This wedding was exactly that. I’d been excited about it ever since meeting the Barabara and Ben all those months ago. The way they described the day and what they wanted, it was utterly apparent that this would be a truly beautiful affair. And so it proved to be.

Barbara is a yachtswoman – and a phenomenally good one at that – and so are her two bridesmaids. Ben is a cyclist and guide. So we knew the weather would never be a problem! Just as well as when we arrived it was throwing it down in that way that only coastal rain can be. But no-one really seemed too worried about it which is perfect for us!

The stunning dress? Barbara’s mum. The most gorgeous flowers? Barbara’s bridesmaid’s mum. The gleaming red MGA? Ben’s dad. The location? Barbara’s sailing club. The catering, the cake, the bar? Their mates. I tell you, with a bunch of talented friends and family like this they could do weddings for a living! Everything about it was what you’d wish a wedding to be!

And we had a ball! The photos are funny, joyous, romantic and just a little emotional. And they tell the story of a wonderful day with a ridiculously chilled crowd as seen through the eyes of a very very happy photographer (and I must have appeared that way as Barbara sent us a picture of me laughing as I worked!)

And all that in spite of the rain (and yes, the horizontal stripes in the photo of the lads is exactly that – horizontal rain! Nice!)

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

I love working the Crazy Bear. Not just because it’s an ultra-cool venue but also because the clients we have there are always some of the nicest you can imagine.

Nancy and Phill (their little lad, Oscar) are just perfect clients and their wedding was everything you could wish for – although half a dozen guests did sadly find themselves on the wrong end of ash-canceled flights which was a shame. Still, it didn’t appear to slow any of the guests down (including the partners of some of those absent I might add!)

A beautiful day at one of our ultimate venues, a lively crowd (more laughter and revelry than is, frankly, to be expected at a wedding – particularly during the fantastically well-written and presented speeches!), a lovely and photogenic couple and the Oxford Gospel Choir thrown in just for good measure. This, I feel, is the definition a photographer’s dream wedding.

We’re going to be showing the guys their images over the coming weekend and I’m hugely excited as we have an absolute bag-full to go through! Brilliant!

Let us know what you think.

Take care
Cheers
P.

So it is with Catharine & Jon’s wedding album. I know, I know I’m biased but still – this book is just beautiful – and very big. Oh, and very heavy too. Bend-the-knees-not-the-back kinda heavy. With 24 inch wide pages when it’s opened up (with no crease line or cut down the middle of each spread) and the most sumptuous Bomber Jacket leather cover, this is one serious wedding album.

It does help, of course, that their wedding at North Curry Church near Taunton in Somerset was stunning (and that both Jon and Catharine were the greatest fun to work with!) Every moment of the day from the arrival of the bride in a priceless VW camper van, that had been lovingly restored (and upgraded!) to the beautiful church to the couple throwing some remarkable (and slightly unlikely) shapes on the dancefloor at their reception at Kersey Mill. It was all just perfect.

So with those images in your head, have a flick through their album design. I think Sara, our fantastic album designer, had quite a lot of fun with this one – and it shows! The design brings the absolute best out of the images: this is an album that I think many people will be shown (just a guess – I know Catharine!) and hopefully everyone who sees it will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed capturing the images and creating the finished design.

Let us know what you think,
Cheers
P.

Had a great meeting this morning with our album designer (who’s both lovely and a great designer!) to set the layout ideas running for this year’s albums.

I have to admit we’re hugely proud of these weighty tomes – they’re really really beautiful things, all custom-made and finished in some of the most sumptuous leathers and materials available. Everything from mirror finish patents, to exquisite linens and the softest leathers. All skilfully wrapped around state-of-the-art (yup, there is an art to this) prints and bindings, with each page – even though they’re incredibly thick – able to lie completely flat and open to allow those big panoramic images we’re known for.

Gorgeous albums that will, quite simply, bring back irreplaceable memories for a lifetime.

But even with such stunning craftsmanship, our albums wouldn’t be much without beautiful designs inside them. And that’s where our designers come in. That and the small matter of a load of images to play with! We regularly get together to chat through the kinds of designs that we (and our clients) will like and what sorts of photographs we should be shooting to make it possible. That way we know that the photography and albums will continue to develop and evolve so they’re always fresh and exciting!

This particular album is from Debbie & Kit’s wedding last year up in Chilton.

Gorgeous wedding. Stunning couple.

Absolutely fabulous album.

Blimey, I’m beginning to sound like a creative.

Pass the Bolly darling. Mwah, mwah.

You have to say that winter weddings are always a bit of a gamble but this has to be one that paid off. And then some.

So often when a client mentions a winter wedding and the dream of snow, I can’t help but picture a typical steely grey and gloomy day with limited light – not that that affects the photos particularly but it’s certainly not in the opening of the Bride’s Guide to Romantic Weather Conditions*.

But this was so far from that as to be unreal. True, it was cold. Blisteringly so. But worth it!

Christina and Kieran are two of our most laid-back clients to date and I reckon they had to be to keep smiling through the sub-zero (no, I’m not kidding) temperatures. And just a tiny, almost medicinal, consumption of Moet/Guinness seemed to help a little!

Set in Farnham, Surrey (not normally known for its winter wonderland qualities) this was a gorgeous wedding in almost unheard of conditions – at least in this country – with a client and their family who were an absolute joy to work with.

Now that’s how to end a season! Stunning!

*and yes, that is a fictional book title. I made it up and have no idea if it exists. But wouldn’t it be a great book to write?! It would be right up there with JR Hartley’s finest!

Le Manoir is always a favourite of ours and this wedding was everything that this venue does so well. Admittedly, the weather was terrible (that cold, piercing damp that we do so well in this country at this time of year) but, with the possible exception of a few photos we couldn’t capture outside, it made little difference.

I hope Sarah and James had dreamed of a cosy, romantic wedding in one of the world’s most beautiful venues as this is exactly what they had. With an open fire roaring and spitting in the corner and the Christmas tree lights twinkling over their ceremony, this was a truly wonderful wedding.

And following that, there were 7 courses of undoubtedly the most delicious cuisine imaginable. But then, that’s what Le Manoir is all about. A total immersion of the senses into a world of tastes and smells and attention to detail.

Sarah and James picked their wedding venue well. And they deserved it. They and their family were absolutely lovely to work with and I think the pictures we’ve captured show a truly romantic day that they’ll all remember for a long time to come.

Ah, this has been a great season.

Cheers
P.

We’ve been unbelievably busy this year and so it’s actually quite rare for either of us to get some (relatively) uninterrupted time to sit and write our blog. So I’m endeavouring to make up for that now with the aid of my trusty laptop and a free wifi connection.

Claire & Nick’s Wedding was held at Kersey Mill – a beautiful old mill and grounds that sprawl across the Suffolk countryside. We’d had this wedding booked well over year ago (and we’d been looking forward to it ever since!)

It was worth the wait. A beautiful day, a stunning location and a fantastic crowd. Claire and Nick looked like they were having an absolute ball, as did their guests. One thing that we loved about this wedding was the opportunity to grab some shots of the bride and groom in the grounds and the mill, in the most stunning summer evening light.

Not every bride and groom wants to go off on their own to create some images for the album, but Claire and Nick really wanted some cool images of the two of them. So, once the guests were happily consuming their way through Suffolk’s wine and spirits, we wandered off into the grounds to play in the most glorious evening light! The images, I think, speak for themselves (though you wouldn’t know it given how long my blog entries are!)

Let us know what you think!

Take care
Cheers
P.

We do seem to be blessed with cool, classy venues around us with Le Manoir, The Crazy Bear and Notley Abbey all within a 10 minute drive from where we’re based!

Anyway, I was up at Raymond Blanc’s little pad again last week for Christina and Richard’s wedding. And it was wonderful. The weather was great, the guests were great, the food was great (according to the guests – I nipped home for lunch as I don’t really like to photograph people eating – seems rude somehow), the gardens were stunning (again, according to the guests, many of whom appeared to be incredibly knowledgeable gardeners!) and the service, as always, was exemplary.

And this extends to the guys up at the Bat & Ball pub in nearby Cuddesdon which is where I met the bridal party first thing in the morning (it felt like dawn as it was a pretty early start!) and was immediately offered a cup of coffee by the landlady which was hugely welcome!

So all in all, a fantastic day full of beautiful moments, plenty of emotion and an awful lot of affection all shot against the familiar sandstone backdrop that is Le Manoir. Beautiful.

Let us know what you think

Cheers
P.

We spend a lot of time and effort keeping our website and blogs up to date (well, reasonably up to date) and it was great to know that it works – Elizabeth found us from her home in California through Google!

I knew this was going to be a great wedding the minute that we met Dave and Elizabeth at our studio and so it turned out to be. They were married at Penn St. Church and had there reception at Notley Abbey which is very close to us – and is utterly stunning.

The weather? Well, what can I say about the weather? Given our pretty dramatic summer, you’d be forgiven for thinking a couple from California were nuts for choosing an early autumn UK venue for their wedding! However, fortune favours the brave as they say and it couldn’t be more true. It was pretty funny to see a crowd of people used to very hot weather, sitting in an English church trying to keep cool by using the orders of service as makeshift fans!

I am not sure what our American guests made of it all (particularly the formality of an English wedding) but with two gorgeous (and very old) venues, glorious sunshine and a beautiful couple who could not be more in love, it was truly a wedding that Richard Curtis could write a film about! Stunning!

We were absolutely thrilled to be able to offer our services and be part of such a special occasion. Although the location of the wedding was not exactly local, we created a bespoke wedding package to fit perfectly with what they were looking for. This package included our usual pre-wedding session that was held on a glorious summer’s evening on Wandsworth Common, close to their home in London.

We are always meticulous about getting the details and logistics right in advance of the Big Day – and this is even more important where large distances are concerned – however it was well worth investing the time as everything went without so much as a hiccup and we have some absolutely beautiful images that are going to make a truly memorable wedding album for Caitriona and Shaun and their family.