Welcome to our new look blog! Bigger is better in the case of blogs, we feel….let’s make those images big enough to really see them!! And Carys and Oliver gave us the ideal wedding to launch our bigger blog….a very big amazing wedding – record numbers of people, gorgeous big skies over the Preseli Hills, and one HUGE lorry!
We’re pretty sure that this wedding beats all our others for number of people gathered outside the chapel. It’s common practice in this part of Wales for most of the village, and even people from surrounding villages, to come and see the guests and bride arriving.
So while the invited guests are already seated inside, the bride still gets a very warm welcome as she arrives! Chapel ceremonies are pretty much open invitation – anyone from the village can come in with the bride and sit upstairs in the balcony, and then mingle with the guests outside again afterwards.
We stopped for photos at a random roadside. We were both on and overlooking lands farmed by Carys’s family. Then it was on to the stunningly located Cliff Hotel at Gwbert.
Another lovely tradition is the giving of lovespoons and similar tokens. Children hand these to the bride as she comes out of the ceremony. Can you believe Carys was carrying ALL these round on her arm a good while, before her mum wisely turned them into a beautiful display.
I seem to be piling it on a bit with the Welsh traditions, but here’s another! After the ‘traditional’ speeches, couples will sometimes invite anyone else who might wish to, to say a few words. If it’s known that a couple plans to do this, there will usually be several more prepared speeches! We loved Grandma, she was an amazing character. And Oliver’s two sisters surprised everyone with a video and photo montage of Oliver’s childhood that had both he and Carys laughing and crying in equal measure.
We were really delighted to be part of this lovely wedding and to meet some wonderful families. All the photos are now available to view and purchase on the Clients page of our web site, with a 20% discount on print purchases in the first ten days.
