Shiv + Max | July 2024
“We had the best day ever!!”
Ooo if this wedding wasn’t the coolest clientele I’ve ever mooched among! The Brighton-based bride and groom have jobs so retro they almost sound like a parody meme of a Brighton-based couple (Shiv is a weaver and Max a chimney sweep) so it was unsurprising the creative array of guests I found myself chatting to. Painters, potters, poets, percussionists…you name it. They was there.
And it was thanks to one creative in the crowd - much-loved youtuber Rhiannon Ashlee - that I had this gig. I married Rhiannon and Doug last October and she had recommended me. My first experience of having a couple I’ve already married in the congregation of guests for another wedding…makes you feel legit, I tell you!
Guests enjoying post-ceremony drinks at Hoath House
Max and Shiv’s big day was a modern crowd in sherbet colours against the Elizabethan backdrop of Kent’s Hoath House, what’s not to love? And it tickled me that before the proceedings even began - before the bridal party arrived down the aisle - the bridesmaids’ rainbow array of chic mini handbags were laid out on each chair and it looked like London Fashion Week.
Photos by British Journal of Photography award-winner Naomi Davison
This summer has been a string of outdoor weddings and they’ve not all had the best luck in the weather department. But Max and Shiv’s stunning outdoor setting - a sea of white chairs floating on a green lawn for the ceremony and crisp, white tablecloths and parasols for the wedding breakfast - had the sunshine it needed and I was chuffed for them.
A rainbow of reserved babes
The ceremony was fun and relaxed, telling stories from their many years together, and - in a super special touch - Shiv and Max’s writer friend Rae came forward to read a poem she’d written - Love is All Talk - especially for their wedding day. The piece was also printed in the bespoke newspaper guests had on their chairs. I’m seeing these personalised broadsheets more and more at weddings and they’re not only helpful on the day (order of the day, quizzes for quieter moments) but make a lovely memento too. I always nick a copy for my drawer of wedding memories.
Instead of a first toast with champagne these cool kids shared a pint of Guinness
When I think of Shiv and Max’s wedding I will think of Shiv’s (gorgeous) happy face in her (gorgeous) off-the-shoulder dress, wildflower bouquet in one hand, something boozy in the other and surrounded by a sea of adoring friends. And I want to end on a pun about the wedding of a weaver to a chimney sweep being a day just WOVEN with love and it was clear he had SWEPT her off her feet but after this is published I have to live with myself.