I woke up several times during the night beforehand to very heavy rain, but the sun was shining when I got out of bed at 08:00 am, and luckily the sunshine continued all through the day – although the wind was very strong and chilly.
Jane and Mark had planned to renew their wedding vows after 25 years of marriage last year, but sadly Covid put an end to that, so they postponed everything until their 26th wedding anniversary today.
We started off at Jane and Mark’s house in Baffins, Portsmouth with a few shots whilst waiting for the lovely white Rolls-Royce. The chauffeur drove Mark and Steven first to St. Marys Church in Fratton (less than 2 miles away) before returning to collect Jane and her three bridesmaids, getting everyone to the church nice and early.
The Vicar, Bob White, gave a very nice and traditional service, including blessing the rings. I made a cardinal sin – for some reason, my camera’s autofocus decided to throw a wobbler just as Jane and Mark were about to kiss, so I only got a blurred shot and had to ask Jane and Mark to go through that ordeal all over again !!!
After the service, the family and guests all made their own way to the Bridge Tavern in Old Portsmouth, with Jane and Mark enjoying the luxury of the Rolls-Royce again, but this time together.
By now, the sun was going down (the shortest day of the year was only just over 2 weeks away) and the wind was even stronger and colder than before, but everyone was inside enjoying the festivities, so it didn’t matter.
I left just before the food was served and the band started playing, made two back-ups of the images and start retouching them for Jane and Mark as soon as I got back home. I completed all of the retouching work, then uploaded all of the images for Jane and Mark on Monday morning (less than 40 hours after they had renewed their wedding vows) to download immediately, then posted their back-up DVD to them on Wednesday.
As always, my heartfelt thanks go out to Jane and Mark for the honour and trust to capture the memories of their special day. Congratulations on your 26th wedding anniversary, and I hope that there are many more still to come.
For the statisticians …. a 3 hour wedding shoot, with all 269 images retouched within 30 hours after the shoot.
