Some work is just pure gold and this particular job was no exception for many reasons.
Last summer, Champneys launched their stunning afternoon teas and I was invited along to photograph the event for Champneys themselves. That week had been pretty hot and so the plan was to host a beautiful tea party for around 40 select guests on the beautiful lawns to the side of the main house. The setting was perfect, the flowers (courtesy of Petals) and table decorations just breath taking, you couldn’t have asked for a more perfect event.
Amongst the guests were several journalists as well as some familiar celebrity faces who were just wonderful to photograph and chat to – the beautiful Camilla Dallerup, David Seaman and his wife Frankie, Joe Swash and Stacey Solomon, the gorgeous Anna Williamson and Nadiya Hussain, creator of the stunning cake that sits atop the afternoon tea arrangement, to name a few.
During the speeches there were some ominous claps of thunder but, in true British fashion, Champneys staff silently whisked out some awnings to cover the tables so that we could all just keep calm and carry on! Which would have been great if it hadn’t been the most monumental thunderstorm and downpour of the year! Champneys staff were incredible. Getting utterly soaked themselves, they provided tarpaulins to cover the guests as they ran from the lawn up onto the terrace. Having taken some fun pictures of the guests under cover, I was trying to figure out how on earth I was going to get my camera to safety with nothing to cover it when I spotted that Joe Swash had a shirt wrapped around his waist – slightly embarrassed to ask, I decided it was the only way so asked if he’d mind me borrowing his shirt to wrap up my camera, and luckily he obliged!
I was then able to get some rather fun images of the guests being escorted inside from the downpour.
The tea party was quickly and expertly moved to the dining room and once guests had dried themselves off, they enjoyed a delicious array of beautiful treats, not forgetting Nadiya’s piece de resistance of a cake encased in a gold chocolate box that melted when the warm raspberry coulis was poured over – just divine!
