Victoria + Michael at Kensington Palace

When Victoria first got in touch by email about photographing her wedding, I could almost feel her excitement, as there were dozens of exclamation marks scattered throughout the text!!! It was to be quite an incredible weekend, starting at Chelsea Town Hall, continuing over two days, culminating in a fabulous reception at Kensington Palace and an unforgettable performance by the delectably chiselled band, Blake.  I hadn’t met Michael until arriving at the Town Hall and can I just say, what a total charmer!  And uber-cool and chilled out, characteristic of his South African roots.  I have so many pictures to sift through, but these are a small selection of my faves from the weekend:

It was going to be a very big event, some may say it could have rivalled some other main event that happened to be taking place…

After the intimate ceremony at Chelsea Town Hall we headed to The Wentworth Club in Surrey.

Being a fan of photojournalism, I’m always drawn to moments as they happen but what I like about this particular picture is that it’s just Victoria, Michael and Michael’s gorgeous daughter, Olivia, together, on their own, just having a bit of quiet time out as a family amidst the celebrations.  It’s just a sweet, natural but at the same time, posed picture.  I think as documentary photographers we can get so caught up in chasing that decisive moment that sometimes it’s nice to slow down to create a meaningful portrait.

The next day when I arrived at Victoria’s family home, I noticed that pretty much every flat space in the house was taken up by photographs of the family at various events and different stages in their lives.  There were frames four and five deep on shelves and tables – that speaks volumes of what they value most.  It was touching witnessing their interactions throughout the day and fortunately there was plenty of tissues to go around when emotions were hard to contain!

Victoria’s flawless make-up was by the talented Amanda Bell:

The ceremony took place at the 900 year-old St Peter and St Paul Church in Shiplake, near Henley.

A lovely moment caught by my second photographer, Oat:

As well as these:

Then back in to London to get the party started!