When actors get married, they don’t just get married, they choose the finest and oldest music venue, they invite their talented and gorgeous friends to perform, their band are top West End players, ‘Sounds of Swing’, they dress like movie stars (their Mothers dress like movie stars too), they choreograph their first dance and execute it beautifully, they forgo the serious posh nosh and provide good ol’ hearty pie and mash, and they make it look like it was created effortlessly in the blink of a beautiful eye.
From the outset I had a clear vision of how Mark & Kirsty’s day would look and feel and this filled me with much excitement. So on a brisk Sunday morning with a spring in my step, I headed to Wilton’s Music Hall with its flaying walls of chipped plaster, creaking floorboards, dilapidated exterior and an atmosphere that could never be created but has to be earned by putting the years in. Romance? Pffft…Wilton’s invented romance.
A quick 5 minute walk away and I was at the getting ready venue on the eleventh floor of The Grange Hotel with an incredible city backdrop and a beautiful bride ready for the camera. Kirsty looked absolutely stunning…like a 20’s movie star preparing for an Oscar. Her mother Maggie also looked fabulous in a rather special gold number (Kirsty’s Dad was assured it came from a very *cough* inexpensive shop) and then there was beautiful Fleur, whose wedding I shot last year, and who I was thrilled to see again, especially when I heard there would be a new little arrival gracing the world shortly ;-) My heartfelt congratulations to both Fleur and Dom and of course the rest of the family.
There are two pictures from the getting ready shots which keep making me laugh, the first is Mike sewing Fleur’s spangly belt (apparently he does all the sewing in the family!) and the second is Dom doing an excellent Butlins/80’s Wall Street trader impression. I’m so sorry gentlemen, but I couldn’t resist ;-)
The Hoiles and Goldthorp family are hand-on-heart some of the loveliest people I have had the pleasure to work for. They are great fun and so easy-going and it has clearly rubbed off onto Kirsty and Mark who were very relaxed throughout. They both looked incredible and as much as Mark disliked being photographed, I think he cuts a pretty dashing picture.
I would like to finish by wishing Kirsty and Mark my BIG congratulations and best wishes. I’ve had a wonderful time working for your family and getting to know you and I hope that your lives together will be full of love and laughter and those magical things called music, dancing and theatre. Without them, life wouldn’t quite be the same.
With much love,
Loukie xx
