Dawn and John’s wedding was great fun from start to finish. I’d not met them before the wedding day as they live in the Channel Islands but we’d emailed a lot and Dawn had sent me a little home-made movie of them and all their favourite things so I could see what they are like – such a lovely idea and the video was brilliant!

They got married on a beautiful sunny day in Liverpool, and it all started in the most amazing salon where all the girls were getting their hair and makeup done – when you start a day’s work by walking into a room with top hats hanging from the ceiling instead of lights you know it’s going to be a good one. Dawn had told me how important her girlfriends the bridesmaids were to her, and it was immediately obvious as soon as you saw them together, as it was also for John and his friends. They all spent the day laughing constantly and were all such a pleasure to photograph.

Dawn looked AMAZING! A beautiful Jenny Packham dress, glittery shoes and I loved her hair, tied in a loose sideways plait, expertly done by one of her close friends. The bouquets were absolutely amazing – Dawn had made both her own and all the bridesmaids’ ones herself, scouring charity shops and markets for brooches for her own over a number of months. They were a real labour of love and it really showed – they looked brilliant.

One of the things I loved best about the day was the love of photography. John is pretty obsessed with cameras (something I can completely identify with!) and seemed to have inherited this from his dad who spent the day relentlessly photographing everything with a huge grin on his face! John had brought a load of different and amazing cameras with him, most of them vintage and again, inherited from his dad! He had set up an old time-lapse camera to film the day, and often I’d turn around and he’d have some kind of old camera glued to his face, with the same big grin! One of my favourite parts of the day was being given an old Viewmaster 3D camera to play with and take some pictures on. SO much fun. I want one!

After a lovely ceremony at Liverpool Registry Office and a nice stroll round the streets of Liverpool for the couple shots, everyone ended up at the Racquet Club, which definitely wins the prize for displaying the most enormous moose head I have ever seen. All the details and decoration at the reception were beautiful – again, all very impressively sourced and homemade by Dawn herself – beautiful old books tied with string, photo frames of lots of previous family weddings, paper windmills made out of gorgeous paper and maps, cute place tags with personalised stamps, mismatched jars of flowers, a vintage typewriter for the guestbook and vintage suitcase for the cards, an incredible sweet table and a photo booth that the guests could operate themselves. Again, the love and effort poured into everything really showed and made the day so wonderfully personal and special.

I absolutely loved this wedding and Dawn and John are such genuinely lovely people you couldn’t help but smile the whole day through. A beautiful day and beautiful people. Congratulations Dawn and John!