer, the different styles of photography available and the amazing ranges of colours available for bridesmaids dresses shown in other people’s wedding pictures. All the while they are tightly clutching their wallets, thankful in the knowledge that if they are in my house then at least they aren’t getting dragged around the sugary pink satin hell that is The Wedding Fair.

Not only was he excited then, way before the wedding, but the level of interest continued unabated throughout the whole process right through until about the week before last when I had my last email from him bribing me to write a blog post about his wedding with the promise of lots of Facebook ‘Likes’ for my page (followed shortly afterwards by an email from Kirsty apologising for her over-keen husband). Well Scott – here’s the blog post. The ‘Like’ box is in the top-right-hand corner of this blog page. I’m expecting 40 likes by the end of November or the post gets deleted.

Moorpark House is a really lovely venue that I like a lot. Followers of this blog might remember the wedding of Daniel and Emily at the beginning of this year. Even since then it has been vastly improved with a lot of work being done to the grounds. The rooms are light and airy, there’s lots of space indoors for photographs and the food is superb – I know this because I was kindly invited to sit with Kirsty’s university friends, the Neurobabes, for dinner!

After all the hounding, by Scott, to write a blog post I thought I would turn the tables and ask them to write it themselves. It is always interesting to get a couple’s-eye view of a wedding day I think. Well, true to form, Kirsty sort of gave up and wrote a slightly incoherent paragraph while Scott wrote a 700 word essay.

Here’s what Kirsty had to say about her day:

“EVERYTHING was perfect; the food – you remember the dauphinoise potatos? well my wee brother now keeps saying to my mum that she needs to make they ‘ cheesy totties’ which means they must have been good , the atmosphere – so relaxed !, the ceremony- beautiful and personal ( Only [I] would have food mentioned in my wedding ceremony) and so cool that it was an old teachers wife marrying us !, and how AMAZING were our chair covers ! Made everything all come together! And who could forget you Trevor ! Stepping in to save the day on at least two occasions – lacing up my dress because the ladies couldn’t do it, and getting rid of the wasp that kept flying around the dressing room ! Thank you!”

(Firstly, the dauphinoise were indeed fantastic. Secondly, there weren’t any wasps in the room, only a poor crane fly overcome with the fumes of 18 cans of hairspray and the vapours of enough nail varnish to pain a ship.)

Scott wrote quite a lot so I’ve split it up into sections:

“I never really felt nervous at any point either on the day or leading up to it. I took a week off work before the wedding day in case anything came up at the last minute. I had hoped to have everything done by 3 days before but as it happened I was running about until 5pm the night before; the last minute search for a white umbrella.

There is a common saying that your wedding day goes in quickly. I found this to be untrue. I felt that the day lasted like any other. But the time that has passed since has flown in. I hope that in years to come, everything about it will be as vivid to me as it is today.

We were very well organised. Nothing went wrong (bar a missing tray of sandwiches) and the whole day was perfect. When I arrived at the venue the sun was shining and there were various family members sitting round tables outside waiting for things to start happening. When they all looked at me at once I realised that this was it! I greeted everyone and made my way inside. I had visited the venue on numerous occasions and this was the first time I had seen it full of life. The ceremony room had been set up, the chair covers looked fantastic and I felt very relaxed. I had a chat with my future father-in-law and I was glad to see he was very calm as well. As time ticked on I knew I had to start making moves to get ready. This would involve me personally dressing one best man, two fathers, four groomsmen and me! Luckily I had had a practice run but I should have left more time just so I didn’t feel under pressure. Having said that it did meant that I kept myself busy and didn’t have too much time for the nerves to build.”

“Just before the ceremony, while everyone was sitting down waiting for Kirsty I felt a wonderful sense of happiness. I heard the string quartet start to play Pachabel and watched the bridesmaids come towards me. They all looked into my eyes and smiled – their nerves obvious. Then Kirsty. The immense pride I felt cannot be described. She looked incredible. I will never forget that image. It was such a huge relief to see her. The ceremony was wonderful – to hear the things she said about me was inspiring. I looked towards our guests and seen my dad staring at the floor, unable to look up at me in case he started crying. Well I would get him going later!

We were greeted on our exit with a drink from the staff and out we went into the grounds to mingle. This was a lot of fun and gave us an opportunity to relax a little bit.

I had always had a feeling we would have great weather. Even if we didn’t neither of us cared. We got lots of photos with our families and wedding party and every guest got ample opportunity to take their own. We took a walk ourselves onto the lawns, Trevor in tow, giving us at least some direction. Lots of kissing and cuddling and trying to really look like we were enjoying ourselves! And then the heavens opened. And Kirsty got to use her white umbrella!
The speeches passed without major incident – more tears from Kirsty’s dad and some of my own. The best man nearly spoiled the day when he asked everyone to raise their glasses to “The Wilsons” followed by an expletive on realising that Kirsty was taking my name and not the other way round!

The food was fantastic – just keep it simple and most people will enjoy it. No lemon sorbets in sight!

In the evening we were joined by some more guests. During our first dance Kirsty sang the entire song to me. This wasn’t too much of a surprise as she tends to do that with most songs. From here on in it probably did go in quite quick but then again, we are in the final stages at this point. No drama, just a lot of love in the air.”

Before you ask, I didn’t Photoshop the picture below. There was an incredible storm racing up behind the house but glorious sunshine behind us. The resulting exposure captures the dramatic sky very well I think!