Good morning everyone,
As some of you will already know, about 5 weeks ago my dear Dad was diagnosed with last stage pancreatic cancer and given a few weeks to live, we were and still are all devastated and have all in our own way said goodbye and thank you to pop, and the past 5 weeks have been an amazing journey for us 4 children, Graham the Eldest, Me, my younger brother Scott and My dear sister who is the baby, Nikki and our partners as well as our children, and I am pretty sure it will be a stage in our life that we will all cherish forever and long after our dear dad and grandad has left us.
10 days ago whilst visiting my pop with my sister, she asked him a few things and the conversation got around to marriage, (Nikki was due to marry here seeetheart later this year) and my dear dad said, my last wish is to see you married and happy Nikki, I tried to interveen by saying “dad marriage is only a piece of paper” those of you that know me, know that I was telling a great big lie, marriage is so important to me and always has nbeen but I wanted my pop to feel good avbout Nikki when he passed. Anyway despite ,my amazing skills to lie “not” my day said, well I would be happier if you were married.
THANKS DAD !
With that Nikki and Kev decided to get married 1 week later on Wednesday 23rd June 2010, and together we set about organising the wedding. Nikki and Kev decided to ask the vicar who was due to marry them later in the year and she kindly offered the church, they then booked a local pub with a barn attatched to entertain the 35 or so guests and I decided the best place for me was behind my Nikon. Well after a couple of days I asked Nikki and Kev how things were going and Nikki was telling me that nothing apart from the venue was sorted yet, to be honest we were all still in a state of shock, So, with Nikki and Kev’s permission I rang around a few friends, I had a list of dress designers and florists and cars and I thiought I would battle through the list starting with my top favs and see who would do them teh best deal. Now I will do a complete seperate post to thank these people but I am crying again typing this but, the first person I called was Shay Harris who is a good friend and an amazing dress designer, within 30 seconds she offered Nikki a free dress as well as dress fitting on her wedding day, then without even having to call, Hampshires top Florist Natalie Gardener who is also one of my best friends called and offered to do all the flowers for free, I then called my friend Tony to ask could he do me a half decent car at a good price, he said no but you can have my best 1930′s Rolls for free, needless to say I cried a lot that day too. we were also lucky enough to get our fav MUA Lindsey Snuggs to come along, As I said I will write a seperate blog post later to thank these guys but I am a bit emotional right now.
The Day…
On the day Sue and I went to see Nikki about 10am and spent a lovely couple of hours along with our good friend Lindsey Snuggs makeup artsist and had a great time, meanwhile my dad was being picked up by Angie in the Rolls and according to his parnter the whole street watched him being driven away looking like royalty which was so important to me, my dad deserves so much more but has so little time left and he has always loved nice cars.
Once my dad had safely arrived with Nikki, Sue and I drove to teh Church to meet Kev, Samual and Flynn, we had an amazing time shooting them as well as the guests arriving and once we had done that and the guest wandered into the church The beautiful Rolls slowly travveled down the church driveway which is when I saw my beautiful sister and my very proud dad looking at me out of the Rolls, I sat in the car with them for a very precious 5 minute just enjoying the moment but sadly could not go on, so we all walked into teh church full of hope for the future but full of sadness as well but despite all the sadness we had an amazing ceremony.
After the ceremony we had some amazing time outside the church all surounded by love and lots of admiration for my dear dad who did so well and I am so proud of him for that , none of us will ever forget this day Dad. After the family photos Sue and I went off with Nikki and Kev to visit a local spot for photos before heading off to the barn for a scrummy meal and a few well earned drinks, then came the part I was dreading, the speeches, fortunatly Kevs speech was short and very sweet and then Sam teh best man spoke very well and from teh heart, then Kev invited anybody else to say a few words which is when Nikki stood up to speak, so far so good………Then Flynn who is 9 years old decided to stand up, with tears rolling down his cheeks in front of 35 crying people he told Kevin just how much of an important part of there lives he had become and how much better Nikki’s life had been with Kevin OMG this is a 9 year old.
Wow! anyway we then had a couple of hours outside drinking and chatiing when Sue said to Kev, shame we can do a first dance, (we were due to leave the pub at 7) so kev said, you play teh music and we will dance right here, so Sue asked there fav song, and of course it was Perfect Day which just happens to be on my iPhone, so I plugged it into teh Mini, blasted it up and played it, Kev casually walked into the middle of the gravel carpark, arm outstreched and asked his new wife to Dance. it was without doubt the most romantic first dance I have ever witnessed.
It was an honour to photograph my sisters wedding day and one taht will live with me forever,
Dad I love you and thank you for being my dad, we have had so much fun, Sue loves you and the kids both love you, you will leave us a much loved person x
Sorry for the long post but it all had to be said, please excuse any typo’s I can barely see my screen.
Thanks to those that have helped me deal with my dad’s illness I love you all dearly, and to my dear wife for putting up with all my crap at this time.
Jules x
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