Anna and Darren got married at All Saints Church in Bisham, this beautiful church is situated next to the river and the relaxed vicar allowed us to photograph from both the front and the back. As a husband and wife team, we can do this without moving!

After the service, as confetti generally isn’t allowed in the church grounds, they arranged for their friends to blew bubbles on them. They left the church, in style, on a boat. It was uncharacteristically hot for the time of year, Anna had been advised to bring a coat! They wanted two photographs to capture them on the boat and also them leaving.

I went on the boat with Anna and Darren, the journey was very relaxing, they arrived at Hurley and had just a short walk through the pretty village to Monks Barn. The couple choose their favourite dish of curry for their wedding breakfast, which was followed by the speeches. This is one of my favourite parts of the day, I love to capture all the emotion, laughter and shocked expressions, as the best men embarrass their friend.

The couple did their first dance to Luna by the Smashing Pumpkins, a lovely and unusual song choice. Their friends and family lit sparklers while they danced.

Many apologies I’ve been behind with this blog, Christmas is a particularly busy time of year for photographers, ensuring everyone receives their gifts on time. I have a few weddings to blog. The first is Lucy and Matts beautiful and emotive wedding at Wasing Park in Berkshire. Lucy got ready in the bridal suite, a fantastic space for photography, while Martyn covered the antics of Matt and his ushers.

They choose to get married in the garden barn, I was excited as we hadn’t photographed a wedding in the barn before. The morning rain held off for the rest of the day, allowing us to do all the groups and photographs of Lucy and Matt in the gardens.

Here are a few of my favourites, I particulary love the emotion between Lucy and her proud father.

Rachel and Max are both graphic designers. Rachel was in her element making things for the wedding, she made 3 bouquets from felt! They took 6 weeks each and were works of art. I loved all the details from this wedding, especially the table plan and miniature flower pot place names. The table centres made great keepsakes.

They choose the same date to get married as two of their grandparents! The wedding held at their local church St James in Finchampstead, it was a relaxed service.

The reception was at Ufton Court, the first time we had been there and it’s a lovely venue for wedding photography. The barn is decorated with fairy lights and Rachel put out lots of games for the children to play outside.

Rachel and Max started the party with a choreographed first dance to The Beach Boys – Then I Kissed Her.

Xi and Rui’s intimate at the charming Aldermaston Manor. Aldermaston Manor has fantastic grounds for wedding photography including a lake, a row of hedges and a flower garden. Inside there is a striking 17th century staircase.

If you are considering Aldermaston Manor for your wedding, the venue also has 33 bedrooms for your guests.

Xi is Chinese and Rui is Portuguese, so they wanted to combine both traditions. Xi got to wear two dresses, a traditional wedding dress and a red Chinese dress. This required two pairs of shoes, the shoes for the Chinese outfit were exquisite. Xi complimented both outfits with a classic bouquet of red roses.

Rui kept the Portuguese tradition of having a group photograph of each couple. Normally we wouldn’t recommend more than 20 groups but they were happy with how long it would take. With rain looming but never happening Martyn managed to get the groups done faster than we anticipated and I managed to get a natural photograph of guest each during the drinks reception.

Xi and Rui changed into Chinese outfits for their entrance to the wedding breakfast. Some heartfelt speeches followed with a few teary eyes around the room. The couple started the party with a dance routine that impressed their guests.

As we left I took a photograph of Aldermaston lit up at night, as it looked beautiful.

I started the photography of Laura and James day at Laura’s parents home, while Martyn followed the groom. There were lots of thoughtful touches that Laura had made, notes for the parents and bridesmaids, plus a mother of the bride survival kit!

Laura had a lovely country theme based on daisy’s, even the bouquet had daisy’s, which is something I hadn’t seen before. The bouquet was hand tied with lace from Laura’s dress.

Laura seemed more excited than nervous. The couple got married at St. Mary’s Church in Hurley. It was a relaxed and emotional service. We were grateful to be allowed to discreetly photograph the ceremony from the front and back.

After confetti and hugs, the guests walked across the road to Monks barn. Laura and James, with help from family and friends spent 3 days decorating it with daisy’s, wellies, bunting and all things country. The guests were entertained by a slideshow, giant jenga and croquet.

The rustic theme was complementing by favours of homemade jam by James and food from Complete Catering. The cake was made by James little brother in-between finishing his exams!

The party started after Laura and James did an impressive choreographed routine. For me their wedding had the real wow factor and was full of personal touches, which really made it special.

Laura and James suppliers were:

The dress was from Stunning Bride in High Wycombe and it was a Benjamin Roberts Blue by Enzoni design. It found it when shopping with Laura’s Mum, Mum in Law and Granny amid many tears!

The florist was Eden Floral Design in Marlow which is owned by a super lady called Anna who had so many original ideas for their rustic, natural theme.

The car is a Sunbeam from around the 1900s which a family friend Howard owns and kindly offered to drive us in.

Laura’s hair was done by Jess from Renaissance hair salon in Marlow and she adored it – especially the little daisies.

The flawless make-up was done by Amanda McKenna

Laura has the enviable job of writing for a wine magazine. The flower boxes were acquired from work.

It’s rare for us to photograph a local wedding; this was our first in our hometown of Newbury! Emily and Phil got married in St Nicholas’s. The vicar was very relaxed, always calming if the bride is a feeling naturally a bit nervous. The vicar gave us permission to photograph the service and even went as far to say that he hoped we got some good shoots. It was wonderful to be given a free reign, however it’s still a church service and not a photo shoot, so we choose to remain discreet. As it was, I was able to move down the side of the church unnoticed my rubber soled shoes and get different viewpoints. Martyn moved from the balcony to the back of the church for the ‘back of the dress’ shots. It was a great service, the choir that Emily sings in did a wonderful job.

The reception was at Aldermaston Manor. We got through the group list quickly but the rain held off. While Martyn was doing the groups, I was able to get lots of natural photographs of the guests enjoying themselves.

We finished the coverage with some photographs of the couple using the lake, the row of trees and the stunning staircase. Aldermaston Manor is a great venue and we are looking forward to photographing there again in August.

Debs and Dave got married at St Andews Church in Bradfield, a pretty village in Berkshire. In the morning it was raining but as Debs pointed out that the colours of the garden looked amazing in the rain. They went for an unusual orange colour theme, it’s a wonderful colour for an autumnal wedding.

Despite the dire weather forecast, as soon as Debs and Dave stepped out of the church, the rain had stopped and wasn’t seen again all day!

The wedding reception was held at Wasing Park, Berkshire, a relatively new wedding venue. In the morning, when we looked around the venue, we came up with our wet weather plan. Luckily the forecast was incorrect and we were able to go into the gardens and get photographs of the happy couple.

Martyn was able to do all the groups outside, while I captured natural photographs of the guests enjoying themselves.

Debs organised the wedding for a few months after Dave proposed. Apparently it was stressful at times but better than waiting! Debs looked so happy to be married, it was wonderful to photograph.

We received a lovely thank you card from Debs and Dave.

Dave battling with the morning wind and rain!

the bridesmaids wore teal which looked striking with orange flowers

Debs wasn’t nervous at all!

the moment Dave first sees his bride…

I love this confetti shot

Suppliers
Debs beautiful dress – Maggie Sottero
Debs videographer shooting in a natural reportage style – BW Video Films

Andy and Mayumi’s wedding at the swanky Fredrick’s Hotel, near to where they live in Maidenhead. We even popped back to their home, to take some photographs using the temple in their apartments gardens!

Mayumi was one of the most relaxed brides I’ve photographed, despite the fact the wedding wasn’t in her first language!

Andy met Mayumi while working in Japan, after Andy fought off the competition, they eventually dated and Mayumi moved to England. It was revealed in the speeches that she told her father she was living with a flat mate. However all was forgiven as he also said how proud he was of Mayumi’s handsome English husband.

Really pleased with the photographs. Many thanks to you and Martyn!

Andy in the morning

Andy first sees his bride

Mayumi’s friend gives the couple an excited look

the couple are given white roses during the service

a little boy comes up to them during the service

I love this one taken off angle of the signing, it shows the guests in the background

some photographs of the couple away from their guests at the temple in their apartments gardens

Mayumi’s joking with her brother

The speeches were in Japanese and English – impressive

the speeches got some great reactions

Jenny and Neil were married at St Peters Church, Cranbourne and the reception was at Lillibrooke Manor, Berkshire. I loved Jennys vintage inspired wedding dress (Sassi Holford) and the vintage flowers. The reception venue was dressed in a country theme with lots of home grown flowers. Jenny’s Mum had been busy all year growing them in her greenhouse!

Jenny is an art teacher and painted the table plan! The table plan was miniature canvas’s of places they had visited.

On the way to the venue, we stopped of at Waltham Place gardens, for some ‘romantic’ photographs of the couple. A big thank you to Waltham Place for your kind permission allowing this. We spent some time doing the photographs of the two of them. Neil, while a good looking chap, is rather camera shy and it took some time to relax him!

The guests and ourselves enjoyed an excellent meal by the Complete Catering Company. We were able to capture more photographs of their friends, the wedding had over 120 guests, as the couple have lots of friends.

After dinner there was the most amazing light, so I persuaded Jenny and Neil to go for a short walk to get some more photographs of the two of them.

Our coverage of their day ended with a fun first dance, Jenny told me she loves to dance. Neil was nervous about the first dance but the guests loved it.

Thank you for all your hard work with this. I am really over the moon with your photographs!

it took many hands to button Jenny up!

Neil photographed much better naturally when he wasn’t aware of the camera

vicar checking the time, is the bride late?

Jenny arrives

Jenny walking to the church glancing at her father

Jenny waiting in the doorway of the church

look at Neils shoes!!!

Jenny hugs her Nan, who is in her 90s

it seems I’m not the only one taking photographs

another tender moment in the car

detail of the vintage inspired wedding dress and flowers

Lillibrooke Manor decorated with home grown flowers

guests photographing the cake cutting

cheers

crying with laughter

this is one of my favourites, the sky was amazing

first dance was completely improvised!

Suppliers
Jennys wonderful dress – Sassi Holford
The caterers did an excellent job – Complete Catering Company

James and Alicia were married in Eton College Chapel, with stunning architecture. The reception was at Queens Eyot, an island in Berkshire!

Another great wedding, I loved their first dance to Hungry Eyes from Dirty Dancing!

We received the DVD today. Thank you SO much. The photos are absolutely breathtaking. Amazing to see how many moments you captured! You will make lots of people very happy, not just James and me!

my favourite from the morning is a reflection of Alicia being laced into her dress and her bridesmaid looking on

the groom and his ushers walking to Eton College Chapel

while I was photographing Alicia, Martyn set these up photographs to show Eton Colleges stunning architecture

the bridesmaids wore brown dresses, which went well with the bright pink bouquets

Alicia before she walked down the aisle captured by Martyn

The architecture at Eton College Chapel at breath taking. James waits nervously for Alicia

bride walking down the aisle photographed from the balcony

the moment the couple first see each other

everyone waves the couple goodbye as they drive off

Martyn used panning to show the speed that the car was travelling at, not an easy shot to get!

the boat to take the guests to Queens Eyot decorated in pink, white and brown bunting

an unposed photograph of the couple

James sister gets emotional during the speeches

Alicia’s talented friend made the cupcakes

I loved James and Alicia’s first dance from Dirty Dancing

the guests danced the night away