Sarah

Their chosen venue was the Village Hotel, for both the ceremony and reception.  The registrar was excellent, with no unnecessary limitations and the events manager Jenny kept the day flowing well.

The Village is  a large and capacious building, but as there are no grounds we’d pre-arranged to take the couple down to Priory Park – just a short drive away – for the all-important photos of them alone.  This is such a lovely spot with many photo opportunities.

Here then is a preview of 60 images from Emma and Tony’s wedding day.  The rest of the set will be available to view in our Client Area once the couple have returned from honeymoon and seen their presentation.

Click on the thumbnails to see the full image – use the left/right arrow keys to navigate through the set.

We’ve been friends with these two for a few years now and many of the guests who attended were also known to us.  This does change the dynamic of our day a little.  First and foremost, we’re there to do a job – just because it’s the wedding of our friends doesn’t mean it’s any less busy or there’s any less work to do.    However it also means we get to sit down with the other guests for food and of course later in the evening the cameras do finally get put away before we return to the party.

Dave and Nicki has chosen the popular Westmead Hotel in Hopwood, just over the Birmingham/Worcestershire border.  We’d not worked here for well over a year and it was nice to see some of the improvements they’ve made. However the venue still has no proper grounds, so we had a get a bit creative for the shots of the two of them alone!

They’d gone for a slight HarryPotter  theme, with their tables named after various characters from the books and their chosen music for their ceremony and first dance taken from the films.  The fabulous artwork for the table map, name cards and menus was all created from scratch by another of their friends, professional illustrator Dave Jones.

The couple had opted for one of our guest message books – using images from their pre-wedding shoot, which we did some weeks ago.  As we stayed at the wedding much later than we would normally do, it was great to be able to see the book absolutely plastered in messages from the guests (including us!).  This is something we never normally get to see. Later in the evening, Dave had a little surprise for Nicki – an a cappella version of the old Frankie Valli song “Can’t Take My Eyes Of You”.  I must say, he did a pretty good job!

We’d like to say a big thank-you to the couple for not only inviting us to their big day, but actually hiring us to photograph it too.  It was a great privilege and we hope our work does the day justice.

As usual then we have a preview of images from the wedding day.  The entire set will be made available to view in the Client Area once Nicki and Dave have returned home from their honeymoon in New York.

The vicar at St Leonard’s was welcoming and friendly, allowing us to work almost unimpeded and giving probably the best reading of 1 Corinthians 13 we’ve ever heard.  This is a bible reading we hear frequently at church weddings and is a particularly beautiful verse.  It’s not often we hear it read with such conviction.

As there was another wedding due just after, we kept Claire and Lee back for just a few minutes after the ceremony to get some photos around church before moving onto Henley.

After the meal and speeches, we took the couple off on their own across the golf course.  The gorgeous evening light was in total contrast to the drizzly rain we’d experienced throughout most of the day.

Here then is a preview of images from Claire and Lee’s wedding day.  The rest of the set will be available to view in our Client Area once the couple have returned home from honeymoon and seen their presentation.

Their chosen ceremony venue was St John’s church in Hagley – right next door to Hagley Hall.  However their reception was a few miles down the M5 at Grafton Manor – a venue we know well and one we will be returning to in the next few months.

St John’s is a particularly picturesque church and while my view towards the front was a little limited by the internal structures, we were allowed to do pretty much as we pleased.

Grafton Manor is a venue we’ve worked at several times before and it’s always nice to return.  Here we did the family group photos before everyone went in for the wedding breakfast – dodging the rain showers throughout.  After the meal, we took Natalie and Phil off for a tour of the rear gardens for their ‘couple’ photos.

Here then is a preview of 60 images from Natalie and Phil’s big day.  The rest will be made available in our Client Area once the couple have returned from honeymoon and have seen their presentation.

Click on the images to see the full versions.  Use the left/right arrow keys to navigate through the set.

This was the first time we’d worked at Dodmoor House and we were impressed.  A small, but beautiful venue in converted farm buildings with enough gardens and ‘interesting’ original features for photo opportunities, with excellent staff and food!  It’s one of those intimate, privately-run reception venues we love working at and we very much look forward to returning.  A big thank you to Carolyn who helped the proceedings run so smoothly!

So here then is a quick ‘sneek peek’ of images from Garth and Nicola’s day.  If you attended the wedding, the rest of the set will be available to view in our Client Area once the couple have returned from their honeymoon and seen their presentation.

The church was packed for the hour-long service which featured  a brilliant video put together by Ben’s brother, showing how the couple met – but using Lego people!

Following the service and after a few family group photos, we kept Ben and Hannah back at the church for a few minutes for some photos of them alone, before moving onto the reception at The Forest Hotel.

As The Forrest has no grounds, we took Ben and Hannah off for a quick tour of the block, using many local features for photo opportunities.  We’d scouted this out a few days before so we knew in advance the spots we wanted to use, including a traffic island, a disused garage door and the soon-to-be-demolished shopping precinct!

Ben and Hannah were tremendous fun to work with and completely up for any ideas that came to us.  It was a great wedding to work on and we’d like to thank the couple for looking after us on the day and being such good sports.

So as usual, we have a preview of 60 images from Ben and Hannah’s wedding day.  The rest will be made available in our Client Area once the couple have returned from honeymoon.

Click on the thumbnails to see the larger image!  Use the left/right arrow keys to navigate through the set.

As usual, we have a set of preview images here.  Click on the thumbnails to see the larger image and use the left/right arrow keys to navigate through the set.

The ceremony was held at Studley Parish Church – or to give it it’s full title, “The Church Of The Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, Studley” and Michelle and her dad were transported there by magnificent horse-drawn cart, courtesy of the Grafton Carriage Company.

The church is very old indeed – built around 1105, and has a reasonable level of internal light (at least for our cameras!) .  It also has a rear balcony, meaning we can get a high-and-wide viewpoint, which always helps give the ceremony photos a bit more grandeur.  Due to the limitations imposed on us by the church, we had to stay at the back, but with Sarah in the balcony, me at ground level and both of us using different lenses, we were able to get a nice variety of shots during the service.

As there was another wedding booked in shortly after, we opted not to do any formal group photos at the church and we had to be quick getting photos of Michelle and Andy before they made their way by horse and cart to   The Abbey Hotel in Redditch.  This is a popular reception venue and one we’ve not worked at in some time.  As usual, their food was excellent (and we got all three courses – thanks Michelle and Andy!).

So here’s 60 pictures covering the time we were present.  The rest of the set will be available for guests to view, once the couple have returned from honeymoon and seen their presentation.

Click on the thumbnails to see the full image.  Use the left/right arrow keys to navigate through the set.