A wedding at Cley Mill - but not just any wedding.....

Can you imagine the pressure a young (well let's say about 39 yr old) chef might feel at being asked to cook at the wedding of, I dunno, Michel Roux/ Jamie Oliver/ Colonel Sanders (spot the odd one out there?) ?  Well I can, I was exhibiting at the big Archant Wedding Fayre at the Norfolk Showground in February earlier this year and managed to get some passes so my friends, fellow photographers, Duncan Kerridge & Suzanne Fossey could have a mosey round as they had recently got engaged to each other.  After a couple of laps around the stalls collecting up as many free chocolates and leaving some sticky finger prints on the competitors' display albums Duncan sidled up to me & said "Have you got any weddings booked for 20th June this year?  It's a Monday", I checked my diary, "No, why?", "Because I may have a wedding booking for you if you want it", me - "OK, cool, thanks, have you got their details?", Duncan - "Yes, the bride's name is Suzanne and the groom is called Duncan".......You know in films when it goes into slow motion and the camera zooms in while panning backwards? Well I had one of those moments in real life.  According to Duncan all the blood drained from my face and a look of utter confusion followed - I think it's known as sensory overload - intense fear, huge gratitude and a very strong sense that it was just a wind-up and at any minute he'd burst into laughter, slap me on the back and say "Only joking!".  They weren't joking.   Wow.For the next four months I had a strange knot in my stomach which as of Monday night seems to have disappeared, weird.   To be fair I knew it was going to be great fun but seriously, there was some considerable pressure not to cock it up - I have admired Duncan's work for many years, at the annual documentary photography workshop I have done in Brighton the last couple of years Duncan is one of the four team leaders, a grand master, sensei, Jedi of the shutter.  Not only that but Suzanne is also an incredible photographer (and she's a much nicer person than Duncan).So the old intestinal lepidoptera were fluttering pretty violently on the Monday afternoon as I set off to the wonderful Cley Mill to shoot their wedding.   One thing which did ease the pressure a little was the fact that there were only two guests at the wedding - Duncan & Suzanne's lovely, lovely neighbours Jenny & Toby - there was also  Bob Westecott - THE Norfolk Toastmaster - well, someone's going to be needed to take control when you have such a rowdy mob!  To top it off they had been lucky enough to get Dai as their Registrar to conduct the service - I always love Dai's services, he injects a great sense of humour into the services he conducts, always makes me genuinely crack up - for example at Duncan & Suzanne's wedding Bob the toastmaster was put in charge of the music - they came in to a lovely piece of music, walked into the room, arrived at the table where the service was due to be and the music was promptly switched off.  Dead.  Silence.  Quick as a flash Dai's welsh tones ring out with "Nice fade-out Bob".    Maybe you had to be there but I'm laughing even now as I type this!OK, enough waffle, I doubt anyone's actually read this far anyway....to the photos....Bob accompanied us to Cley beach and did a fantastic job as a one-man confetti crowd....Great shoes huh?The great thing I have learnt about photographing photographers' weddings is that they aren't camera shy and more than happy to mess around in the name of a good photo - good times!I haven't finished processing all of Duncan & Suzanne's wedding photos yet so can't put a link to their gallery here yet but I do want to say what a massive honour it was being asked to photograph their wedding,  thank you both for allowing me to be a part of your wedding, I will never forget that day. x