Bridal Fashion Shoot at Twelve and The Great Hall at Mains!

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Wow – what a week since this shoot! Emma & I are frantically packing our bags ahead of our trip to New York tomorrow to shoot Karey & Kate’s wedding – I really can’t wait! But before we head off, I wanted to do a ‘proper’ post about this shoot last week.

I wanted to organise a shoot that would result in a set of seriously inspirational images for those brides that want something truly unique on their wedding day. Those girls who want something cool and contemporary, but aren’t afraid to weave a tiny bit of tradition in every now and again. Something that would make brides to be really get thinking creatively about their own wedding day. I love working with brides and grooms who embrace every little detail of their day, who are excited about every single element, who are discerning with the suppliers they bring in to help them realise their wedding day aspirations. And I’m a very lucky photographer who seems to get to work with these kind of brides and grooms every single week!

First up was getting a venue on board. Second up was thinking that shooting for one day in one venue would be far too easy to organise, so I decided I wanted to shoot in two venues in one day. Two contrasting venues from a visual point of view but with the same underlying passion and commitment to hosting and catering truly magnificent weddings. So I went knocking on the door of Twelve Restaurant & Lounge bar in Thornton and The Great Hall at Mains in Little Singleton and explained my vision and why I wanted them to be involved. Huge thanks to Caroline from Twelve and Adele from TGHM for immediately agreeing to open their doors to us and being so enthusiastic and excited about being involved.

So the venues were sorted. Next on the agenda, some magnificent gowns were required. Cue more knocking on doors! I went to see my very good friend Nikki Graeme, the owner of The White Closet vintage bridal boutique in West Didsbury who immediately agreed to lend us some beautiful Charlotte Balbier, David Fielden and Claire Pettibone gowns – wow. These are some serious names.

Next up, girls to wear said dresses. Two of my very good friends, the very beautiful Olivia and the equally beautiful Emily were recruited to be models for the day – shooting ‘real’ girls on a shoot like this is really important – that’s what brides are after all. They’re not models, they’ve not been involved in shoots before, so it’s great to use girls that brides to be can genuinely identify with and actually realise that they can look as amazing as they do!

I also recently met the owner of bespoke jewellery company, Coco & Me, Amy Rhodes, who by complete coincidence is also a model! In contrast to what I wrote above, it’s also great to have somebody with experience involved in a shoot like this. Amy could really push her posing to the extreme which is really important when you’re shooting images meant to inspire.

So we’re almost into the images now, but there was somebody else I knew I NEEDED to be involved. The ultra creative and talented Jane Thompson from Flower Design. This shoot was all about pushing the boundaries and creating images and details that inspire and I knew Jane would supply us with something extraordinary. I wasn’t disappointed…

My amazingly talented wife was brought in to look after make-up and wardrobe (you’ll see just what an amazing job she did a bit further down the page) and I also invited along my great friend and the only videographer I recommend, Tom Harrington from Silk Wedding Videos to shoot a ‘behind the scenes’ film for us.

Finally, I invited some of the North-West’s most exciting and talented wedding photographers to come and shoot on the day – to work with them shoulder to shoulder, to bounce ideas off each other and to work together to create something really special.

Here’s a few of my favourite images I shot on the day…

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I love this David Fielden number that Amy is wearing – very cool and just that little bit different…

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Olivia looked amazing in Charlotte Balbier’s ‘Flo’…

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The Great Hall at Mains – what a venue! (unfortunately we didn’t get any exteriors of Twelve as it bounced it down in the morning!)

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Emma doing her thing!

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Another Charlotte Balbier gown (Marilyn) for Olivia – and again, something just a bit different for those brides who really want to do something a bit edgy when it comes to their dress – love it!

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How awesome are those Flower Design pedestals? And what about that bouquet! Truly amazing and truly different!

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Emily looks soooooo cool – VERY greek goddess in David Fielden’s ‘Wallis Simpson’ gown…

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And finally, Olivia just couldn’t leave Charlotte Balbier’s dresses alone! This is ‘Morgan’ and is ultra cool and contemporary in what is quite a traditional pose and setting – which shows you don’t have to go completely over the top with every single set up – sometimes simple is the best way to go, especially when you want the venue to lend it’s natural impact to the image as well (which TGHM does in bucket loads!)

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What a fabulous day it was. I’m fortunate enough to work with some of the very best wedding professionals and suppliers in the UK on a regular basis and it was fantastic to be able to work with them on our own project where we didn’t quite face the same time pressures as we do on a wedding day (although I was quite strict with getting us to the respective venues on time!)

Huge thanks once again to everyone involved, especially everyone at Twelve and The Great Hall at Mains, Flower Design, The White Closet, Olivia, Emily and Amy, Tom Harrington and last but no means least, Emma for doing an amazing job with the makeup and wardrobe and for assisting with every other little thing that needed doing on the day!

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Categories: Fashion