Crathorne Hall, near to Yarm, Yorkshire, hosted the wedding of Joanne and Phil.

Of course it being Northern England, and Summer - the weather tried to dampen things
high spirits and happiness over ruled raindrops.
The rain fell - we all laughed at the rain - and afterwards - well . . .. the sun had to get out eventually, didn't it !

The dress, chic, simple, elegant,

and with a seemingly innocent row of loops at the rear.

more of this later . . . .

buttonholes take a gentle pause in their busy lives in order to be portrayed as gentle elegant innocent things.

In reality, they're often little demons,
fighting jacket lapels every inch of the way
when you try to pin them down.

in true wedding dress style - nothing is ever as simple as it at first seems ..

the loops refuse to fasten,

the straps mix in with the loops,

the girls keep smiling, but concentrate ever harder,

at a later stage, Joannes mum took over,

several female minds concentrated on the problem.

now if those loops had a user manual,
this would have been simple.

user manuals are things that blokes prefer to have,

but oddly enough - once they get them in their hands, they don't read them . .

Fellers have no such clothing problems at all.

their job is simply to muck about and have a good time.

of course there are duties.

ush ush . . . (the sound of ushers ushing)

Ah there was actually something serious that Phil had to do.

here it is.

and he did it well and with a great deal of respect.

I crawl across the floor, telephoto lens in teeth, to get a close up of the rings being exchanged.

oh yeah, I hear you say. . . .

ok then,
the registrars were two lovely ladies and they allowed me
to take pictures from a brilliant vantage point.

I stood still and used a long lens from the corner.

crawling across the floor with a lens in teeth sounds more fun though . . .

The ceremony over, Joanne and Phil step smiling from the room - I cunningly anticipate this with a camera,

a waiter doesn't cunningly anticipate the same action
and gives me a champagne shower.

oh well - theres a first time for everything . . .

dunno if you can see the rain on this shot -
on the high resolution image - it's like stair rods -
or cats and dogs -

or . . . . like long thin wet things that fall from the sky

err . . .y'know - it looks like those raindrop things . .

anyhow - two guests refuse to have their spirits dampened and go for a walk across the lawns - barefoot.

well - you wouldn't spoil your shoes - would you ?

Did we see Joanne do anything but smile this day ?

I don't think so,

well - except at the precise moment of an explosion - but that comes later.

Total mayhem ensues as we take pictures indoors !

just through the window in the wall at the back,

a similar group of guests waves at their photographer.

err . . sort of . . ok its a mirror.

Phil explains to Joanne what today is all about.

it seems to involve lots of being together and sort of . .

having a rather good time by the look of it !

Blinking rain allows us to take pictures up to but not outside of the door

so we have fun with the doorway for a moment . . .

a previously very shy little lady peeks around a door.

Hah - and uncle Phil also appears in the very same doorway.

note the beaming smile - he did this all day !

A table decoration indicates that the wedding breakfast approaches.

well it doesn't really,

but for the purposes of our story
it makes a pleasant indication that the album is leading towards the meal.

The room at Crathorne laid out ready for the wedding breakfast.

our friend the table decoration is about a third of the way into the picture from the left.

look very closely and you'll see it's waving.

did you look ?

if you did you must be as nuts as I am.

plants waving ?
they'll be talking next Camilla . .

Ah here we find the best man,
laughingly studying his speech notes.

I examine his speech notes with my camera lens.

Hmmm.

lots of closely typed words . . .

ought to be easy to read in front of a hundred people . . . .

the speech in all its glory.

here we have a curious series of pictures.

Phil, our groom, appears to be in the process of ducking, whilst Joanne looks a little shocked.

A sudden explosion had fired confetti and streamers into the air -
just as the poor feller had stood up to make his speech.

not that the best man was trying to make him nervous . .

Phil recovers his composure as the streamers and assorted explosive debris flutter to the ground -
everyone else bursts into laughter.

Phil now has to make his speech - if he'd memorised it,
theres every chance that his memory might have been wiped by that little episode.

the little tinker who fired the explosive confetti cannon at Phil
now reads his copious speech notes for the final time before standing up to do his bit.

He gets rousing welcome.

of course he didn't have an unexpected explosion put him off.

a serious part of the speech draws serious looks from some of the guests.

I like this sort of picture - it tells a story and really pictures the personalities
of the people listening to the speech.

and did I say that the sun came out later on . ..

yippee . .

Joanne and Phil sample the lovely fresh clear air that always follows showers.

Phil explains that he has a thing about running water,
he likes it - I must admit - the sound is musical to my ears too.

Phil peeks out to check the weather, nah it's still raining, better go back to get close to Joanne . . . .

(Joanne being the lady providing all the smiles in the background !)

Phil is pulled about the dance floor by Joanne . .

actually the pair of 'em danced really well and put on a somewhat spectacular show.

I'd earlier said - do you dance ?

and the response was a very knowing (and grinning)l

o o o o h     yessssssssss. . . . ..

parents nobble the bride for a quick whirl around the floor . . .

at this point, I quietly disappear.

a really lovely day,

spent with really lovely people.

p.s. thank you for the meal Phil & Joanne.