Wedding Photographer Bartholomew Barn

Sometimes I get the Job of the Summer. This one was that.

Hayley and Nicky were something of a challenge for me. Not because of them, but because of me. I always work hard to get the pictures – we know that – but I’ll have to admit that I was a little intimidated by the idea of Hayley and Nicky’s wedding. I don’t know why. I’ve shot loads of same sex weddings in the past – always have since I started, but this one felt like it was coming from a different place.

I think I was a little fragile anyway. Over the previous year I’d been through a lot. My Mother (in Law) came to the end of her life after a pretty poor quality diagnosis, and then a week or so after that my best friend died. and then the aftermath got really screwy. It wiped me and my family out, as you would expect. It shook us down to the earth that we stand on, and it completely cleared about 90% of my confidence. By the time I met Hayley ands Nicky for their pre-wedding Together Session, I was spent. Totally.

They could have cut me down with one word if that’s who they were. Anybody could have.

So by the time we met at the Winkworth Arboretum everything was brand new to me. I don’t think I knew who I was, what I thought, or why I was still doing stuff. I think I was just relying on the idea that I had an idea once, and therefor I must have a reason to be here.

And that was always my reason. I always made it as a wedding photographer because I knew why I wanted to be there. I knew I was in love with the story.

But now it wasn’t me supporting my couples – it was going to have to be them supporting me – carrying me, rebuilding me. I had to have a complete faith in something I was feeling like I didn’t feel like I knew any more. I had to expect that it was going to rescue me. I didn’t know how, but I was hoping that it would

What is “IT”?

It turns out that it doesn’t go away. It turns out that the world turns on it own.

By the time I met H & N I was a wreck, not that they would have been able to see the depths of that.

But snap! There we were.

The pre-wedding shoot was like opening doors for me. A lesbian couple, right out there in front of the (my) small and big world. For some reason, maybe something as simple as being Gay, the session, at that time, for me, meant something special. An amplification of the simple truth that love is love. Love wins, and after that there’s nothing more important. I’m not gay, but I declare love. That kind of thing.

My antidote for my confused and upset and angry mind, was this. Love is love. And the world keeps turning.

And there’s nothing more life affirming than saying it, and seeing it, and aiming for it, and trying to capture it.

I’m awake now. As it turns out the Together Session was an introduction. It was sexy, alive, powerful, grown up, and purposeful. And life affirming. Just complicated simple love. A back story and a history and a future in one breath. A true equaliser.

_____________________

The Wedding was incredible. (See below).

When people say they’re having a ‘Festival Wedding’ this is what they think they’re having.

Bands, games, magicians, entertainment, great food, the works. Family, support, friends, and more great music.

Just. Non. Stop.

Bartholomew Barn is the perfect venue. All weddings should be here.

Here are the pictures. I love them.

Wedding Photographer Bartholomew Barn