Guyzance Hall, Northumberland.

(Guyzance Hall is close to Alnwick, just off the A1 in Northumberland)

the wedding of Sarah and Stephen

our first glimpse of Guyzance Hall through the gateway . . ah - so this is where we are to spend the day . . .

I hop, whilst making splooshing noises because the grass is ever so slightly like a quagmire after the rain, around to the front of the building in order to produce some more pictures of Guyzance Hall.

tip : when grass makes splooshing noises - it is not a good idea to take girls in nice shoes onto it . . .
I make mental notes and decide to avoid grass today . . .
or at least, avoid messing up the brides shoes on it !. . .

A single rose, pinned through the stem, along with some heather,
awaits its chance to adorn a button hole

and a dress dreamily languishes in a corner, along with some shoes and a bouquet . . .

a close up of the aforementioned shoes -
along with a very interesting device made from silk flowers and gauze . .
what can this be for,  you wonder ?

here we see the device being carefully fitted,

it catches the December sunlight as it is fixed on Sarahs head.

Sarah moves past a mirror, click . . we get a picture.

strangely - I really like the out of focus image of Sarah looking down toward the mirror,
it has a strangely 1920's feel to it.

Here, Sarah's mum and a bridesmaid provide technical assistance and advice to our Bride.

ah . . that's what the gauze thing is for  . ..

in my humble opinion . . it looks a rather beautiful gauze thing,
and so does Sarah.

well . . Sarah looks like a rather beautiful Bride,
heck . . I'm getting tangled with words again.

here, Sarah's father arrives,
we have a little delay - due to the registrar being held up by another wedding,
apparently the 'other wedding' being late, was the other weddings bridesmaids fault . .
we won't go too deeply into that . . .

suffice to say . . the registrar is a wonderful chap,
and he made great haste across country from the wedding where the bridesmaid made everyone late
in order to make it to our wedding, which otherwise would have been bang on time.

in my humble opinion, it isn't fair to be very late for a wedding and thus make a registrar late,
because the poor fellow then has to drive like a maniac to reach his next appointment.

everyone here is good natured though - so no one minded too much . .

Anyway . .  I hop downstairs (slide down the bannister)

and find a forest of candles awaiting.

then - seeking a vantage point from which I can see the guests assembling for the wedding,
I peer down upon the proceedings .

the tiniest imaginable bridesmaid peeks over the top of the staircase.

I love the composition of this picture - leading lines direct the viewers (your) gaze
towards the curious little girl peeking over the bannister.

anyhow - a sudden timeslip ensues and we fast forward a few minutes
the little bridesmaid from the top of the bannister is now chewing a nutritous flower stem

and everyone proceeds to the hall, where a Northumbrian piper awaits,

I run ahead,

the small bridesmaid has ceased to chomp on her flower stem

here we see the entrance of the Bride and her father,
the aforementioned little bridesmaid is coaxed forwards by her mum and her new sibling
(her new sibling is inside mums tum).

the piper stands to the side, droning, (or is the term - skirling ?)
with two candles balanced precariously on his pipes

whilst the guests stand assembled and watching, they're reflected in the mirror.

hey . . there's quite a lot going on in this picture isn't there !

it tells a story . . . . .

anyway . . mum, little bridesmaid, little bridesmaids new brother or sister,
other bridesmaid, bride, brides father (quite a list eh)
make their way up the aisle toward our groom.

I leap up again, thus getting a birdseye view
this is the point at which the bridesmaids reach the top of the aisle,
they will then move to the side and be seated,
whilst our lovely Bride, Sarah, is presented to the groom,

by Sarahs Father.

the wedding now proceeds . .

I change positions, (I do that a lot . . no point in standing still unless I have to . . )

here we have a congregations eye view of proceedings

and not content with standing at the rear,
I swiftly switch to sepia tone and hover around the flanks
to the right - the gentleman addressing the assembled folks
is David Gray - the registrar, one of the nicest fellows you could hope to meet.

ah - I love to catch a picture that tells the story so well as this,

the whole image frame is filled with emotion,
and the registrars assistant in the background is clearly delighted at the kiss !

OK. we do take sensible posed pictures sometimes . .

but sometimes it's more fun to see things
in a slightly more offbeat fashion

all too quickly - in a blink of an eye - in a mere twinkling of a moment,
its over - it's happened,

Sarah and Stephen are launched down the aisle into married life !

I cunningly lie in wait as they pass through a drawing room at Guyzance,
knowing full well that there'll be a sunbeam glancing through the room
and they have to pass through it . . .

it's an absolute pleasure to see such happy faces !

right - this is what happened - these guys kinda wandered out of the door,
a piper skirled (or droned, depending on your personal taste - we'll say skirled)
guy grabs girl - champagne in hand - piper dr-skirling in the background,
and what do we see, just ever so softly focussed above the centre of the doorway . .
can you make it out

is it a ribbon ?

is it a bird . . is it a plane . .

no . . it's mistletoe . .

Stephen now makes use of the mistletoe at Guyzance Hall
sensible fellow !

I forgot to mention . . it's December, and that means that sunset is probably just a few minutes after dawn.

well - almost - it's about 3:45 or something crazy like that.

then somebody upstairs switches off the light and it all goes dark.

(the darkness thing often happens at night in these parts . . )

before the darkness thing descends upon Guyzance Hall - our heroes glide back towards the building

I quickly try to grab a picture as they hop into the doorway
and my flipping lens steams up

a flipping lens is a specialist sort of lens, used especially for . . .

heck - you can tell when I'm pulling your leg, can't you !

cue : keen readers immediately go to camera shops demanding flipping lenses from baffled shop assistants

anyway - we're steamed up - it's so blisteringly cold outside -
that the metal and glass on my cameras have gone to subzero temperatures

attracting condensation . ..

oddly enough - I still like the picture . .

(it only takes a couple of minutes to remove condensation from cameras/lenses,
but it's a fun thing to watch out for if you're a photographer,
the tell tale sign is usually that when you look through your camera lens -
everything is shrouded in a thick fog

if there is actually a thick fog outside anyway - this might cause a little confusion . . )

anyway - no fog in here - this is the same room in which we saw the wedding earlier,
a frantic horde of pixies have been labouring away to prepare the room for the wedding breakfast.

aw, I can't resist this sort of thing.
quick. take another picture (or two)
then our couple return to socialising

hey - who's this ?

some model fresh from a bridal magazine ?

hah - she looks good doesn't she !

and so does the shady looking character in the background .. .

he isn't really shady . . but he's standing in the shade, so we can call him shady for the minute.

someone with a heck of a sense of humour,
has carefully attached the table plans to an electrified wire,
which will cunningly zap guests as they try to work out where they will sit.

an observant auntie realises that the wire is electrified
so she keeps her distance when trying to work out where she is going to sit

I have very little excuse for taking this picture.
I saw it.
I liked it.
I went click
(well - the camera went click . if I went click you'd think I was silly).

this picture is taken from the spot where the bride and her father
(and the little bridesmaid, the big bridesmaid and the baby yet to be born,
made their entrance in the pictures above),

but due to the efforts of the army of pixies that I mentioned,
the room has been transformed into the dining room.

the brides father makes his speech - I like this picture, the man looks quite distinguished.

after the brides fathers speech, our groom responds,
whatever he's saying - it seems to have fathers approval - he's smiling !

nand now it 's the turn of the best man to launch verbal torpedoes.
this one has just struck the groom amidships.

this might have been the story about our groom,
thinking it might be a good idea to light a fire in a basement during a weekend house party,
then oddly enough - he found himself surrounded by firemen and noticing blue flashing lights outside . . .

no . . that couldn't be true, he looks far too sensible . .

or . . . does he ? . .

Ah - I don't know if I mentioned it - but this lovely wedding happened really close to Christmas
so of course - the christmas tree would be disappointed if it didn't get into a picture or two.

ooh - it's gone all dark outside.

which means it's time to dance !

somewhere at the centre of this picture are our bride and groom,
whirling about on the dance floor.

I'm back in the crows nest - taking pictures.

Sarah hops up to take a peek at the view from the balcony
and she gives a wave to friends below

which makes a lovely final picture for me.