The News Page 9
Wedding Photo Shoot
Its just over a year now since Meredith and I got married, and one thing I always wanted to do was do some pictures or have a party where I got the chance to where the big dress all day.
We got married in New York and Meredith settled in the Uk a few months later, and a bit after that we did have a regular party for all our Uk family and friends that did not make it to the Wedding. So after a bit of thinking we decided that maybe another party might be a bit too much so agreed on the photo shoot.
After telling Nas of our plans, she suggested that we did the pictures outside to make it look more real life rather than in a studio. Our initial idea was to do it in her garden, but then she come up with the idea of doing the pictures on a piece of grassland in Woodford Bridge which has a pond in the middle and also a church. I was a bit reluctant at first, but then thought what the hell lets go for it, the only however what I wanted to ensure was that we arranged the shoot before the kids went off on six weeks holiday.
The complicated part was going to be getting a date when Nas, Clarke, Meredith, Amanda (hair dresser) and myself were all free, I managed to find a few dates in my diary, but unfortunately Amanda did not work on this day, but as everyone else was available we decided to go for it and I would get one of the other girls from the Salon to do my hair.
We had talked about the Wedding shoot for some time and I therefore already had my dress, shoes, underwear, stockings and some of my jewellery. We wanted to try and find some nice earrings, but as I have unpierced ears it was quite difficult. We also thought the tiara I had may be a little bit too big, I tried to find replacements for both but was unsuccessful so we went with what we had.
I had my waxing done about a week before the shoot, which for some reason was more painful than usual, but I suffered it, because, you can’t have a bride with hairy legs can you. I then had another rather painful experience running in the forest through nettles and brambles, which ripped my hair free legs to bits. It took a few days for the scratches to go away; I think some of the scratches are still visible through the stockings if you look close at the pictures.
On the day of the shoot I had booked an early appointment to get my hair done and then go off to Nas’s , but she then got a client(actually a friend of mine) who needed their waxing done on that day so a schedule was somewhat altered. I still had the early appointment and Jane did a great job on making my hair curly and spaying it with all sorts so that it stayed curly all day. I then had to go back home, have my second shave, grab some food and get Meredith to pack the car. On arriving as Nas’s a combination of Tess being late and Nas talking so much meant that they were running that (no change there) eventually more than an hour late they were finally done and Nas then proceeded to paint my nails. They looked great, but as they were now wet, it meant that she had to drive my car over to Clarke’s. We were now even later and I was beginning to get worried that we would arrive at the Church just as the kids came out of school.
As we arrived at Clarke’s I noticed there were builders working on the house door, and they gave me a strange look because of my hair(wait another few hours boys and it will be even stranger). Once inside it was dump the dress and sit down for makeup. Nas and I had already had an experiment on the makeup and had agreed that we were going to use subtle tones with some purple and lilac around the eyes. She managed to get the makeup done quite quickly, but we hit a bit of a snag with the eyeliner, Nas was using a new purple liquid liner, which did not dry to quickly and I managed to open my eyes prior to it drying which meant we had a nice purple line above both eyes. Nas made a hasty repair job and I then had to sit there for 10 minutes with my eyes closed to ensure the liner dried properly. In the meantime Meredith who was going to dress in a suit and tie was getting herself ready and was trying to get to grips with complications of putting on a tie.
Once my eyes were finally dry it was time to try and get dressed, which I must admit was a bit of a struggle, trying to get bra hooks attached, together with stockings and suspenders, whilst you have slightly wet nails which you are trying not to smudge is quite difficult, but eventually I managed to get that done and get my shoes on without any damage to the nails. I then had to get into the dress and try and do up the corset type back, which was definitely a two girl. I called out to Nas and Meredith, but got not reply so had to wander back into the front room in my underwear (luckily the builders could not see) whilst they sorted out Meredith’s makeup. They managed to do this quite quickly and then between them they managed to do up the dress and help me on with the jewellery, we grabbed my flowers and at last were ready to go.
Outside I realised that due to the length of my dress I would not need to worry about a keeping my knees together when I got into the car , but then realised how heavy the dress was and how it dragged along the ground and that I’d have to lift it up to walk, the short distance to Clarkes car, which was a people carrier, which it had a bit of a step up, which is normally no problem, but in a wedding dress and heels it’s a different matter . I eventually managed to get in and tuck all the dress into the car before Meredith shut the door.
By this time the kids were now coming out of school and this was something that I also wanted to avoid, however by the time we got to the Church and grass most of the kids were moving in the other direction. We marked up and walked to the first point, now I have walked in heels on grass before and remembered how much I was going to sink in, but this time I had a big heavy dress on which was weighing my down so felt like I was sinking in even further. Once I had dug myself out Clarke arranged me in position to do the first few pictures, I was my usual unsmiling, inflexible self and Nas and Clarke were doing their best to make me smile and get into natural poses.
After the first couple of pictures we decided to move on and Nas came up with the idea of a running picture, well being a highly trained athlete I’m always up for a run, but on grass in heels with a huge wedding dress on is a different proposition. Meredith and I tried running on the grass with Clarke snapping away, but was unsure how successful that was. We then moved around to the Church which is facing the busy side of the green with lots of cars driving by and giving us an occasional beep. After doing a few pictures together and then shots with just me, Nas asked if I had my Garter on, and she suggested that I lifted my dress up to show that off. Now the sight of a stocking top and Garter set off more beeps than previous and some of the cars even started slowing down, even only they knew they were beeping a guy.
Next it was up to the pond and we took some pictures both standing and sitting with the pond in the background, by this time the wind had picked up a little bit and Nas and myself were in a constant battle to keep the hair off my face, but we did let one or two of them go just to get a natural look. Located around the pond were three benches and Clarke had his eye on the using the one which had a weeping willow tree nearby, but unfortunately this was being occupied. So we used one of the other available benches and took more pictures of the pair of us, some of more lying down and more of the dress being hitched up showing the stocking tops again, this time we were far enough away from the road for the cars not to be able to see me. Soon after this our favoured bench became available, but before making our way there we took some pictures again in front of the pond but from the other side so we had the church in the background. We then moved over to the bench and had a few pictures taken within the branches of the willows, it was a bit strange standing there with the branches hanging down over us, but I’m sure Clarke had some artistic idea in the back of his mind.
We had been out for almost two hours by now and I think we were ready to go back when Nas had one of her brainstorms, and she suggested that Meredith and I hold hands and jump up into the air. Now the running had been bad enough, but jumping I just had this image of my leaping like a salmon landing on my heels, and then falling over and just lying there in an unladylike pile of petticoats and stockings whilst Clarke whilst still snapping away. We had two attempts at getting the shot right, but I don’t think either of us leapt particularly high.
It was then time to drive back to Clarke’s do that he could go and pick up his kids, and we could pack our bags and get changed, after packing my bags I thought what the heck , I’m not going to be a bride ever again, let’s keep my dress on until I get back to Nas’s place. Upon getting back we went into the garden and took a few more pictures with my little camera, Nas’s cat Omar decided he wanted to join us so he appeared in most of the pics. The only problem was that Omar kept turning towards me rather than the camera so we have his arse in most of the pictures.
After getting changed and taking off the makeup, Nas made us a quick sandwich and we then drove home, unpacked the wedding stuff and then packed the bags ready for tomorrow’s trip to Manchester for sparkle. By then I was completely tired and settled down with a bottle of wine and film which I just managed to finish before falling asleep.
