Serendipity!

ser·en·dip·i·ty [ sèrrən díppətee ]

noun

Definition:

1. discovery of something fortunate: the accidental discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful

2. gift for discovery: a natural gift for making pleasant, valuable, or useful discoveries by accident

I know - you're thinking - whats he on about.....?

Well, last May, I was on holiday in Portugal with Emma and our friends, Nelson and Jan.

One evening, sitting with a drink watching the sunset on the hotel balcony, a feller called Neil came over and asked me to take a photo of him and his girlfriend Gill. I remember thinking how he seemed really wired and full of nervous energy but really didn't expect what was to come next. I took the snap on their camera and walked back to back over to Emma and my friends, when they all kind of gasped, looking past me. Spinning round, i saw he'd dropped to one knee.

So, i grabbed my little Fuji F30, and managed to fire one or two frames off. Gill obviously said 'yes' becuase next thing they're hugging and kissing, and we were first to offer our congratulations!

At the show that we were (it turned out) all booked into, guess which poor member of the audience gets called onto stage? Our newly engaged friend Neil - to this day, every time i hear Sister Sledge singing "He's the greatest dancer"it makes me smile! Despite the strict 'no photo' rule, i couldn't resist getting him again!

Afterwards, we said good night and I gave them a card, telling Neil to e-mail me when he got home to Dublin and I'd send him the files which I duly did. In all honesty, the poor little Fuji struggled to get an image at all in that half light, but it managed well enough for the magic moment to be forever preserved. Later on, Neil's best man and his girlfriend would turn one of the images into a wall canvas as a wedding gift.

I was absolutely thrilled when they asked me fly out to Dublin for their wedding, which took place yesterday and following an absolute nightmare trip on Ryanbloodyair, I made it back this evening - an hour ago in fact! It was only possible because the wedding was a thursday, as I'm off tomorrow for Lee and Laura's wedding at Chislton Park.

It just goes to show how important emotion and content that are important - and how 'that' moment can never be repeated. At heart, I guess I'm a bit of an ole romantic and this wedding meant such a lot to me. Neil and Gill are two of the most lovely, genuine people I've ever met and it was an absolute honour to shoot their wedding day.

It was fabulous wedding (and my first visit to Ireland!) and I've added a taster below with the two images that started it all. More will of course follow when the weekends out the way!

Having just downloaded their wedding pictures, I'm delighted to be able to say that they're slightly shaper than these!