Destination Wedding Photographer Tuscany | Coni di San Bonifacio (Part 1)

It's fantastic as a wedding photographer to shoot at new venues.....and they don't come much better than Conti di San Bonifacio in Tuscany, Italy.  A balmy 28-30 degrees, on a hillside wine resort with olive groves for a little dappled shade, super :-)

Darren and Suzanne had the most perfect spring wedding.....relaxed to the point of almost being horizontal.

With hundreds of photos from their wedding to show I'm going to make this a two part blog.....starting with preps and ceremony.




Great spot for a pool with view like that.  The hilltop wine resort of Conti di San Bonifacio



Wedding dress by Amanda Wakely.  Wedding shoes by.......well you'll have to guess - Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin, Vivienne Westwood.....maybe?




Darren's sister had this lovely fascinator  for the wedding day.





Off to the little Church in Tatti, Tuscany.  Tucked away (hard to find), yet charming in an understated Italian way.







Grooms Mum & Dad.  'One' of my (many) favourite photos.






Cool hat for a wedding huh?



Those will be Olive Green Bridesmaid dresses then.  2011 - the year of green bridesmaid dresses and wedding themes!


The courtyard just outside the church with Italian locals watching on.





Apparently this is THE BEST wedding photo from the day - according to Suzi.



Mum came in all Rock Star on us! :-)







Not a dry eye in the place - well except for Suzi who found the whole day a laugh a minute!









Now here's an interesting idea for wedding ceremonies.  It's called 'warming of the rings'.  They're passed around the congregation before being handed back for the giving and receiving of rings by the wedding couple.  Cool idea, and a really nice touch to get your wedding guests involved.




Ahh this may need some explaining.  Well see the ipod, yeah.  Nigel started the exit music just a little too soon.  Classic....the face says it all.









Check out the bling.  Suzi is know for liking 'pork scratchings and Diamonds'.





Some locals watching on from their balconies and windows.







Is it me or does this wedding bouquet look heart shaped?
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Wedding Photos Tuscany, Italy

It's fantastic as a wedding photographer to shoot at new venues.....and they don't come much better than Conti di San Bonifacio in Tuscany, Italy.  A balmy 28-30 degrees, on a hillside wine resort with olive groves for a little dappled shade, super :-)

Darren and Suzanne had the most perfect spring wedding.....relaxed to the point of almost being horizontal.

A full post of photos will follow shortly, but in the interim here's a selection in the slideshow.

You can also 'like' my Facebook Business page and see plenty more photos from the day.

Anyone looking for a destination wedding photographer drop me a line or visit my website (www.mattdavisphotography.net) for further information.

Barnsley House - Cotswold Wedding Venue

Barnsley House, what a cracking wedding venue.  Not only is this the perfect Cotswold Wedding Venue, but on a warm spring day, with a lovely couple and incredible guests you simply can't get much better than Will & Kellys wedding.
It was a wedding with yet another international contingent, with Wills (aka Bill) family coming from America, and Kelly's being from South Africa.  It was only a small wedding (by some standards) with around 40 guests.  This made it an intimate affair and the day was very well planned, with the ceremony at 4pm, evening dinner around 6pm, followed by drinks outside at eight.  I'm sure more weddings should follow this theme, so if you're reading this and have a small wedding it's certainly worth considering.
So without further ado, get a coffee, sit down (as I've gone waaaaaay over board on the number of photos featured) and take a look at some photos from the wedding.




I've photographed a couple of weddings at Barnsley House before, but never have I covered an outdoor wedding ceremony......and what a day for it - prefect.



Wedding shoe detail photos.  Not every bride wants or even likes them........I however decided to take a couple of options on this occasion - so (a) or (b)?  You get a little more flavour of Barnsley House interior design in (b)........so for that reason it gets my vote!





Why do curlers amuse me??? I don't know, but for some reason they make for a fine photo IMO.


Williams sister was blowing kisses at her son after he woke up from his afternoon power nap!  








The boys were great fun to cover and with them only being 20 paces from the bridal suite it was super simple to stop by for a few pre wedding shots.






You may like this photo, you may not, but it has a sense of movement (as Will puts his jacket on) and I kinda liked it!





It's soooooooo tiring having your hair done huh!











Will and his sister



I'm seeing a green theme for bridesmaids again.  Must be the 4th or 5th wedding this year.  Works well in the garden setting too huh?


Dum dum de dum.  More a stroll across the garden  than a walk down the aisle.







For those wishing to know, it's not always possible to get a photo of the 'ring going on'.  Why.....welll too many hands, people and too much bad light usually make it impossible.  This time it worked a peach though.




Possibly one of my favourite photos from the wedding.


To read more, CLICK on the left hand side link.

Italy - Tuscany, Sienna and Pisa

With a wedding in Tuscany to photograph it would have been wrong to just fly out and straight back again, so Ali and I took a short break and explored some of the beautiful cities of Tuscany too.

Quite a pretty spot to plan your journey to Sienna.  Map, Sat Nav, Rough Guide and Water - all the essentials.

The view from our table - ummmmm nice.

Tuscany certainly has some pretty towns.

This is the view of Sienna as we drove over the hill towards it.  Note: It's not always best to take photos AND drive, but worth it on this occasion.

We stayed right in the center of Sienna with this superb view from our hotel room.

Possibly my favourite photo of the holiday.  Simple and sums up Italy nicely.

At this point you should definitely stop viewing if you suffer from vertigo (or whatever the equivalent to it is, when looking up from the ground - a lot).  Certainly makes your neck ache.

Click the READ MORE button (far left) to continue with this blog post.....and many many more photos of Sienna & Pisa.

Destination Wedding Photographer Tuscany, Italy.

Photographing weddings doesn't get any better than when in Tuscany at the beautiful wine resort of Conti di San Bonifacio. 

It's been a busy week at for Matt Davis Photography with this destination wedding making up my final wedding to shoot in May.  It's never all rosy though and this usually hits home as you sit in the airport departure lounge watching your flight status change to delayed, due to the discovery of an unexploded WWII bomb at Pisa Airport!. 

The full blog will follow shortly but in the interim congratulations to Darren & Suzanne on their amazing wedding in Tuscany.  Here's a sneak peek....

Mr & Mrs relaxing by the pool - well alright, posing for a photo! :-)

Fairly appropriate I guess as the venue Conti di San Bonifacio (which Darren and Suzanne independently found) has now been submitted to the popular boutique hotel travel site mrandmrssmith and is taking bookings for weddings on a regular basis now.

Wedding albums - Dumbleton Hall

Simon & Liz recently collected there beautiful Matted Wedding Album, so before it left me forever I took a few photos to blog.  It was a unique wedding in that it snowed 'heavily' and with a black tie wedding theme made for stunning pictures with Dumbleton Hall providing the perfect backdrop
 For anyone considering a winter wedding you can see the full blog post and a slideshow here.  


A 40 page wedding album....compared to my 30 page sample album is certainly the daddy!









A blanket of snow and 'warm' setting sun...........not your typical British wedding.





Liz also had parent books to accompany her main wedding album.