This wedding has taken me so much longer to edit and blog than pretty much any wedding I’ve shot before. The sheer quantity of brilliant things to photograph meant that I came home after the wedding with not only aching cheeks from laughing all day, but also a wallet full to the brim of memory cards and an epic culling and editing session ahead of me.

I’d been really looking forward to Isobel and Dave’s wedding – after shooting their engagement session at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the winter, I knew their wedding was going to be FUN. But it surpassed all expectations and was absolutely one of the most vibrant, heartwarming, moving, hilarious days ever.

In stark contrast to their snowy engagement session, the sun shone constantly throughout the day and it couldn’t have been more appropriate for this perennially sunny couple. So what made this wedding so special? A combination of it being incredibly colourful and vibrant, a really lively, warm, loving and kind group of people, an amazing array of beautiful things to look at, a huge number of different things to do and things going on, and the fact that Dave and Isobel paid not one jot of attention to how a traditional wedding should be and simply did everything in their own relaxed, fun way.

I can’t go any further without addressing Isobel’s incredible outfit. She had an amazing dress made specially from a 50s pattern she found – it was beautiful – gorgeous vintage lace with a big bow on the hip…. then there were the fuschia Vivienne Westwood shoes, the beautiful bright and bold flowers in her hair, the tights with hot pink seams and those cute heart sunglasses…. and Isobel and Dave’s gorgeous daughter Edie wore a matching pink flowery headband. Too cute.

The ceremony itself was held at Rushcliffe Registry Office – it was a really lovely and intimate with only about 20 of their absolute closest family and friends. Isobel arrived while Dave and all their friends were still waiting outside so everyone trouped inside the building together, and Isobel was then walked down the aisle by both her mum and dad to ‘All I Want Is You’ by Barry Louis Polisar (Edie laughed her head off when Isobel came in which set everyone else off). ‘Baby I Love You’ by the Ramones played during the register signing, then Dave and Isobel left to ‘Home’ by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

After the ceremony, everyone headed off to Radcliffe Hall for the reception – a really lovely venue that was perfect for Isobel and Dave’s wedding. The place looked amazing and had been decorated by Isobel and Dave, their family and friends. Everything was bursting with colour and fun. Each of the guests had hand-made some bunting so you could spend ages just looking at and reading all the different pieces. There were homemade wooden signs dotted about the place, signposting guests as to where everything was, bright little cards for messages, old-school board games propped up on shelves, as well as teapots covered in stickers and scrabble tiles spelling out messages. The tables looked beautiful – all brightly coloured, hand-made polka dot table cloths in different vivid colours, with lots of different floral napkins, mismatched teapots containing bright flowers, little cups of penny sweets and luggage labels with messages for guests. Other than the top table, there was no table plan – all the tables were slightly different, and everyone was free to just plonk themselves down at whichever table took their fancy. The cakes were gorgeous – a spotted traditional cake with little lego men on the top and a stack of brightly coloured cupcakes, all different flavours.

One of my favourite things were the badges – Isobel and Dave had put out a couple of dishes with loads of different badges for guests to choose and wear. It was great to see which ones people chose – everyone absolutely loved them and they were pillaged in no time at all. Isobel and Dave’s were brilliant – Dave had ‘She’s the Cheese’ and Isobel had ‘He’s the Macaroni’.

They had also set up their own photobooth, which I manned for a portion of the night. I had never done a photobooth before and I will without doubt definitely be doing them again – it was absolutely hilarious, I loved every minute.

The whole day was a real team effort of their family and friends, with everyone chipping in to help – from the bunting, to the decoration of the reception, to clearing away tables for the dancefloor, to making music playlists & taking in turns to DJ, to setting up the photobooth, to hand-making all the details – everything was full to the brim of heartfelt care, love and effort. Everyone just got stuck in, laughing constantly throughout, never anything but warm, friendly and fun. It was a real testament to how much Isobel and Dave mean to their family and friends, and how close they all are.

Similarly, Dave and Isobel laugh constantly together and clearly adore one another – as their badges say, she is the cheese to his macaroni. Along with their beloved daughter Edie, they are one of the happiest families you could meet, and really revel in being together.

In summary, Dave and Isobel’s wedding was very much a reflection of what it’s like to spend time with them – huge bursts of sunshine, fun, energy and colour. An absolutely gorgeous couple and one of my favourite days at work ever.