Wiltshire Wedding Photographer - The Old Bell, Malmesbury

Mark & Hanna - 18th Oct 2008

Mark & Hanna had been married before so turned the concept of a wedding day a little up on end this time round. It wasn't so much about the ceremony, more an enjoyable day for all their guests. A very relaxed affair with little formality - sweet.

Bird cage veils - so cool.

Hanna's mum, wondering when I'm gonna get out her photo!?

The wedding breakfast at The Old Bell was lovely. Fine food and a reception room that that suited the occasion perfectly.

THis makes me laugh every time I see it. Not just due to the spoons, but mainly the girls expression next to him.

Wedding photography during the wedding ceremony

This is very much a subject close to the hearts of ALL wedding photographers and is something we have little control over.

Whether you have a church ceremony or a civil ceremony, restrictions with regards what photographic coverage is allowed are usually present. Be it a grumpy registrar, or vicar who feels it not necessary to have photos in the church - I have encountered them all. Some are very reasonable, but often they have not communicated with YOU (their client) what is or isn't allowed.

I suggest you therefore get clarity on what it is they will allow, and ensure this fits with what you want - after all, you pay for their service, so why should they impose restrictions upon you that don't fit with your brief.

Here's an example of when things go wrong - who the photographer is I have no idea, what was agreed before hand, again, I have no idea.

I always talk to the vicar/registra before the ceremony to find out what they will allow. However, if this is different to what you wanted then it's often too late to remedy it. I recently had a bride use the words "you have been given Carte Blanche to shoot whatever you want in the church" yet when I spoke to the vicar I was informed in no uncertain terms that I could not take a photo of the bride entering the church, that I was to stay in one place, not move (at any point...not even during a hymn) however could take a couple of photos (but not during the actual 'ceremony words'). Ummm.... a little different to the ideas I had in mind!

It's worth noting, when I shoot a wedding I awlays have consideration for the event itself and act discretely, with the end goal of producing images to reflect your day (after all, that's what you pay me for).

Finally I'll leave you with these few words I shared with a vicar at another recent wedding - some of you may be surprised by this (but it's quite often the case)

Matt: "Hi, I trust you're the vicar running proceedings today?"

Vicar: "You must be the photographer. I don't like photographers."

Matt: ".............. gasp!"

Really, does anyone desirve to be spoken to like this, not least you'd think by a vicar?

Kingscote Barn Wedding Photography - Simon & Melissa

Simon & Melissa - 11th Oct 2008

Wahoooooooooo, this is going to be my favourite slideshow ever....! Well ok, who knows if it'll remain forever but you get the idea - I'm quite excited about this one. So, you're thinking the photos are gonna be great right, well I'm hoping that's the case. My real enthusiasm though is for the song I've used to accompany the show as it's my summer tune of 2008 - I hope you enjoy it too (unless your watching this at work with the sound off hey!)

Great wedding by the way, Simon & Melissa are super people, and lets be honest a groom who can put down dance moves to YMCA during his speech shows just what a fun couple these two are.

Pics & slideshow below >>>

Leaving St Giles Church, off to Kingscote Barn for their wedding reception.  (Edite to say: You can now see many more Kingscote Barn weddings over on my new website.)

I love this photo of the married couple in the wedding car about to leave St Giles Church, Uley.

Some of the most fantastic autumn light fell across the open fields at Kingscote Barn, making late evening couple portraits perfection.

First dance - how elegant!

And lastly the wedding slideshow.....

Some for me, some for the paper!

Terrible two's. The expressive years. Testing the boundaries. Call it what you will, but Daisy has hit it full force and when you're not watching her, she makes her move!

On Monday we did a little colouring. I turned my back to make a quick phone call, then whoppa Daisy presented herself, somewhat more colourful than when I left her...... beautiful!

Hot wedding at Kingscote Barn.

I had the pleasure this weekend of shooting Simon & Melissa's wedding at Kingscote Barn and the weather was just phenomenal. I'm going to include a few shots of just them for this post, but will follow up later with a slideshow no doubt. Sometimes the days timing fits perfectly to get out and shoot a few frames with the setting sun, and this wedding was it.

Here's a few of my top drawer favourites. It's worth clicking on the images to view them at a larger size.

These two (above & below) are a couple of favs from this season. The shot below uses off camera flash (which yo may have heard me talking about previously) and works great with the setting sun & associated flare.

Chavenage House Wedding Photography - Sam and Lizzie

Sam and Lizzie - 27th Sept 2008

A few days on and here's the slideshow to accompany the photo on my recent blog beneath.

What a super day we had last weekend, hot again! Wahooo. Thankfully this was a huge difference compared to the last time I was at Chavenage House to shoot a wedding as it absolutely poured down... I even wore my wellies that day!

So here's a peak at some of the photos taken.

Pics & slideshow below >>>

Great little entrance to the Church of Annunciation in Woodchester

Apparently it's very hard to get a tear out of her sister - so pleased we just about managed t!

Lizzie's daughter missing all the action sleeping in the back pews!

Chavenage House for the wedding reception

".......ummm, I'm inside, and everyone else appears to be outside?"

That'll be a very big tree at Chavenage, or some small guests?

And for the wedding slideshow.....

I should have said a little more about Lizzie in this post, so now's the chance having received this great email from her. She's been one of my fab cleints that make me laugh out loud every time she sends me an email...and this was no exception.

Matt,

So I was looking at the blog last night, and there I am, in full gurner glory, and I'm thinking, bloody hell, I was worried I wouldn't make the blog at all, and instead there I am, in bits, total facial gurn!! (Can I just say at this point that the thought of not making the blog worried me greatly! Bizarre bride moment or what!!!)

So all day I'm thinking, gonna have to reply with a witty comeback, like when I said be kind regarding the grizzling Lizzie......that's not quite what I meant!!... and then Sam announces we are upgraded to a slideshow................ and bloody hell, I'm back to grizzling again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What I am getting at, is that it is just bloody excellent! Sitting and looking at the slideshow, and all the emotions (lets face it, I have a lot!!) of Saturday are back with me, so I am back to manically smiling and crying again. And that is exactly what I wanted. Couldn't have asked for more.

Half an hour passes whilst I bathe the children and Sam e-mails your blog link to everyone (so if there is a lot of traffic, sorry!) when he finally checks my e-mail and there it is, the gallery of all of it. And I'm back to bawling again!

So my feedback is that I am very very happy, and you can quote me if you like. And I hope you weren't traumatised by getting 'upstairs' with Caroline Lowesley-Williams......................!!! Nice family, a little eccentric perhaps!! Or by our friends, who we believe from the bottle count had consumed more than a lot of Champagne each!!

A lot of comments were made about your ability to be all over the place all the time, not least from my entrance to the church, which you managed to shoot from all four corners!!! Super powers!!!! You have managed to capture every bit of our day without the formality that I dreaded... I reckon that is very clever indeed.

I am very happy, worried about my ability to whittle down all those fab photos to 100, and looking forward to telling anyone who will listen about my fab photographer, highly recommended!!!

Kind Regards,

Lizzie D.