Last week we made our way back to the lovely Orchid Hotel in Bournemouth for the wedding of Hazel and Lawrence. We’d only been there once before in June last year. Unfortunately then, it had been to dark and dreary for an outdoor ceremony in the hotel’s courtyard, and this time it was just as changeable. One day we’ll get there.

It didn’t really matter though as we knew we were in for a treat whether we were indoors or outdoors.

The ceremony took place in late afternoon, and as Hazel didn’t want any coverage of her bridal preps we had plenty of time to catch up with Lawrence and Best Man, Chris.

“Nice suits” I hear you say. Lawrence admits he got inspiration from Ian’s clobber from our own wedding. Any grooms looking for more relaxed three-piece suits with custom tailoring should check out A Suit That Fits - it has a 100% hit rate so far.

Lawrence and Hazel’s lovely Tiffany rings.

Things kicked off in the ceremony room where we all waited for the arrival of Hazel and her bridesmaids.

We appeared to have stumbled across the only Bournemouth Registrar who doesn’t let photographers take lots of images during the ceremony (only in dedicated moments). We still managed to get the essentials though.

Dad played the part of make-up artist for the day…

… Whilst Mum was adamant there should be confetti even if nobody else had any.

Hazel and Lawrence have something in common with us, which is that music is a big part of their lives, and felt it should be part of the wedding day too. So, for the table names there were a selection of album names.

There was:

“Five Leaves Left” - Nick Drake

“Rubber Soul” - The Beatles

“Bringing It All Back Home” - Bob Dylan

“Strange Days” - The Doors

“Still Crazy After All These Years” - Paul Simon

“Pet Sounds” - The Beach Boys

“Exile on Main St.” - The Rolling Stones

Each guest also got their own CD as a wedding favour. Lawrence explained during his speech guests could bargain with each other later to try and get the CD they wanted. It was like a CD Swap Shop!

After the cutting of the cake…

… Things kicked off in the Orchid’s beautiful reception room.

The speeches took place before the meal.

Chris wins the award for the longest Best Man’s speech, ever. I think it clocked in at nearly half an hour. A lot of thought was put into it!

All Father of the Brides should have their own tabard. Just in case.

So, by the time everyone had finished their meals it was getting pretty late. But late days means lovely light and more importantly, an empty beach.

Beach shoot done we got back in our car and took Hazel and Lawrence back to The Orchid. Weirdly, they’d booked one of our best friends to DJ. The very enthusiastic and suitably Muso, Chaka Kant. It was just a complete coincidence, but a very nice surprise.

If you’re looking for a wedding DJ who knows her ABC from her ZZ Top then Charlotte is your lady. There’s no absolute laptop playlist in sight. She will mix her little heart out all night, give you a shimmy whilst she’s doing it and even names her compilation CDs appropriately.

From what we hear everyone had a fantastic, fun-filled night!

Congratulations Hazel and Lawrence xx

In true spirit of the day we thought it was appropriate to also whip up a slideshow which you can view below!