Cheshire wedding at styal lodge - cheshire wedding photography by arj photography®

Cheshire Wedding Styal Lodge

Jen and Nick’s Cheshire wedding at Styal Lodge

I love Nick and Jen. I do. They’re two of the funnest, funniest, happiest people I’ve met and Jen has the most brilliantly dry sense of humour. And I loved their Cheshire wedding at Styal Lodge – one of the closest venues to where I live but a place I’ve fallen in love with over the years, mainly because I just adore the family who run it. It is full of their hearts and souls and that’s what gives Styal Lodge it’s special sauce. And that’s why such brilliantly wonderful people as Jen and Nick choose to get married there.

Someone asked me this week why when I blog I post the images in a random order. Well I’ll tell you. That’s how I see weddings. I’m not there for the chronology – I’m there for these beautifully random iconic moments that happen in and around the chronology. Things happen in a pre-defined order at weddings – getting ready, ceremony, drinks reception, food, speeches, party. And of course I’m there to capture “the wedding” but these are just events, not moments. I care about moments – iconic moments.

The second image below is one of the most meaningful hugs I’ve ever seen at a wedding when Nick’s mum came to see him after the speeches. You don’t need to see a load of other images from the day first for that photo – that iconic moment of life – to make sense. It would also mean all the portraits are clumped together in the middle just because that’s when they were taken. Chronology is boring. So I choose random. Always!

Jen and Nick’s wedding at Styal Lodge had no dance party. Because, you know, restrictions. But as they gathered around a fire pit and made s’mores with their friends in the Styal Lodge garden as dusk fell I smiled to myself and realised the best thing about each wedding, each couple, each of these days of random iconic moments is that each story is truly different and a party can be a party without music and dance floors. People are resilient and weddings are brilliant. Magic happens, you know.