Rivervale Barn wedding photography - The birth of baby Ava

Well this is the one we've all been waiting for, one of the happiest days of Gemma and Jack's life, only it turned out to be the birth of their beautiful daughter Ava and not the wedding they had been planning! So here is how the day went for us.

We arrived at Rivervale for midday as planned where we were met by Hayley who told us that Gemma was 'having a few contractions'! Ok, so we'd all made a few jokes about it as we knew that Gemma was two weeks from her due date but having turned up on the day, we really weren't expecting it to actually happen. So after letting the information sink in we made our way to the honeymoon cottage to see Gemma and her bridesmaids who were surprising calm. Gemma was sat in a chair with a glass of water 'ignoring the contractions' with her mind fully focused on walking down the ailse to marry Jack. She looked beautiful having already had her hair and make-up done and the dress (the second one!) was hanging up willing to be worn. As each contraction came Gemma was silent and just closed her eyes and then quickly updated her labour app on her phone.

By 12:50pm Gemma seemed to be having stronger contractions and it was becoming clear that she was becoming less sure that she would actually reach the ceremony. The guests started to arrive and as Jack was asked to go through to the honeymoon cottage, the whispers started. By 1:10pm Gemma had decided that it really was time to go to the hospital. Coming from Portsmouth, they had no idea where the nearest hospital was so Hayley took control calling Frimely Park to let them know they were on their way and sent Lyndsey with Gemma and Jack to the hospital. After they had left Hayley made the announcment that they had gone to the hospital to check how she was getting on.

While we waited for news, we decided to take the bridal party to the garden to get some pictures as they girls looked beautiful in there bridesmaid dresses and the boys didn't look bad either! As we were in the garden Hayley came out with some news. Gemma had had a baby girl called Ava at 1:37pm, mother and baby doing well!!!!! The cheer and emotion that went up at the venue when the news came through was just incredible, everyone in tears, including us. To make it even more amazing Hayley had made the announcement at exactly the time Gemma should have been walking down the ailse.

After the initial excitement died down a little, Phil asked the mother of the bride if the happy couple wanted him to head over to the hospital, expecting to be told no, but after checking with the groom it was a resounding yes! So with the Ava just an hour old Phil headed to the hospital with both sets of parents. Phil said to me afterwards that he's not quite sure why he felt so nervous, but he was terrified, we're used to working under pressure but he said these felt like the most important images he'd ever taken.

Gemma and Jack asked for the celebrations to go on without them so their guests sat down to enjoy the fantastic food and even the speeches happened. For the first dance Darren (Innovents) got all of the guests up on the dancefloor which was great. We knew that Jack was planning to make his way back from the hospital so we set up the photobooth a little later so that he could enjoy the end of it and when he finally made an appearance the roar that went up the barn was electic. Darren played 'For he's a jolly good fellow' and the party could then really start.

What an absolutley unbelievable day this was, it's certainly one that we will never forget! A big thank you to all of the staff at Rivervale who were fantastic and a special thank you must go to Hayley who ran the day perfectly despite the rollarcaster ride that we were all on! Also despite the fact that there wasn't an actual wedding, Cherubs had still done a fantastic job dressing the barn.

So here at last (after all my rambling!) are a few of the images from the most incredible day, to us the first image says it all. x Vicky x





















































































































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