Alnwick wedding of Fiona & Michael

Was this to be our last wedding of 2009?  I think so as it was on December 31st!

Fiona and Michael had a lot going on in 2009 but they were determined to be married before the year was out.  Talk about cutting it fine!  They were caught up in a house move which kept being delayed - then finally cancelled and so we were never quite sure where we would be meeting them next.  We really wanted to fit in a pre-wedding shoot with them as we see this as an essential part of the process of getting the couple relaxed in front of the camera.  I think we managed it with about a week to go to the wedding itself.  They live in a Gatehouse to part of the Duke of Northumberlands Estate and Fiona has grown up with the fantastic Alnwick Castle (think Harry Potter!) as a background.  No surprise then that although it was small private wedding in the town itself, they wanted the surrounding area to feature in their shots.  What we hadn’t anticipated was that the North East would be hit by blizzards, sufficient to close a good few roads.  We arrived safely at the cottage but only after passing a number of cars which were struggling just to make the slight gradient out of the town.  Michael had popped out for an hour and in the meantime it snowed and snowed making the drive up their cottage just about impassable.  So Sheila found herself out gritting the drive by hand, bless her, so that Michael could get back.  Just one of our many wedding services!  Fiona would have done it if we had let her but I didn’t feel it was in my interests to let the bride scoot off with a grit bucket when she should be getting ready.  We finally got everybody together, including Fiona’s sons Joe and Andrew and grabbed a few shots before we left for the ceremony itself.  Michael’s two daughters arrived just in time as their car had been playing up in the dodgy conditions so now the whole party was complete.  After the service it was off to a couple of their favourite spots around the town to make the use of the fantastic backgrounds.  These two were so “loved up” we had to insist that they separated every now and then so we could get them to move positions.  Such is new love.  A great day and the start of a new life together for a lovely couple - who by the way are now already chasing another house!