Another amazing bunch of people who got married, since last post (sorry its been a while!) we’ve been stuck in snow, changed all the equipment (still nikon!) and been generally busy as can be. Off to Kent tomorrow for Kelly & Alec and the promise to k eep this more up to date! Sorry!
Or so the joke goes, you wait for one to appear and two come along at once. Another close to home wedding this weekend see us in the under used but fantastically beautiful Finstock Church, 8 weddings a year but so perfect in every way and with newly appointed vicar, The Rev Paul Mansall who was most accommodating to photographers. Starting at the Bride’s house in Finstock, Julie and the gang were all ready and prepared for the day bar the dresses being worn, Groom and party were in the Plough at Finstock with the fab Joe & Martin and a very full pub at 12 noon. A quick pint (for the groom of course) then sees us to the church and our new toy, the remote camera, placed over the congregation and being able to capture a lovely wide shot of the whole church is a massive bonus (we also used it for the dancing in the evening but more of that later!). All married and off to Charlbury Cricket ground for the marquee reception. Some great guests that we really had a good time with and then a quick dash after pictures as the heavens opened which gave the best rainbow I’d seen in years so braving the rain we ventured out and got a stunning image of bride and groom mid kiss which daughter Charlotte had already planned for a big poster on the living room wall! Just finished, and another slightly less impressive but non the less a rainbow appeared. Pictures were viewed on our ipad during the desert to a thrilled bride & groom just before the dancing began and the night time party steamed into full swing.Over 1,000 images delivered from this most excellent day just 24 hours after the couple were married and off on Honeymoon. Many thanks to Julie & Colin for a very perfect day!
As Madonna says, Rain, despite the forecast of sunshine, it rained, not a lot, but loads! However, nothing could dampen the pleasure of the day for anyone involved with Charlotte & Chris who had a very widespread wedding, so much so, the ceremony was in one county, the reception in another! Off we go to Northleach, the beautiful Cotswold town and to St Peter & St Pauls Church where the retired Bishop of Winchester married the happy couple due to local vicars being off on their holidays! (Do they have holidays?) Managing to dodge the rain with superb accuracy and timing it was then back into the cars to Eynsham Hall for the Wedding Reception where rain tried to stop play twice which sadly didn’t stop anything from happening! We even managed to find a dry patch of grass for a quick sit down under a tree! Quite an emotional day for me as the wife decided at 9am that it was time to buy another new camera she had her eye on over the past few weeks so it was goodbye dear friend that was a bank balance and hello withdrawal! Still, some nice and unique pictures from our new toy, a remote camera 14 feet over the congregation which allows us to get some great and unusually wide images from inside this fantastic church. Special also to the grooms family in that Chris the groom was baptised in the church and took his bride back to the church to marry her, and also special to the brides family as 25 years to the day that they took their new baby girl home from hospital, that her father walked her down the aisle then gave her away to her new husband Chris. And the rain couldn’t dampen their perfect day one little bit!
Also, just after the wedding, I had to deliver a wedding album to past couple Julie & David. Two weeks after their wedding I knocked on their front door to be greeted with a rather pleasant sight! One of our images had been used as a centre piece for their hallway, surrounded by comments from their wedding guests from the day! Its so nice to see images used in so many different ways and to be used so proud of place in a couple home! Thanks to all of this weekends brides and grooms for a superb time!
and also again! Worrying news that a local photographer is taking nine months to return completed wedding albums to couples, almost in time for their first wedding anniversary! I find this just incredible, we return images to the happy couple, the following day (in most cases) and then printed and completed albums within 3 weeks! Sometimes its a little longer, sometimes a little shorter! Yesterday, however, was a lot quicker. At 1pm Charlotte & Chris tied the knot, at 5pm, Charlotte & Chris and everyone else at the reception were thumbing through the Apple Ipad looking at their images taken earlier. The new camera my wife forced me to buy (see earlier) has wireless tethering which means all images are beamed to the ipad for instant viewing, and to prove this? The lovely Charlotte!
God I love technology!
The problem you have is that you forget about things when your busy, this year sees our busiest year ever with more and more weddings being booked and also shoots to undertake. We usually have a quiet spell of bride & grooms popping around to see albums and have a chat during the summer so we concentrate more on the shooting of weddings themselves but this year is different, very different. Back in Summer 2009 I thought with the recession biting that we would receive less enquiries in 2010 where people just couldn’t afford to get married, but, I was wrong! We have received a record number of bookings for 2010 and plenty booked in for 2011 and couples still popping in to see past work for bookings in 2011 and 2012. We also seems to be staying closer to home. The last few years have seen us fly to America on several occasions for weddings, Scotland became a regular haunt as well as the North of England but this year is more closer to home with Leicester or Cornwall being the furthest we have travelled which is nice as there isn’t a long drive home! Since our last post, we seems to have been back to The Bay Tree Hotel in Burford almost every other week, The Mill and Old Swan in Minster Lovell which is always faultless for pictures and Eastwood House just over the border in Gloucestershire. We also have some new exciting products coming online for displaying wedding images which just have to be seen to believed. If you are getting married soon, give us a call or drop us an email and pop around and see these exciting new products to remember your special day with. Whilst I promise not to leave the blog quite as long as I have done for updating, please forgive me for less than frequent posts due to severe workload! Here are some recent pictures from the last few months. We also broke our own record for getting finished print ready images back to a couple which was 22 hours. The happy couple were moving abroad after their wedding and had sold up here in the UK and were off on honeymoon, to go onto their new home and not return to the UK. So, wedding shot and back to the edit suite and 735 images all edited and written to DVD in time for the flight the following day just 22 hours after the couple got married. They were amazed and very impressed, I was very tired as I didn’t sleep that night to make sure they were happy and secure in the knowledge they had their images to view in their new home. I since found out that they had a new married couple party on their honeymoon and had shown the other couples the images to everyones amazement! Its nice to be able to offer a quick service for people to see their images so quickly after being captured rather than to have to wait weeks or even months to see them!
It was either this or What a Difference a day makes, as I always had a soft spot for Fi5e Star then it was them who got the lyric used. Over to Fallowfields Country House and Restaurant for the wedding of Sarah & Nathan. The threat of rain was very much upon us when we arrived but thankfully it held off all day. The excellent venue (with its own boar) is owned by Anthony who was on hand to video anything that moved with his new HD video camera, he managed to put it down for just a few moments to be snapped with the bride who looked stunning in her dress from Wedding Belles of Banbury. This bride and groom had a very special place in my heart as when they booked an appointment to see our wedding albums, poor Sarah had an accident at work a few days before and had hurt her arm. Strapped up and plenty of painkillers meant that she wasn’t herself at the first appointment. Nathan was happily chatting away with myself and Michelle and unknown to all of us, Sarah had nodded off! A fantastic day, Nathan on the chicken jokes all afternoon and a great bunch of people made this a wedding to remember for everyone. Great venue, great wedding and terrible jokes (but I laughed). I’d recommend Fallowfields to anyone who wants a lovely hidden away venue, at the end of a small village that you can do just what you like in. Oh, you remembered the song, well, Saturday was supposed to be rainy, but was dry, the saught after venue was booked for a wedding on the Sunday which was supposed to be nice, but it lashed down on a good friend who was photographing that wedding. Like the song says, its you or me! Thankfully it wasn’t me this time!
You don’t realise what you have on your own doorstep, last night we find some fantastic bluebells for a bridal shoot and today the excellent Fallowfields Country House Hotel & Restaurant. An early reccy for tomorrows wedding of Sarah & Nathan showed us that the lovely Kingston Bagpuize hadn’t changed since our last visit, greeted by Lynn, their Wedding Organiser and a very relaxed walk around the superb venue with owner Tony & dog George with great views and stunning buildings. I can’t wait to get there and start shooting. We advise that all bride & grooms meet with their photographers at their wedding venues so they can all see which are the best areas for photos and work out plans for wet weather days etc. I have to just remember one thing though, its a carriage not a cart that goes with a horse!
Sunday saw us at a loose end, we had worked so very hard the day before at Clare Cameron’s wedding to Jem Fawcus in the lovely Berkshire village of Peasemore near Newbury. http://www.clackphotography.co.uk/blog/?p=132 We normally edit the images the morning after for dispatch to bride & groom but our services were required elsewhere in a different form. A good friend who is also a wedding photographer had been sent on an unexpected job and had booked a table at The Witney Lakes (or Greens as it was called once) Wedding Fair, organised with help from the Oxford Mail newspaper. Given just 45 minutes notice, the office was dismantled and sent packing along with children as “sweet giver outers” to The Witney Lakes venue. 85 brides and associated partners and mothers all gathered to see the stands, some ace bridal wear and 2 brilliant fashion shows by Mae Bridal and Anna McDonald who were also on show. 4 packets of mints distributed by the girls and lots of information packs given away and a total success. Well done to all involved! Of course, you can’t see our work there now as its all back in the office but if you would like to see our work, slightly more relaxed then at a busy fair, call us on 01993 200180 or email us to make a booking and pop around for a coffee!
Clare & Jem’s wedding in Peasemore, Berkshire. Over the border we go again for the lovely Peasemore St. Barnabas Church just outside of Newbury. A massive gathering and as many locals out to see the event as attending the event. Beautiful weather, lovely church and congratulations to Clare Cameron & Jem Fawcus!
Well, not quite Reading Berkshire but infact Sonning on Thames for the lovely wedding of Rachel & Mick. Fine weather was with us all day which wasn’t at all expected in April but what a bonus. The amazing grounds of the Great House Sonning on Thames was the location of the reception with St Andrews Church across the road the venue for the wedding itself. I was suprised not to see neighbour Uri Geller popping into the reception as he frequently does, I’m guess he was away bending some spoons or keys or the like. Two best men in tow for Mick, the very funny Maff & Jay who kept the whole group of guests well entertained with their constant re-writing of speeches and jesty antics! Proberly the most relaxing wedding we’ve ever been to with groom Mick so relaxed I wasn’t sure if sometimes he was horizontal as he was so laid back! Let another reception we didn’t want to leave as it was such fun but leave we must, back to Witney to edit the pictures for delivery within the week to the bride and groom when returning from their Honeymoon.
Congratulations Rachel & Mick!
We leave the safe confines of Oxfordshire to travel out of county to Leicestershire yesterday to visit Rebecca & Ian and their families on their wedding day. After leaving Witney at 6am we arrive fresh and ready to go at the brides house for an 8am start. With a record 3 hairdressers in-situ already, the house was full swing with activity but what fun was had! After preperation we travel to the very nicely situated Belmont Hotel Leicester with one of the nicest registrars we’ve ever met. Very understanding! Posing the bride and groom half way through the ceremony which was ideal! After, a quick walk across the road to some fab open spaces for group and family shots and then leaving the rock music themed party to carry on for the trip back to Oxfordshire. A great day which I know is reflected in the pictures! We also did one of our infamous technology thingys which I love, bestman, Dave, did a slide show for groom Ian and wanted to finish the speech off with a picture from the day, it was a little added work for us to get the specific shot Dave wanted for the presentation on his macbook but it was all done and dusted and a great success!
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