Suffolk Wedding Photography : Laura & Tim

Laura & Tim have hearts so big that you could climb on board and float your way up to the Moon in them. They are both individually and together a tonic to spend time with; downright uplifting souls. They come packaged with an energetic bunch of friends and family that again, are just great to spend time amongst.

Whilst planning her and Tim’s wedding – that was set to take place in and around Bury St Edmunds with a ceremony at a church within the town and subsequent celebrations a little way out into the surrounding countryside at Suffolk Barn – Laura had come across my Web site but didn’t initially make contact with me, assuming that I might be too far away to cover Suffolk.

I’m based roughly half way along the bottom of the UK; surrounded by land through a span of 180 degrees and through the other 180, it’s just sea. Then France. As I look out to sea (I can’t actually see the sea from where I’m sat, though; I can just see my computer screen) Suffolk is about as far to the left of where I am as things get, in the UK at least. Actually, Norfolk is further to the left and I have photographed a couple of weddings in that county, too. Both counties are actually to the left and up a bit also (or behind me, as I act this out with my arms and hands) and were I more properly taking a base line along the coast it would be Kent that is furthest to the left and the leftmost that I’ve travelled to photograph a wedding there has been on the Isle of Sheppey, which as it happens is exactly due South of Bury St. Edmunds. In saying all of this, I should really be describing directions from the standpoint of looking at a map of the UK in its standardly expected orientation whereby, of course, all of these places are over to the right of the country and indeed to my right from where I am located. Also, where I am sat as I write this, I am facing away from the sea. I’ve learnt a lot about the geography of the UK through my adventures in the world of weddings; an understanding of the orientation of things might at times elude me though :~).

Not uncharacteristically perhaps, I digress!

So… initially Laura didn’t make contact with me and searched for a wedding photographer closer to home, but she kept popping back onto my Web site and I’m so thankful that she did so, and that she did then make contact because… well… happy me! :~) I got to do what I love doing and with people that I couldn’t have loved more doing it with.

This is the story of Laura & Tim’s wedding day and it starts with what I believe should become a wedding day tradition for all marrying couples… a wedding day banana… View full post »

Posted in Suffolk Barn, Wedding Photography

Harry Warren House Wedding Photography : Natasha & Thomas

I’d photographed the wedding of one of Natasha’s sisters, Kataya, back in 2012 when the latter married Richard. Natasha and her other sister, Tara, had served unfalteringly and excellently as bridesmaids to Kataya on that occasion. Thomas had served as a hard working usher at that same wedding. Over the ensuing six years, a series of interlinked weddings saw me travelling to Northern Ireland (where Thomas also popped up) and Scotland, and come 2018 it was a thorough delight to return to the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset for Natasha & Thomas’s wedding day.

I have a deep rooted fondness for that part of the world and leapt at the opportunity to head over to Purbeck to meet up with the two in advance of their wedding. I had recently discovered the existence of Agglestone Rock (featured in a leaflet I’d found containing a list of Purbeck sights; it has also attracted some rather humorous reviews on Trip Advisor) and being keen to see it for myself, I suggested to Natasha and Thomas that we take a walk there. I was thoroughly delighted with the rock and at least as delighted again to spend time getting to know Natasha & Thomas, important actors in previous weddings that I’d not – previously – spoken with.

In Natasha, I found a deeply thoughtful and poetic soul; in Thomas, a fascinatingly interconnected thinker. My experience of the rock, of setting foot on Purbeck and spending time with the two of them all combined to leave me feeling greatly at peace with the world; greatly excited at the same time to immerse myself in their wedding day in order to record its story and… this is that story… View full post »

Posted in Harry Warren House Purbeck, Wedding Photography

The Victoria Pub Wedding Photography : Rachel & Ben

Rachel & Ben got married then went down the pub with their mates. Simple as that. Their wedding day had everything that one might expect from such an occasion but they reduced and clarified the philosophy behind it all perfectly, in a manner that perfectly reflected what the two of them are. Having first met each other at the Clapham Craft Beer Co., the two bonded over hoppy imbibements and gratification in sociability.

They found the perfect pub for the job in The Victoria, located on a sleepy back-street of East Sheen in West London. Brilliant, friendly, energetic staff; sublime culinary fare and a perfect selection of drinks a sub-set of which were curated by Rachel & Ben, whose tastes in craft ales I deem impeccable (if only by virtue of the fact that they seem to match mine, perfectly :~). I was impressed by and derived great enjoyment from the fact that the intended vibe of the day came together exactly as intended. It did just feel like an afternoon (and an evening, and a night) in a pub with friends, because it was just that… subsequent, of course, to the all-important marriage ceremony that took place at York House in nearby Richmond upon Thames.

I’ve been bumping in to Ben at weddings – as it happens – since the turn of the decade; a member of a friendship group that I’ve derived great pleasure from photographing the weddings of a number of. It was lovely to catch up with some of them at Rachel & Ben’s wedding, to spend a bit of quality time sitting, eating and chatting with them and to witness them celebrating Rachel & Ben’s turn at tying the knot in the effusive manner that I have grown to become accustomed of from them! It made for a great pleasure too to see Rachel brought into this friendship fold and to spend time with yet another resonantly good character. This is the story of her and Ben’s… day out at the pub (and indeed their marriage ceremony!)… View full post »

Posted in Wedding Photography

Aberdeenshire Wedding Photography : Harriet & Charlie

I’d first encountered Harriet & Charlie, through my camera viewfinder, around a year before their wedding. They had been guests at Emily & Matt’s wedding in Northern Ireland. On a wedding day itself I gather information, visual information, fleeting moments from a bigger story noticed and captured instinctively and intuitively; waves of such moments washing one across another. The story itself, the visual narrative, is something that is forged when it comes time to edit the image set that has been carried away from that wedding and it was during this process a year earlier that it became apparent to me just how marvellously Harriet & Charlie had conducted themselves in their roles as wedding guests. In my role as an image-maker, I’ll admit that I took self-interested delight in how they conducted themselves as, ideally, I want to deliver to my clients images of their guests fully and sincerely engaged in proceedings and enjoying themselves to the maximum. Harriet & Charlie had certainly done so – the images told me so, unshakeably – throughout the day and I thought to myself that I’d rather like to be able to take them to other weddings and plant them in the scene as subjects. It was a particular delight therefore when they got in touch about their own wedding plans; a particular delight to get to know better the character of people that had somehow spoken to me without actually having… spoken with me.

In communicating with Harriet & Charlie in the run up to their wedding and then all the more so in spending time with them throughout their wedding weekend, I took particular pleasure from discovering just how rounded was the sincerity that I had read in the images of them from that earlier wedding; palpable interest in people and firmly rooted kindness towards them. It’s nice to be treated kindly when going about one’s work and on a broader level, reassuring to know one walks the surface of the Earth with people of a certain ilk out there.

I took great comfort too from the kindness of family, being accommodated for the weekend in a little cottage of my own that saw my commute to work being no more than a thirty second walk to where much of the action would be taking place. Harriet & Charlie celebrated their wedding at Harriet’s family home in the Aberdeenshire countryside, a place imbued with a tradition of welcome and hospitality that manifested itself fully not just on the wedding day itself but across the surrounding days. This is the story of their wedding… weekend! View full post »

Posted in Wedding Photography

Warwickshire Wedding Photography : Lucinda & Seb

Every minute of every hour of every day
you are making the world, just as you
are making yourself, and you might as well do it
with generosity and kindness and style.

Rebecca Solnit

Lucinda was once a workmate of Megan, whose wedding I photographed back in 2011 when she married Wayne, and also of Lucy whose wedding I photographed the following year when she married Boyd. I was delighted when she got in touch about her own wedding and her marriage to Seb. I had and continue to have particularly fond memories of both of those prior weddings and the calibre of the people at their hearts. Birds of a feather flock together, as they say, so I felt assured of the prospect of another fantastic experience to be had. That feeling of assurance was indeed perfectly satisfied. In addition to being delighted to receive that enquiry, I was also rather flattered that Lucinda & Seb had not yet set a date for their wedding at the time when contact was made. Lucinda put forward a range of dates across Spring and Summer – checking which ones I might still be available for – and we kept in touch across the span of a few months until everything was in place.

Throughout that process, in meeting up with the two before the wedding – in pixellated form via Skype – and in spending time with them and all of their guests on the wedding day itself I felt personally enriched by my exposure to a wealth of kindness and inclusivity. I enjoyed witnessing all that took place, I enjoyed photographing all that I did; I valued enormously the generosity of spirit I was exposed to in doing what I do.

Lucinda & Seb married at Our Lady & Saint Benedict church in Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire – their priest came out of retirement for the day especially to conduct their marriage ceremony – and celebrated at Wootton Park, formerly a dairy farm that in times of tightening economies in farming had recently been repurposed by the farmer as a venue for weddings and conferences. A fantastic job had been done of it all too. This is the story of their wedding day… View full post »

Posted in Wedding Photography