Paying It Forward - Katherine and Paul's wedding at The Goods Shed

It was the middle of August, my busiest month ever with 9 weddings and I was bouncing from one wedding to the next. One bounce saw me grabbing a spot of lunch before my train to my next wedding and that lunch was a (freaking delicious) mushroom lasagne at The Goods Shed in Canterbury.

In came Katherine and Paul, with their close family obviously on their way from just getting married.  Before I go on I think it's important to say that when I started my business one of the biggest reservations I had about shooting weddings was being able to handle the social side of it. I've always been pretty shy around new people… heck, I even clam up big time around extended family because I feel like I don't know what to say, I start sentences I can't finish because I lose momentum a few words in. This fear can manifest itself in behaviour that comes across (much to my horror) as me being awkward or rude, which makes me even more scared and unable to function like a normal person My husband is the opposite, he can flourish in a conversation with a total stranger and I just stand there, mouth gaping wondering "how are you doing that? are you some kind of wizard?" But I have found that when I'm working, when I have my camera with me like the world's most expensive security blanket, I can actually hold my own pretty well. I feel confident, warm, open. For someone who finds it hard to interact sometimes I feel an enormous sense of gratitude for this, for what my work has given me. I happened to be thinking about this at the time, how in any other situation the prospect of nine huge social events in one month would have me hiding behind the sofa, but I was feeling excited…. confident even.

It was that gratitude and confidence that convinced me to go over and congratulate Katherine and Paul. Before I knew it, having put my usual crippling awkwardness away for a little while I offered them 10 minutes of my time and decided to pay it forward in the form of these photos.