Bride takes a ride on a SUP in her Wedding dress

Helen contacted me some time ago with the idea of a trash the dress shoot in the snow. Brilliant, we both planned the shoot but when the snow came work got in the way and by the time we got a window the snow had turned to slush. But as Helen is a keen paddle boarder I thought that the idea of a bride on a paddle board might be a nice idea.

On a nice warm summers day we met nice and early near Lilliput sailing club, all ready in her outfit waiting in the car Helen was getting some interesting looks from the passing traffic. I think that from the moment she unstrapped the board from her car she must have been the most photographed person of the hour.  Every smart phone that went by seemed to get pointed in her direction, I wonder if she started trending on twitter?

Helen calmly took to the water and proceeded to head west at a great speed, I thought this was due to her great skill on the board but it became clear when she turned round to come back that her dress was acting as a sail in the wind. Helen never complained, she was definitely up for it. After a few minutes of paddling up and down the pontoon with me scurrying along the shoreline we were about to get the big finale, a jump into the sea.

I opened my mouth to get Helen some abuse for making it look hard and letting her just how hard it was walking ankle-deep in the water when… splash! I tripped over a rock and landed on a pointy submerged rock damaging my knee and one of my cameras. I tried to soldier on but it was obvious I needed to get sewn back together at the local A&E. The sailing club did their best to put me back together again so I could finish the shoot. We managed to get back on the water for five minutes for the big jump. Well worth the effort.

Helen you were a great sport. Adduki, my insurance company were great and sorted a camera for me next day, bank holiday, for my wedding and A&E rushed me through knowing I was a wedding photographer who’d lost a camera before a wedding. My knee will heal and these images will last forever.

I love my job!