On your wedding day, probably the last thing you want is rain. No one likes the rain, especially on such a special day. But if you live in good old Blighty, there is a strong possibility that you may just have to contend with some from time to time. At the wedding of Jade and Sam, we all had to contend with a little bit of the wet stuff for the majority of the day. But not once did it stop anyone from enjoying the day and enjoying the special day for what it was. A celebration of two people coming together and sharing their love for one another.

From the moment I met the bridal party at a local salon, Salon 13. I was greeted with warm welcomes and a very tasty bacon roll. Even though I had just started a Vegan diet, I put that on hold and enjoyed the generous offer of crispy, greasy bacon for one last time.

The day started off in the beautiful warm sunshine, but with one eye on the weather forecasts, I knew that later on in the day we were in for a change.

Being able to capture some beautiful and cherished moments between Jade and her family as they were getting ready for the wedding was truly a great honour, including a very touching moment when Jades father saw her for the first time, and jade playing with her young daughter Darcie in her stunning handmade dress made by the mother of the bride.

5 minutes before we left for the church the heavens decide to open and showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. None the less, with plenty of umbrellas and quick footed people, most of the guests avoided getting too wet.

The Ceremony was held at the very historic St Leonards Church. A very atmospheric and regal church that sits above and looks over the Seaside town of Hythe. It is church that has one of, if not the largest collection of human skulls and bones on display in a crypt that is open all year round to the public. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see it or use it on this occasion. Not too sure it would have made the best backdrop for wedding photos.

After the ceremony, we made the most of the kind offer from the church to use the inside of the church to get the group shots done and a couple of posed shots of the bride and groom as it was still coming down outside.

Onto the reception, we headed just down the road to the Hythe cricket and squash ground where a massive marquee had been erected and decorated with tons of gorgeous handmade bunting and decorations, again made by the brides mum.

Still, the rain came down, yet no one had shown any signs of it ruining their day. People were using massive garden umbrellas the type you see in pub gardens, to get to and from the marquee, so they didn’t end up getting drenched. Although a few of the kids that were there didn’t care about an umbrella and just decided to literally go dancing in the rain. I fear some of those little daredevils might have gotten ill after the day, as that rain wasn’t particularly warm.

As the rest of the day unfolded there was great entertainment in the form of some contests, speeches and games. One is where you were given a little green army soldier toy, like the ones in the greatest film of all time *(in my opinion) Toy Story. Whenever the master of ceremonies played a siren, you had to stop what you were doing and get into the position that your little army toy was portraying. This definitely made for some funny and wacky images and provided a massive laugh for everyone.

Oh yeah, they also had a slow motion capture Photo Booth on hand as well. Hats off to the guy that was running that, he set Jade and Sam up for one of the funniest moments of the day. Having the groom close his eyes and have his new wife give him a massive slap across the face. Seeing it in real time as I took the photo was funny and somewhat painful as well. Jade definitely wasn’t holding back when she swung for poor Sam's face. Watching it back in slow motion was poor comedy gold and I’m sure a memory they will look back on with great fondness. Maybe less so for Sam.

Towards the later part of the evening, we finally got a break in the weather and decided that now would be a good time as any to take 5 minutes away from the party and grab a few more shots of just the bride and groom. We headed to just outside of the venue and onto the banks of Hythe canal, where we were able to use the lit up church that Jade and Sam got married in, earlier as a nice little backdrop, as well as the canal itself.

I had an amazing time photographing this lovely couple’s special day, I was made to feel so welcomed and by the end of the day, I felt like one of the family, rather than just their photographer. It may have rained for the majority of the day, but I think it made for way better images and it actually brought everyone closer in a physical and figurative sense.