Wow! Another crazy year is over. In fact, a whole decade has rolled to a close. The first ten years of the 21st century have been exciting, traumatic and life changing for me. At the beginning of the decade I discovered my love of photography and, by the end of it, I’ve grown my business to become one of the top wedding and portraiture companies in the UK. I married the love of my life, an event that accidentally landed us on the Oprah Winfrey Show and in Patrick Swayze’s arms.

On the down side of this decade, there was September 11, which is a day that will be ingrained in my memory forever. I have never cried so hard or felt so much sadness. It has unfortunately become a day that set the political and emotional tone of the 21st century.

Hmmm…this post has taken a bit of a maudlin turn. I’m supposed to be talking about my top ten wedding photography memories of 2009. Let’s start over again…

Welcome to the 2009 Boggies, where I, Julia Boggio, reveal my personal top ten wedding photography moments of the year. I’ve been very lucky to photograph some amazing weddings throughout my career. I’ve decided to start sharing some of my favourite moments and some of the suppliers who helped create those moments. So please grab a glass of bubbly, sit back and enjoy my ramblings.

MOST ADVENTUROUS

There was no contest on this one. Lisa and Neil win it hands down! I could tell from their Sex & the City-style pre-wedding shoot that they would be fun to play with. For ages, I had wanted to do a wedding where I could get the bride and groom jumping on a trampoline. Lisa and Neil were completely up for it, but, unfortunately, couldn’t get their hands on one before the big day. They really did try! So imagine my delight when I pulled up to the bed & breakfast they had booked me into and saw a huge trampoline in their front garden. Score! The owners were more than happy for me to bring Lisa and Neil back for a bit of bridal bouncing.

They also indulged my group photo idea, which was based on a film set. The idea was that Neil would be the director and the groomsmen would be fighting over the bride. I brought all the props with me except the Chihuahua (stage left in bridesmaid’s arms).

FYI the bride is wearing Caroline Castigliano. You can read more about this wedding in Bride’s magazine next year.

MOST INSPIRED MUSIC CHOICE

As you would expect, I’ve been to a lot of wedding ceremonies. Nothing in all my years made me smile and tap my toes as much as Steve and Louise’s wedding at Babington House. They hired the ACM Gospel Choir to sing during their ceremony. If you haven’t been to the chapel at Babington House, it’s a small, intimate chapel (where the vicar won’t let the photographer to the front of the church, but that’s another story). As the choir started to sing, it brought all the guests to their feet, singing along and clapping their hands. It truly was a joyous occasion and I couldn’t help but feel completely uplifted by it.

In a close second, I have to mention Nadene and John, who hired Chas from Chas and Dave to play at their pub-based wedding. Being American, I had no idea who they were, but I will never forget all the guests dancing along to the rabbit song.

MOST ENTERTAINING CAKE CUTTING

Personally, I consider the cake cutting to be one of the most anti-climatic moments of a wedding. The couple pose with the knife, I take a few pics, and then they push the knife down a little. The couple always looks at me after as if to say, “Is that it?” Which is why I’ve become an advocate of Cake Smooshing, as I call it. It’s the norm in America, where the newlyweds feed the cake to each other after cutting it. Some couples do it sedately, nervous of getting cake on their clothes; some GO FOR IT! I had three couples this year that happily accepted my suggestion of cake smooshing. All of them WENT FOR IT, but Nick and Chris really take the cake. Ha ha.

When I suggested it to Nick, he said, “Only if Chris says yes,” thinking that there was no way that Chris would have said yes.

Little did he know that Chris already had agreed to it. Enthusiastically. [Insert evil laugh here].

So Nick and Chris win best cake smooshing. FYI Chris is the gleeful one on the left and Nick is the one with cake all over his face.

BEST TRANSPORT

The wedding car is always a big decision. It fits in with the tone of the day and says a lot about the couple and they kind of wedding they want to have. We had a classic 1950’s Chevrolet because I wanted a few American touches at my Wales-based wedding.

There is a two-way tie for this one. I think the top one has to be Nick and Emma. The bride had a long-abiding love of all things green. So they hired a bright green, classic VW campervan. I don’t know exactly who they got it from, but here is a link to the company that James and I hired one from for our holiday in September.

In a close second place is Chris and Charlotte. The funny thing is that they didn’t actually have a wedding car hired for the day. They were getting married in his parents back garden (read more in this blog post). I asked if they had a car so we could go off and do some photos. I didn’t expect much. Thankfully, one of their guests happened to have this immaculate car.

MOST CONCENTRATION WHILE PUTTING ON A RING

I love this photo. I love how the bride’s tongue is poking out of her mouth in concentration as she pushed the ring onto her groom’s finger. This picture of Kevin & Marisa is one of the prime reasons that I think it’s important for photographers to be allowed to the front of the church. I get so angry when celebrants relegate the photographer to the back, as if we are somehow trying to steal the sacred nature of the ceremony. No, we’re just trying to capture heartwarming moments like this for the bride and groom because the day goes so quickly and their memory of that sacred moment is going to disappear if we don’t help them out. Some of my favourite images from my own wedding are from during the ceremony. Okay, climbing down from my soap box now…

Here’s another fun one from their wedding:

BEST MONSOON WEDDING

Although this is an award that I’m sure most brides would hope to avoid, the rain played a real part in the Cardiff-based wedding of Andrew and Rashmi. Both raised in Wales, they still had two different cultures to satisfy at their wedding. On the Friday they held a traditional British wedding in Monmouth; however, there was a real feeling of anticipation from all the guests for Saturday’s Indian celebration.

Never have I seen so much rain on a wedding day. We also did the wedding film and, by the time Simon the Cameraman and I reached the groom’s hotel from where we parked the car, we were soaked through.

We were meeting the groom to capture his processional from the hotel to the Town Hall in the centre of Cardiff. As tradition dictates, he could arrive at the wedding on one of three animals: a horse, an elephant or a tiger. He had never ridden any of them before, but chose the horse nonetheless.

The procession consisted of a band, the groom on his horse, his dancing groomsmen (lots of lightbulbs were screwed in), and the groom’s family and friends.

My favourite part had to be when we were caught at a red light. We patiently waited for the light to change and then continued on our way. When we arrived at the wedding, the women of Rashmi’s family gave Andrew certain traditional gifts, while his crazy groomsmen continued to dance behind him.

And here is Andrew’s beautiful bride, Rashmi, who demurely awaited her prince to arrive on his very wet horse.

YUMMIEST FOOD

My assistant always jokes that her favourite part of weddings is the food. At least I think she’s joking. We work extremely hard on a wedding day, which is why it’s important for us to be well fed.

Sophie and James had a wonderful London wedding in Clerkenwell. They chose Portal, one of their favourite local restaurants, for the reception. The food was amazing, so much so that I brought James back there another time.

Some venues treat the other suppliers who work at their weddings with very little respect or courtesy, which is a real shame because WE PHOTOGRAPHERS MAKE A LOT OF RECOMMENDATIONS. Portal was lovely to us and took really good care of my assistant and me.

If you go, have the Bisaro. It is to die for.

BEST GROUP SHOT

Those who follow my work know that I love my quirky group shots. The ideas come to me from all sorts of places. I could be watching a TV show or looking through a book…I get my inspiration from all around. Most of them are born with the words, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”

With this group shot, I had obviously been listening to Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off by Louis Armstrong. As an American in Britain, I can’t tell you how many times people sing at me, “You say tomayto, I say tomahto”, etc., etc. I thought it would make a fun group shot. The bridal party, of course, had no idea what I was up to with this one, as the pieces of paper I had them holding were blank. I drew the words in later using Photoshop. Ah, Photoshop. I love you.

Ben and Penny had an amazing wedding at Lulworth Castle. You can read more about their wedding on this blog post. They were also featured in Cosmo Bride earlier this year.

BEST BRIDAL ENTERTAINMENT

It’s not very often when the bride and groom get up to entertain the guests. Chris and Amy, both lovers of swing music, hired the Rat Pack Boys to croon on their big day. They are very dear friends and I love them both dearly, so they won’t mind me saying this: both are tonally challenged. But hitting the notes wasn’t what was important; the guests all loved the fact that they put the effort in and I’m sure that in a few years’ time, it will be the abiding memory for many of them. Chris sang his karaoke stalwart, “That’s Life”, and Amy, who actually took singing lessons to help her hit the notes, sang “Things”.

BEST USE OF ME AS INSPIRATION

What does this mean? I hear you ask. Well, I often get couples who say they’ve seen images that they like that they’d like to try on their wedding day. Andrew and Lisa had loads of images they’d like to try…mostly inspired by images they had seen on my website. We gave each of them their own twist, so that the images were different.

For the Bride and Groom in the window image, they actually went around Brighton beforehand to find a window and ask permission for us to use it. I love that we used Fired Earth and got them in the bath tub. Hilarious.

THEIR IMAGES:

INSPIRED BY:

For the KEEP image, they wanted to involve their best friends in the image. Luckily, the KEEP they found was also in front of a restaurant called FOOD FOR FRIENDS. Happy coincidences…

THEIR IMAGE:

INSPIRED BY:

You can see more images from this wedding on the Rock n Roll Bride website in the New Year.

AND FINALLY…

Yes, I know this is more than ten now, but I wanted to give a mention to my favourite cufflinks of the year. Steve generously got these great Vivienne Westwood cufflinks for each of his groomsmen and I fell in love with them on the spot. So I bought them for James for Christmas!

And now I will leave you to your final celebrations of the year/decade. As I write this, the snow is pouring down outside, there is a cat next to me, and a glass of wine waiting in the kitchen. Here’s to a fabulous 2010 for all of us and may we not be doing the below on January 1.