Writing From : England

I’m slightly embarrassed about how long it’s taken me to write this blog post, but every time I sat down and began typing it felt as if my words just didn’t do my most recent experience in England justice. I felt privileged to second shoot for Hannah, the photographer behind Anna Beth Photography, in the quaint town of Ludlow, England! As with each time I second shoot a wedding, I learned different ways of doing things while taking a slight step back with the wedding day. Not only that though, this particular wedding taught me so much more.

Before I go into all quirks and lessons learned, we have to talk about the flight to Manchester! I’m not a person that finds flying particularly stressful or difficult. I quite enjoy it really! So I get to the airport, check in, go through security, get to my gate and wait- pretty standard, no real issues. Then I look up and see a flight to Orlando on the screen. So obviously I do the natural thing and panic. The representative at the gate desk said she had no idea about a flight to Manchester and at that moment they announced a change in gate. A huge sigh of relief came over me and I hustled to our new gate.

The new gate was so over crowded and again, Manchester wasn’t on the screen. Another announcement said we were switching gates, again. This happened once more until we were directed onto buses that took us to the plane on what seemed like the runway. I’ve never experienced anything like that with all the gate changes and ultimately getting shuttled to the plane.

After finally getting to England, here are some things that I learned:

• Customs is much easier and quicker with a baby (Greyson is my skip the line ticket… I now appreciate him as a travel buddy even more!)
• SatNav is referred to as a person, and he will most likely mislead you at some point (Ya know, the GPS)
• Even though it’s English, it’s still a foreign language that makes not so lovely words sound adorable (the loo, anyone?)
• Lovely is England’s ‘Cool’
• “The Salway Arms” “The Ludlow Arms” “The Kings Arms” Almost all pubs are named “Arms” … I need to Google why! They also all have the same ‘logo’ and font. I loved the aesthetic!
• Sheep roaming freely is the most amazing thing. They stole my heart!
• Traditional weddings are intimate and lovely (see what I did there?)
• When the sun is out you run to get bridal photos no matter the time! Hannah and I captured some incredible bridal portraits while the sun came out for a good 10 minutes!
• You’ll get rained on even if it’s just a bit on your wedding day- and it’s kind of amazing and romantic.
• The countryside is breathtaking and is, even more, green and lush than Germany (which I didn’t think was possible!)
• You can literally win a large lottery for having a postal code!
• In Manchester chapstick is a liquid. Long story short– expect an interrogation if it’s in your purse, not your liquids bag.

Needless to say, by the end of the weekend, I was speaking like I grew up in England! I got a lot of, “Oh, I could listen to your accent all day” to which I promptly replied “My accent?! I could listen to your accent forever! It’s beautiful!”

We all had to agree to disagree on that one 😉