This is the view that Elizabeth will have had from her window in the Bridal suite.

This is actually a golf course -
no golf being played at the moment,
though the sight of a snowman did have me suspecting a frozen golfer at one point.

Look left

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does Matfen in the snow look cool !

never mind cool

bl**dy freezing . . . .

those footprints in the snow are the photographers

yes - the man with the snow in his shoes

As if she knew about the oncoming cold spell,
Elizabeth had organised her bouquets to reflect frost and snow,

She was delighted with the weather
and the flowers were uncannily apt.

 

you know the weather in the UK . . . . .

forecast rain and you get sun

forecast sun and you get a fog

forecast snow and you get a heatwave . . .

 

no offence intended to the met office, I know that they have a hard job.
I've seen severe weather warnings before - they usually arrive at the same time as the weather -
in such cases - I don't need a forecast -
like - I know it's raining
because my windscreen wipers are going from side to side . . .

In search of warmth - my freezing fingers are attached permanently to a metal tripod leg
and need to be prised off using a warm spoon and lots of oohs and aahs from my assistant,
we enter the building and find two teddy bears staring at us,

we wonder if they're presents . ..

they're for the little bridesmaids to hold instead of bouquets,

an extremely neat trick.
any child would lose or drop a bouquet after a while but give 'em a teddy, and they'll hug it all day long . .

Here we see the recipient of one of the teddy bears, she has a delightful smile, the picture is taken without posing or asking permission.

I like to simply grab moments like this.

A large dragonfly has been outside in the cold weather too long and has been transformed into a fantastic icy sculpture.

 

Of course I'm being silly here,
everyone knows this is a tarara.

 

Two more bridesmaids,
these girls wore really fetching black dresses,
with eyelets in strategic places,
(the dresses were off the shoulder
which is why the girls look a little bit naked.
hmm. this'll probably do wonders for the blokes imaginations . . .

A nimble fingered flautist fingers her flaute

why the heck do they call flautists flautists ?

flutist or even flootist might be more sensible . . .
anyway, this particular pair of hands belonged to one quarter of a string quartet - which baffled me for a moment, as a string quartet is usually . . . . strings.

 

they sounded good though, and the flute gave an additional dimension to their repertoire.l

The flautist and the fellows she strings along with were playing an accompanyment as the bride entered the hall (later they did similar sterling work,
providing soothing background music as guests mingled)

 

(guests do a lot of mingling).

 

The feller in charge of drinks looks on as I stalk the drinks - he wasn't having a grey day - I simply printed him in black and white and left the drinks in colour.

no particular reason - it looks good though.

We need to take some pictures of the guests . .

I've had a look outside and notice that the sun is shining and it's really quite warm in a little sun trap that I've located,

 

convincing the guests that it's really ok to go outside is quite difficult - even when I explain the odd warmth and lack of snow in my little suntrap.

We eventually entice them out by using Elizabeth as a decoy - when she stepped outside - everyone who wanted to be seen 'where the action is' followed.

 

Blokes being the sensible variant of the species,
especially when dressed well in DJ's,
and accompanied by their ladies, in expensive dresses,
immediately take up mean looks and lob snowballs at each other.

well - what else is snow for ??

you doubt this mans accuracy with a snowball ?

not at point blank range -
I make a sharp detour to avoid damage to cameras etc

(I'm exceptionally brave and fearless of course,
but when faced with a sight like this - there's only one option . . . . . flee).

 

 

 

We move indoors and such things as speeches occur, with David using his speech time to conduct the string quartet.

David is still speechifying,

this shot shows the distance at which I'm working - the previous picture was taken using a long lens if I remember rightly.

With speeches ongoing -
I'm momentarily distracted by a table decoration.

 

This is absolutely no reflection on the speeches,
they were excellent,
but I like to try to get lots of details into the camera - little things that people might otherwise forget,

Ah - the man and his lady take to the floor -
with a really well orchestrated dance routine that has me completely mesmerised.

The disco was in the cellar at Matfen,
I had to use the camera flash on this picture because the pair of 'em were moving and whirling like a couple of moving whirling things.

I often prefer not to use the flash,
pulling in the disco lights
and the atmosphere.

At this point - I do a disappearing trick as there isn't much else to photograph,

a good day was had by all.