Karohemd's World

On Friday, pinkapplejam and raggedy_man aka hardcore_genki got married and probably should now change their names to pinkappleman and raggedy_jam as they now carry each other's names. :D I'm so happy for them not just because they are perfect together but also because it was such a perfect day.



All the guests be they friends or relatives from both sides got on really well and everyone had fun. I met many awesome people and all those wonderful drawings by pinkapplejam's artist friends in the wedding book made me feel almost a bit inadequate.
I also had a bit of a pang of envy during the reception when the DJ played some Rolling Stones and raggedy_man's parents stopped mid-conversation to storm onto the dancefloor. My parents aren't that cool. :o(
Mentioning cool parents, one of my favourite shots is the one of raggedy_man's dad channeling Cab Calloway during his speech:



If you click on that photo and then on the link for the set, you can see all the photos from Friday and I wrote about it here.

I left just before 11 because I was knackered and had a headache from fuzzy vision.

Saturday was part 2 which involved drinks at the Pickerel, a visit of the Cambridge Folk Museum, a guided punt tour along the Backs and back, cocktails at The Snug and a dire dinner at Loch Fyne. Blog post here and photos via the following shot:



On Sunday I slept until noon, crawled out of bed, moaned and slowly got going and tackled the rest of the photos on my hard disk, publishing them on flickr, burning them on DVDs for the couple and their families and uploading highres shots for printing to photobox.

Dear pinkapplejam and raggedy_man, thank you very much for inviting me and allowing me to be part of your happy day. I am really happy for you (and I'll see you tonight to pass on your present :D).

Today two of my best friends got married: raggedy_man who's been a dear friend for 15 years and pinkapplejam who I've known since they started going out and it was fantastic.
The wedding was held at Hotel Felix in Cambridge and as it was such a nice day, the ceremony was in the garden in, fittingly, a gazebo. The disadvantage of this was that it was quite noisy with traffic, tweeting birds, binmen and, just as raggedy_man was saying his personal vows, an ice cream van (which actually was rather appropriate). However, these issues only affected the audience and the official bit went along without a hitch. As the couple (now bearing each other's names in double-barrel fashion) emerged (pinkapplejam in a beautiful, scintillating red dress and raggedy_man in a more traditional morning suit with an appropriate top hat), their smiles couldn't possibly have been bigger:



There were cheers and confetti from all sides as people mingled and congratulated the newlyweds and photos were taken.



After lots of mingling and chatting, we were ushered upstairs where tables were laid out named after various cats (I was on Hector) with a great mix of people from both sides, friends and family) on each table and name tags, menus and tags designed by pinkapplejam. The menu consisted of a reasonable ham hock terrine (which could have done with a bit of either mustard or horseradish), a very well cooked piece of chicken with pomme boulanger and cabbage and a lovely choc mousse served with raspberry coulis, a hazelnut biscuit and creme fraiche. The slightly minty chocolate truffles served with the coffee were excellent. I usually can't stand mint chocolate but these had just the right amount of mint that left you with a clean, fresh taste in your mouth.

Then, the speeches: pinkapplejam's dad did a lovely, briefish speech on how much his kids meant to him, raggedy_man and pinkapplejam about how much the other meant to them, Nayyar's Best Woman speech was lovely and kind while robinbloke's Best Man speech picked out more fun (and embarrassing) memories from their friendship. raggedy_man's dad was last with more fun and "interesting" tales from Andy's youth and provided one of my favourite shots of the day:



Then we were ushered downstairs again where we mingled on the terrace and in the bar while the upstairs was prepared for the reception.
That was good fun as well, the music wasn't objectionable (they had trained their DJ well), a cake was slaughtered and a buffet (which included some rather fine roast beef) demolished. Nobody kicked up a fuss, nobody got excessively drunk, nobody behaved embarrassingly.
I don't think it could have gone any better.
As I'm knackered, I'll close this with a shot of the first dance:


More photos on flickr. A lot more tomorrow. I was glad I wasn't the official photographer as I woke up with fuzzy vision and had two brief technology failures and the light on the dancefloor was so weak it was very hard to focus properly. :/

So, congratulations again to pinkapplejam and raggedyman. I am very happy that you are so happy together. Long may it continue.

ETA: The album with edited photos is now up on flickr.

These are just a few impressions, quickly processed on the laptop on the day/evening.

I'm all done:
Flickr set
Photobox album for ordering prints
Nifty slideshow

When ordering prints, remember to choose an aspect ratio of 3:2 (e.g. 7.5x5") and deselect "Shrink to Fit".

Please pass on the links to friends and relatives.

The first preview is here and the full flickr set is here, which will be updated as I go along. There will be a photobox album soon so people can order prints if they want.

  
 

( Bigger and a few more )

I won't be providing prints (except those I've selected to go into the portfolio as part of the wedding present) so anyone who wants some can order direct from photobox:

Wedding Album
(these are the same photos as on flickr but these are the hires ones for printing)

They have a variety of sizes available and are reasonably priced, and the more prints you order, the cheaper they get.
IMPORTANT: make sure you select a 3:2 aspect ratio (6x4, 7.5x5 etc) or you'll get white borders or cropping.

There's also a funky slideshow.

autumn_storm and twentypence, please pass this link on to friends and families.

Saturday was entirely taken up by autumn_storm's and twentypence's wedding:
- Detailed writeup
- Photo previews: One Two
- All photos so far (reception to come)
What a wonderful day! Much love and happiness for the glorious couple!

Sunday was taken up by sleeping, processing photos and watching Spooks.

was wonderful. Just a brief one, full writeup tomorrow.

The bride - as expected - looked absolutely beautiful and very happy indeed and the groom smashing in his grey suit and equally happy.

The ceremony (civil only) was short and to the point, very twentypence.

There was much faffing and milling about and taking of photos afterwards before moving on to the reception venue where after another wait the speeches happened and then finally the buffet was opened. By the time everone was starving so it was soon reduced to very little. ;o)

Then dj_slingshot opened the disco properly and the relaxed part of the evening started, with obviously the newlywed couple taking the first dance. There was much dancing and other sillliness afterwards and I got to DJ for an hour, too.

I took shitloads (over 500) of photos, of which 100odd will probably make it online. Of those, there are a few absolute stonkers, if I may say so myself. A tiny preview follows, a bigger one will be posted tomorrow evening and the rest as the week progresses and I get through them.

  

( Bigger and a few more )