Sarah & Andrew’s wedding feels like a LONG time ago now and the main reason I haven’t blogged it on here yet is that we were lucky enough to have it featured on Brides Up North wedding blog – but it still needed a place on my blog too!
Sarah & Andrew were married at the amazing Sandhole Oak Barn in Cheshire and it was lovely as always to work with my lovely friends from Top Table , Top DJ Andy Murphy and the best band in the wedding business, The Coolers!
Here’s the story of Sarah & Andrew’s winter wonderland wedding
I LOVE winter weddings I REALLY love winter weddings at amazing venues with amazing brides and grooms – and I got pretty lucky with these two as their venue falls into the ‘amazing’ category as do they!!!
I love photographing weddings at Sandhole Oak Barn – it’s such a stunning venue. I was particularly looking forward to Katie & Paul’s wedding there as I was getting to work with my lovely friends at Top Table Caterers (who always do an amazing job and their food is gorgeous!) as well as The Coolers (one of my favourite bands) and top wedding DJ, Gary Mills and I got to work with the awesome guys from Reel Vision for the very first time – what lovely chaps too!
A great day and night was in store for us all!
So I started off in the morning at Katie’s Mum and Dad’s house in Disley to shoot some gorgeous bridal prep photos…
Congratulations again Katie & Paul – and THANK YOU so much for the Tequila!!! (Katie & Paul honeymooned in Mexico and brought me the most amazing bottle of Tequila back!)
…Jonny Draper Photography!!! How awesome is that?!?!
A massive thank you to all my amazing brides and grooms who voted for me to be shortlisted initially and a huge thank you to the judges at The Wedding Industry Awards for recognising what I do
It is a huge honour to have won – I was standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the best wedding photographers not only in the North West, but in my opinion, the UK, and to be judged as being the best is something that I can’t quite get my head around…
This blog post contains a single image from each wedding that I shot within the voting period (which was REALLY hard to choose!) as an extra thank you to my amazing brides and grooms for trusting me, for pushing me to raise the bar at every wedding, for not thinking I’m a little bit mental with some of the suggestions I sometimes make and for voting for me in these awards. Thank you so much to each and every one of you
These images are in no particular order – I love them all equally
So here we go:
A big thank you once again to all of my amazing brides and grooms and a special thank you to the following people for all of their help, love, advice, support, constructive criticism, recommendations and mickey taking (not necessarily in that order and all of those things don’t necessarily apply to everyone in the list below
Emma
Chris & Pete Draper
Jo, Paul, Megan & Jake Pike
Kate & Ant Roberts
Clare Draper
Keith & Pauline Latham
Lisa, Simon & Jacob Johnson
All of our respective extended families!
The Higham family at Styal Lodge
Tom Harrington from Silk Wedding Videos
The Heath family at Heaton House Farm
Annette, Rene & Nic from Top Table
Jane & Jason Thompson from Flower Design
Collette Northover from The Belle Epoque
Howard Wing
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So now on to the national finals in January in London! I’m excited to be heading there with some of my great wedding industry friends who won their own respective categories, most notably my great friend and TOP entertainer, Howard Wing, to see how we get on against the best in the country…we can dream can’t we…???
With all manner of exciting things going on at the moment, shooting weddings at home and overseas, being in the middle of opening our very own Bridal Boutique in Cheshire and just generally being up to our eyes in it (!) has meant that my blogging has taken a bit of a hit recently… So today is a brief round up of what I’ve been shooting over the last few weeks and what you can expect to see more of on my blog in the coming days and weeks! I’ve also got features that will be appearing on RocknRollBride, English Wedding, Brides Up North and Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, over the coming weeks so lot’s of new things for you all to see very soon!
So let’s start with a peek at Sarah & Nick’s wedding in Santorini from early June…
Laura and James’s Mitton Hall wedding yesterday – check out that table centre by Flower Design – awesome!
Baby Lola’s Christening from last week…
Lucie & Andrew’s Castlefield pre-wedding shoot from a couple of weeks ago…
Nicola & Mark’s Mitton Hall Wedding from Friday (I was there twice in one weekend!) Fortunately, even though the weather was shocking (it improved slightly in the afternoon to ‘torrential’!) Nic kept her sense of humour about it and we got some stunning photographs
Andy & Seb’s beautiful Styal Lodge Wedding on Saturday – amazing day and great to work with my lovely friends at Styal Lodge and Top Table as always (thanks especially to Poppy and Rene for looking after me!)
Wow – what an amazing day at Sandhole Oak Barn for Carly and Ian’s wedding! I’ve had a LOT of fun with these guys since I met them last year (flaming cocktails anyone?!) and I always knew that their day was going to be something special. They just wanted to have a great time celebrating with their friends and family and get some great images along the way. I was lucky enough to be working with my great friends Annette and Rene from Top Table Catering (thank you so much for looking after so well as always ladies!) and it’s always great fun to work with the BEST wedding band out there – The Coolers.
Here’s a few of my favourites from Carly and Ian’s amazing day…starting with meeting up with Carly in the morning at Sandhole Oak Barn…
I popped down the road to meet Ian and some of the chaps in the pub…!!!
And then back to Sandhole Oak Barn to see how the morning was unfolding…
Love a cheeky bit of colour!
Wow – champagne reception outside in February?! Amazing!
The cake was a big talking point on the day…!!!
Some gorgeous group shots by the stunning lake at Sandhole Oak Barn…
And just time for a couple of minutes with Carly & Ian before they were seated for the speeches…
GREAT afternoon yesterday with Carly & Ian in Manchester! Gorgeous weather, gorgeous couple – I didn’t need anything else! We started and finished in The Northern Quarter and also used a few other nooks and crannies in the city centre.
What started as a pre-wedding shoot quickly turned into a fashion shoot! Carly & Ian know how to throw some serious shapes! Check out the little sneak preview below…
***Disclaimer*** I didn’t make Carly & Ian do this! They just took their shoes off and jumped in! ***End disclaimer***
I’m thinking of introducing this into all of my pre-wedding shoots…we must finish with a cocktail that’s on fire…!!!
Great fun yesterday guys! REALLY excited about your big day atSandhole Oak Barn and looking forward to working with my great friends from Top Table Cateringand the BEST band out there -The Coolers!
Yey! Another GORGEOUS Styal Lodge Wedding! Jess & Mike are the loveliest couple and I was so pleased that the weather was perfect for them. They got to hang out with all their friends and family on the Styal Lodge suntrap that is their terrace – what a way to spend your wedding day!
So a little sneak preview to give you a flavour for their gorgeous day, starting with Mike, fully uniformed up having just arrived in his Lotus Exige (in layman’s terms, it’s basically an Elise but better!)…
What a dress!
The ceremony really did have everything…so emotional…
…with a few laughs thrown in for good measure too! Click here to see what was going on…!!!
Guard of honour courtesy of Mike’s Navy colleagues…
How great does the lodge look?!
Just before the wedding breakfast was served, we hotfooted over to the platform (thanks for the lift Georgina!)
After the wedding breakfast the beautiful evening light was too much to resist…
How about a ‘midseason’ review then? I thought I’d showcase my favourite 20 images shot at weddings so far this year. The rules? Only one image per wedding is allowed and I’m not allowed to waffle on for ages about boring technical things! A simple sentence with each image to explain why it’s my favourite from that particular wedding.
The images are in no particular order – I love them all equally!
So we start with a gorgeous shot of Ruth of off Ruth and Andy who were married at The Ashes in April. I love it’s ethereal (ness!) That is all!
Dawn and Phil and the surprise organised by her friends at school – this is Dawn’s class forming a guard of honour with hockey sticks on her arrival at church! What’s not to love?!
Emma & Pete. Drinking with a helping hand from their friends. Need I say more?!?!
Jacqui & Will at Styal Lodge. A beautiful wedding for a beautiful couple. They’ve gone back to London now and I miss them. Sniff….
Sarah (off of Sarah & Martin) and her girls giving it both barrels on the bowling green! Love it!
A timeless portrait of the quite simply stunning Neelum (Neelum & Shabab) at Haigh Hall. Gorgeous.
Leona and Will at Sandhole Oak Barn. This was a hell of a wedding! I was lucky enough to sit on the bridesmaids table for the wedding breakfast – what an experience! (Thanks to CB for looking after me and Katy and Katie for frightening me to death!)
Sian and Dave at The Inn at Whitewell. I actually saw one of their friends comment on Facebook that this shot summed up their day. The weather, the happy vibe, the excitement. So that’s why it’s here! ‘Cos I agree!
Mel & Jivko‘s Conway Castle wedding. This shot is all about Jivko’s flick of the veil!
My sister and her husband. Kate & Ant at our favourite Italian restaurant, The Tarantella in Poynton. What an amazing day…
Jordana & Ben and their awesome bridal party. Cool as anything.
Jenna & Chris at Mitton Hall. Because this is the shot that Jenna and I had talked about for months leading up to their wedding. And we nailed it exactly as she imagined. Perfect!
Hannah & Jason on the platform at Styal Lodge. Taking advantage of the moody sky and proving that it’s not all about bright sunny days!
Catherine (off of Catherine & Will) and her girlies. Sometimes waiting until a little bit later in the day for certain shots is totally worth it…
Sam & Aaron at Duncombe Park in North Yorkshire. Because they look amazing in what is a completely amazing venue.
Nicky & Graham at Styal Lodge in Cheshire. Because I got nettled!
Laura & John at The Villa in Wrea Green, Lancashire. They had a table for two at their wedding breakfast! How cool?!
Catherine & Richard and their gorgeous bridal party at Lytham Hall. Owning the place.
Possibly the closest wedding I’ll ever do to my front door! Lisa & Alex’s ‘Secret’ West Didsbury Wedding. This shot just sums up everything about the coolest part of South Manchester…
So that’s it so far! Gorgeous couples, gorgeous venues and all round gorgeousness! Plenty more to come the rest of the year which I’m sure will be just as fab as the first half of the year has been!
Wowsers. Yesterday was just incredible. The most beautiful bride and groom, the loveliest family & friends you could ever wish to meet, an amazing venue and caterer and more Charlotte Balbier dresses than you could shake a stick it!
Leona & Will were married at Sandhole Oak Barn in Cheshire and it was perfect in every single way.
Here’s a slightly extended ‘sneak peek’ (I tried to keep it under ten images but their were too many beautiful things to share with you!) starting off with Leona’s incredible Charlotte Balbier gown, Eden – which is from the 2011 English Tea Party Collection…
The bridesmaids (all 7!) were going to be wearing gorgeous Amanda Wyatt gowns (hung on the rack on the left!)
The bridesmaids had gorgeous Charlotte Balbier hair accessories too!
Love this!
Charlotte was actually one of Leona’s bridesmaids and made sure everyone looked stunningly perfect! Busman’s holiday?!?!?
Leona. Quite possibly the most stunning bride ever.
Leona & her girls on arrival at Sandhole Oak Barn…
The ceremony had everything! Tears, laughter, mispronounced lines that I suspect Will will never be allowed to forget!!!
What a day for it!
Annette, Reeny & the team at Top Table had done an amazing job with decorating the venue and the food was amazing as always (I can vouch for that first hand as I was lucky enough to be seated on the bridesmaid’s table!)
The fabulous Zoe Chiotis performed during the wedding breakfast…
After the speeches I spent a few minutes with Leona & Will shooting some gorgeous images of just the two of them (and sheltering from the thunderstorm!)
First dance time! Gorgeous!
That’s it for now!
Congratulations once again! Big thanks to Leona & Will and Leona’s Mum and Dad, Kath & Rob for making me feel so welcome – like part of the family!
Thanks also to Charlotte B for looking after me on the scary bridesmaids table! There was jager and everything!
Wowsers – what an incredible day yesterday was! Dawn & Phil got married in their local church in Widnes and then we made our way to the amazing Sandhole Oak Barn in Cheshire for their reception.
The wind and rain from the previous day (and the morning!) had disappeared and the drinks reception was held on Sandhole’s gorgeous terrace – something that none of us had been banking on this early in the year! So everyone was absolutely delighted!
A little sneaky peek at a few shots from yesterday which really do give a great feel for the kind of amazing day it was…
Starting off with the ‘guard of honour’ on her arrival made up of the kids from Dawn’s own class at school (she’s not in the class, she’s their teacher!) which was organised as a surprise for Dawn! How lovely!
What an afternoon!
The evening was absolutely beautiful…
Stunning!
What a truly amazing day that was a privilege to be a part of.
