Some weddings you can call early. Not from the schedule, or the flowers, or anything on the plan, but from the way people are with each other before a single thing has happened. Hetty and Will’s was one of those. By the time I arrived the bridesmaids had already been up for hours, because somebody had booked the lot of them into a Reformer Pilates class at 7am. I have photographed a fair few wedding mornings. That is a first.

103 guests, a village church five minutes down the lane, a marquee full of candles and garden flowers, a pipe band, two donkeys in flower crowns, and a band who finished the night standing in the middle of the crowd rather than on the stage. It was a proper party, and everyone stayed for it.

If you would rather watch the day than scroll it, here is the whole thing as a slideshow.

Getting ready

Hetty spent the morning with her bridesmaids, hair with Studio Six, makeup with Grace Olivia, rollers in, everyone talking over each other. Will had sent a card round, which she read with about seven people watching her face for a reaction. She did not disappoint them.

She wore her mum’s dress. I love it when that happens. There is something about a dress that has already been down an aisle once, and the quiet look people give it when they realise, that you cannot manufacture on the day.

Meanwhile Will and the boys were getting ready down the road, doing what men getting ready for weddings always do, which is stand around helping each other with cufflinks and pretending nobody is nervous.

And then this one. Her dad seeing her for the first time. I did not say a word, I just stood in the corner of the room and let it happen.

The ceremony

The church is a five minute walk away, all honey coloured stone and a very big cedar tree, with the vintage car already parked outside waiting for them. Blossom, the family labrador, arrived in a flower collar and walked herself straight in through the door like she was on the guest list.

Ceremony at 3:30pm, and they had packed it with music. Will waiting at the front with his best man, Hetty in the porch with her dad having a very quick, very private word before the doors opened.

This is what I mean about this lot. The bride is barely halfway down the aisle and someone has already gone.

Vows in front of the stained glass, Hetty laughing over Will’s shoulder about halfway through, and the register signed with the vicar, who by the way was guest number 104 at the reception later.

Then out, to a properly loud church.

Confetti, and then a pipe band

There was a lot of confetti. Enough that at one point somebody gave up on handfuls entirely and tipped the whole basket over their heads, which is the correct decision and gave me my favourite frame of the afternoon.

And then the pipers struck up and walked everyone back down the lane. 103 people following a pipe band through a Dorset village in the late afternoon sun. Try being in a bad mood during that.

Drinks, and two donkeys

Yes, donkeys. Two of them, flower crowns on, baskets on their backs, absolutely unbothered by the whole thing. Kelly’s Donkeys, and I have never seen a drinks reception fill up so fast.

Group shots were quick, partly because Hetty had done her homework and kept the list short, and partly because the ushers decided the best way to finish was by carrying Will off his feet. All 103 got into one photograph and then went straight back to the bar.

Portraits

Will had warned me in advance that he is awkward in photos. He is not. We walked five minutes up the lane, I gave them almost nothing to do, and they spent the whole time laughing at each other.

We were back with their guests inside fifteen minutes.

Cake, and then into the marquee

They cut the cake before supper rather than after, which I always think is a good shout, it gets everyone in one place while they still have a drink in their hand. The cake was covered in iced flowers, every one of them done by hand, and it felt a bit rude putting a knife through it.

Inside, long tables, candles low down the middle, foliage and garden flowers everywhere, fairy lights in the roof. Meadow Wreaths did the flowers and the marquee smelled incredible before anyone had even sat down.

Speeches and the party

Their entrance was full volume, and then the pipes and drums came in during dinner, which is a wildly unsubtle thing to do to a room of people halfway through their main course. Nobody minded. Several of them were out of their seats.

Speeches came after pudding. Funny, then not funny, then funny again, and by the end at least three grown men had gone completely.

Neil and I stole them out for about ten minutes once the light started going, and split the job to make it work. Neil set up and shot while I ran round behind him with the lights and the modifiers, getting them lit before the sky changed. Ten minutes, and we came back with these three. Thank you Neil, these do not exist without you.

Hetty changed into a second dress for the evening, they had their first dance, and Will picked her clean up off the floor in front of the band. Espresso martinis were being poured by the tray at that point, which I suspect is relevant.

29 Fingers played two sets and the floor did not empty once. There was chicken and chips at about eleven, another full set after that, and the singer spent most of the last half hour down in the crowd rather than on the stage. Carriages at half twelve, and people were still complaining about that.

There are weddings that look beautiful and weddings that feel like something, and the very best ones manage both. This was one of those. A church down the lane, a walk back behind a pipe band, a marquee that smelled of garden flowers, and 103 people who clearly had no intention of going home early.

Hetty and Will, thank you. It was a joy from start to finish, and I am still thinking about those donkeys.

With huge thanks to

• Flowers: @meadowwreaths19
• Catering: @victoriablashfordsnell
• Bar: @cartailsandevents
• Band: @29.fingers
• Hair: @studiosix_shaftesbury
• Makeup: @graceoliviamakeupartist
• Donkeys: @kellysdonkeys
• Biscuits: @patisserie.may
• Content creator: @socialsbysassy

And to Neil Redfern, who second shot the day with me and lit the evening portraits with me when we had about ten minutes to make them happen.

More weddings you might like

• Shropshire Summer Marquee Wedding, Mr and Mrs Chitty
• Maddie & Aaron’s Wedding at Merrydale Manor, Cheshire
• Suzy and David’s Christmas Wedding at Colshaw Hall

If you are planning a marquee wedding in Dorset, or anywhere else your people can walk to from the church, I would love to hear about it. Get in touch and tell me what you are planning.