Some wedding photographs become more significant with time.

On 30 August, I photographed the wedding of Kayley and John Stubbs at The Chester Grosvenor.

For Kayley, getting married at The Chester Grosvenor had been a dream. She wanted her wedding at one of Chester’s most iconic hotels, and she got her wish.

Just over a month later, at the end of September, the hotel will close its doors.

That makes photographing one of its final weddings feel particularly special.

A dream wedding in the heart of Chester

The Chester Grosvenor has been part of the city for generations. It’s one of those buildings you immediately associate with Chester, and over the years countless couples have walked through its doors to celebrate their weddings.

Kayley and John will now be among the last couples to do so before the hotel closes.

But on their wedding day, none of that was the story.

The story was simply about the two of them.

The excitement, the nerves, family and friends arriving, the celebrations and all those little unscripted moments that make every wedding completely different.

One of my favourite moments

This photograph of Kayley arriving is one of my favourites from the day.

There’s a lot happening. People are helping with her dress, the car door is still open and Chester carries on around her.

And right in the middle of it all is Kayley.

Smiling, bouquet in hand, with her veil caught beautifully in the air.

I could have tried to control every element of the photograph, but I think that would have taken something away from it. I much prefer the fact that it feels like what it was: a real moment from her wedding day.

Photographs become history

Knowing that The Chester Grosvenor will close at the end of September gives Kayley and John’s wedding photographs another layer of significance.

First and foremost, they are photographs of two people getting married.

But over time, photographs often become something else too.

They record places, buildings, fashions, people and moments that eventually change or disappear.

Kayley dreamed of getting married at The Chester Grosvenor.

She did.

And I had the privilege of being there to photograph it during the final weeks of an extraordinary chapter in this historic Chester hotel’s story.

Sometimes we think we’re simply photographing a wedding.