Claire & Michael's Wedding - St Nicholas, Pyrford & Wisley RHS, Surrey

I love photographing gardens with lots of lovely flowers and plants so when Claire & Mike came to see me and told me that they were having their reception at Wisley RHS I got pretty excited. Of course it's massive and you are very spoilt for choice so I was a little like a child in a sweetie shop! A trip around the gardens a couple of days before was a definite must and a very relaxing way to spend an hour or two.

Simply click on the image below and click on the 'play' button to see their mini slideshow. To see all of their pictures, once in the slideshow view, click on the shopping basket and when prompted the password is their surname (case sensitive).


I snuck an early visit to St Nicholas to admire Claire's Mum's flowers which were totally stunning and I burst out laughing when I saw the two sheep on the font (not real ones obviously). Claire has a thing about sheep (or 'aliens' as they are better known by the family). There were brilliant. On the way to Claire's Parent's house I dropped in on Mike and James who were taking things nice and easy. Claire and the girls were being pampered - lots of laughing - while Jamie & Chloe played with a multitude of cool toys downstairs.

Meanwhile the lovely Lucy was at the Church taking photos of the guys and Mike's family and everyone arriving to be greeted by bright sunshine. Hurrah! I left just before Claire set off and her and her Father arrived at the church in a fab Armstrong Siddeley with Simon & Jackie up front. The service was so sweet in the beautiful St Nicholas Church which is straight out of a Jane Austin novel & it was extra special because Rev Charles Gibson officiated. Having signed the Register the two of them walked down the aisle and out into bright sunshine. As people congratulated them suddenly a bright yellow chicken wearing a Woking Town (say no more) shirt approached and hugged Claire and Mike with great gusto. And so Jim kept his promise that if ever Claire married he would dress up as a bird and wear a Woking Town FC shirt. Hysterical.

Off to nearby Wisley RHS where they put on two wonderful guided tours of the gardens and guests drank and ate in the beautiful surroundings. I took Claire & Mike off for a mini-tour of the gardens and we kept bumping into the tours which was very funny (for me anyway!) I felt very guilty making Claire walk so far wearing her gorgeous Jimmy Choos but she handled it all brilliantly.

We managed the everyone shot with me hanging out of a window and I really thought that getting 160 people in the shot would take an age but I was stunned when everyone got into position within 3 minutes - World record I think! Everyone then took their seats for a delicious meal followed by speeches (and singing) from Len, Mike and Gareth who I think was very kind to Mike. Cake cutting and then first dance before everyone hit the dancefloor and got on down to some cool sounds from Famous Five.

Huge thanks to you all for being so accommodating and lovely to me all day and for the delcious food. A 'big up' to Daniel and all of the amazing staff at Wisley RHS who were truly wonderful and made working there a real pleasure. Look forward to seeing you all on Sunday. x