Way back when I had an office job, I made up for the mundanity of everyday life by spending most of my expendable income on a social life that comprised of indie pop, dancing like a crazy person and being surrounded by lovely, lovely people. These days, I have less time and money to spare for such things, but I still make sure I surround myself with the same lovely, lovely people as often as possible. And I am happy to say that the wedding of Rose & Jamie last weekend was one of those opportunities. I first met Jamie around ten years ago through our mutual love of jangly indie pop. There was a forum, see, called Bowlie and the Bowlies had a meet-up, well several actually, and so…we met. I recall there being cardigans and hand claps aplenty. The rest is history. Years of happy memories, B&S nights at the Star & Garter, late night drinking, crazy dancing and the odd football match here and there too. Jamie is one of my good friends, and when he first introduced me to Rose I knew straight away that she would be too. I could just tell, you know? She’s awesome.

Well, fast forward to May 2009. I was sharing an apartment with Rose & Jamie in Barcelona for the Primavera Sound festival. I’ve been more years than I care to count right now, but that year stands out in my memory for two reasons. One – I was mugged on our first night (boo). Two – on Rose’s birthday Jamie gave her a beautiful fifties style dress and took her up to Parc Guell for the afternoon where he proposed…and she of course said yes. I remember being so excited. Hee! And when they asked me to be their wedding photographer, I almost burst. This was long before I decided to go pro. I was just a girl who loved taking photies, back then. And, I’ll be honest, the faith they had in me, their conviction that I was the wedding photographer they wanted, well that is one of the reasons I decided to make a go of it. So I owe them a big thank you for that. But enough of my rambling. This is all about them. An amazing couple. My wonderful friends. I give you…ROSE & JAMIE’S BIG DAY!!!!!

See that gorgeous bump? Well that belongs to Rose’s sister Carol who was just six days away from her due date. She is a star! And I love that Rose brought along some Schloer as well as a couple of bottles of pink champagne for her pre-nuptial drinkies. Tee hee.

Most nerve wracking point in the day was waiting for the taxi in the hotel lobby. In the end, the hotel called us a minibus as the pre-booked one was over ten minutes late. Eek! Impressively, Rose didn’t seem too stressed out about it at all. Nerves of steel, that girl!

We arrived at Manchester Town Hall just in time and there I found Jamie grinning from ear to ear waiting for his beautiful bride.

How immense is Manchester Town Hall? Seriously that venue is huge. Good job too as the heavens opened straight after the ceremony so we were stuck indoors for a while. But the sun came out in full force later on. Hurrah!

When I met up with Rose a couple of weeks before the wedding she was telling me about her various plans for the day and I realised just how DIY the day would be. Her ideas sounded incredible, but Rose herself was worried about how it would all come together on the day. As I opened the door and peeked through into the reception room my heart skipped a beat…all of her hard work (and that of various friends too by all accounts) had paid off. I knew the cakes would be fab because that’s what Rose does best and she excelled herself with the adorable clay cake toppers and the scrumdiddlyumptious cupcakes. Oh my! And the room just looked incredible. Gaudi, the bonkers but brilliant architect behind Barcelona’s Park Guell, was a major theme for the day with each table taking the name of a different Gaudi masterpiece, centre pieces based on Parc Guell stylings and similarly decorated jars of sweets throughout, including those used as place cards & wedding favours. Another key part of the decor was the Fraser Clan tartan seen in ribbons throughout the wedding and in Jamie’s tie pin which bore the clan motto – All My Hope Is In God. There were a few Scotsmen present on the day too complete with kilts and thistle bouttonieres. Hello! The best thing for me though was knowing that Rose & Jamie had thought about all of these little details and made sure that the entire day represented who they are and what they love – that made me feel so proud of them, so honoured to be a part of their day and so lucky to call them my friends.

At this point I’d also like to say a huge thank you to the newly weds for the gift they gave me on the day which included a CAMERA CHARM for my bracelet. Oh my word, it is so cute. I absolutely love it. Will post a pic later in the week actually… Now back to the wedding which culminated in the best indie disco EVER complete with Lazy Line Painter Jane hand claps and a whole lot of killer moves from the groom. Admittedly I am somewhat biased, but it really was awesome to hear so many great tunes, to dance with friends old and new, and to see the bride kick off those heels and don her “something blue” to get down on the dance floor. You go girl!

Rose and Jamie are living it up in Cuba right now and I simply cannot wait to meet up with them when they get back to talk about how awesome their wedding was. Hopefully my images will bring back happy memories for years to come – they certainly will for me. Thanks, guys, for having faith in me and being such sweet, wonderful people. You make an awesome couple and I just know you’re gonna have a blummin’brilliant life together. Love yous!!!