Becky and Matt planned to get married in 2020 – but their plans were sadly called off thanks to Covid-19. I was gutted, as I’d been looking forward to their wedding so much! Todd and I had hung out with Becky and Matt in the summer of 2019 in the brief period that we lived nearby, and we consider them friends of ours – we adore them. They’re SO our kind of people. They have cats, a colourfully decorated house, and a penchant for weird things. They also helped Todd get over his fear of the sea, and we terrified Becky by showing her the creature that creates those little sand worms.
The unwedding plans were hatched
When Covid-19 struck and everyone started postponing their weddings, I had an idea. To shoot an un-wedding. A day where the couple get dressed up, eat cake and celebrate their original wedding date. And Becky and Matt were the first couple I thought of. I was THRILLED when they decided to go for it! At first, I was going to take photos remotely (it’s a thing!) but as lockdown relaxed, we decided to hop in the car to their house and join them for a few hours. Secretly we really just wanted to meet their cats.
The poo-covered cat
When we arrived, the first thing we saw were the comic posters in frames that had all been replaced with wedding-themed ones. It was awesome and I knew it would be a great day, they’d put so much thought into it! We then realised Matt was nowhere to be seen. “Oh, he’s at the vet half an hour away,” said Becky. “The cat decided last night was the perfect timing to get explosive diarrhoea all over the place. The long-haired cat.”
The beach blessing – fat men and wet dogs
Matt soon arrived home, poo-covered cat in tow, quickly got dressed (fastest groom prep ever, also best groom shirt ever) and we wandered down to the beach, where their reverend was waiting. She had agreed to come down and give them a blessing on the beach, which was so moving – they wrote their own vows and read them to each other, barefoot on the sand, while an overweight man stood in the sea in the background of all our shots (we used Becky as a blocker in the photos) and dogs came running out of the water eager to finally have the opportunity to shake all over a wedding dress.
Cake, cats, cake and cake
We then headed back to theirs (after stopping for Mr Whippys of course) to bake wedding cupcakes (while the cats watched carefully for any rogue bits of butter to be left unattended). They then Zoomed their families while sitting in a colourfully decorated nook they’d put together in the garden. They even made bunting to go around the garden. It was STUNNING. We didn’t want to go home (not least because there were 53 types of cake) but we left them to their Zoom chat, and they had plans to spend the afternoon playing board games and chilling. Last I heard, they were done in by 9pm – so, a normal wedding day!
If you ask me, it was the dream wedding. Beach, cats, cake, no people and board games in your PJs. Bliss!
