Love in an Ancient City – Laura & Tom

Before I joined Twitter I have to admit that I hadn’t even heard of engagement shoots but since starting up my blog I have seen some gorgeous shoots of some lovely couples who are crazy in love. I know that some people are a bit snobby towards engagement shoots, not seeing the point in them but as somebody who totally feels uncomfortable in front of a camera, refusing to have photographs taken whenever somebody points one in my face, I always knew I would benefit from a pre-wedding shoot.

It took a long long time to get my other half, Tom, to agree to having an engagement shoot done but with a lot of persuading a few weeks ago he finally agreed. Yippee! So the search for a photographer begun. We booked our wedding photgrapher, Nick White, before anything else (and waaaaay before I knew engagement shoots existed!) and so we hadn’t discussed this with Nick. The amazingly talented Mandy Charlton however, contacted me via Twitter offering her fabulous services, a date was set and the rest is now history.

So here we are, Laura & Tom’s 23rd September engagement shoot in York, North Yorkshire. I’d love to know what you all think…

We drove from where we live just outside of Hull to York for the shoot. We arranged to meet Mandy who travelled down from Newcastle for the day for us at 4pm in the Museum Gardens. We soon realised, however, that driving through the centre of York on a Friday evening might not have been the best idea – we were over half an hour late but Mandy being Mandy – fabulously upbeat – thankfully didn’t mind!

We chose the book “When Did the Statue of Liberty Turn Green?” as we met at university studying American Studies (I’m sure we probably covered the answer to that question at some point during our degree but I can’t remember much!). As some of you may already know, we are also honeymooning in New York as we just love the hustle and bustle of the city and so of course we just had to include a reference somewhere!

 I always thought I was going to feel uncomfortable in front of the camera however Mandy soon made up feel at ease, shooting away whilst laughing, joking with us and chatting about hers and ours menagerie of pets! It soon came to light that it was Tom who was more conscious of people looking at us than I was. Very surprising!

During our shoot a wedding was also taking place in the Hospitium which was extremely apt. A few ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaaahs’ from Mandy and I were shared with a tiny bit of rubber necking trying to get a glimpse of the bride – she looked stunning! And such a beautiful venue to have a wedding.

If I’m totally honest I always thought that a more fun, concept shoot was more us but the ‘lovey dovey’ stuff actually came naturally – we are getting married after all! 🙂 After some fab shots in the Museum Gardens we decided to go and grab Daisy, our golden Labrador who was waiting patiently in the car for us. We couldn’t leave her out, she’s part of the family!

Daisy is 14 months old and full of energy. Mix that with a floor covered in leaves and twigs and we have one very jumpy pup on our hands. This said, I just love how this photograph turned out. Tom and I would make perfect catalogue models here but believe it or not this wasn’t posed. We were trying to get Daisy to stop fighting with twigs and this is the outcome – I just adore it!

We had the most amazing day. We laughed, joked, loved and gossiped and we can’t thank Mandy enough for her willingness to spend a day with myself – a massive cameraphobe and a crazy dog! Big hugs Mandy, we love what you have done and your kind and down to earth attitude made us totally feel at ease. All in all a successful engagement shoot!

If you would like to see more from Mandy Charlton you can visit her blog here. Look out for the crying dinosaur, it’s possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen!

Laura & Tom x

A 1920s New York Union – LaShekia & Craig

Sometimes I see a real wedding or engagement shoot that makes me say “aaahhh.” This gorgeous 1920s styled engagement shoot is one of them! Sent to me by Jennifer at New York based Ayres Photography, I just love how romantic this couple come across on camera.

LaShekia and Craig came to us with an amazing creative vision for a 1920s themed engagement session and we did our best to bring their vision to life in these images! The couple live in NYC but LaShekia is a Buffalo, NY native and wanted to take advantage of the amazing architecture in her home town. All of the styling for this shoot was done by LaShekia herself and we think she did a fantastic job! The couple plan to use these images as the primary decor for their wedding. 

Just beautiful. I wish LaShekia and Craig all the happiness in the world for their wedding day! I’d also like to send a huge thank you to Jenn at Ayres Photography. You can visit their blog-site here.

For more inspirational engagement shoots visit the Engagement Shoot pages on Bonfire Night Bride.

Laura x

A Tea Party With Loved Ones – Lisa & Bev

A couple of weeks ago I featured Lisa & Bev’s too cool for school ‘Southbank Stroll‘ engagement shoot by Katharine Peachey. Now it’s time for their wedding – a very cute small affair with their closest friends and family… and lots of cake! Lovely stuff.

Due to their super-cool, low-key manner Lisa & Anthony or ‘Bev’ as he’s known, didn’t want anything big or fussy or OTT for their wedding – just a gathering of 8 of their favourite people and some rather delicious sweet treats. After a little waiting in the sunny garden of Spring Terrace in London’s leafy Richmond they tied the knot, quick-smart and skipped up the road for a rather posh high tea – with a little photo stop-off en route. What a delightful day for a delightful couple – the weather was lovely, they looked fantastic and those scones were out of this world! Congratulations guys! Thanks for allowing me to crouch in the corner and pretend I was a teapot…

I adore everything about Lisa & Bev’s day. The relaxed atmosphere, Lisa’s dress, Bev’s style and sideburns that my other half would be jealous of! A HUGE congratulations to you both!

Also sending my thanks to Katharine for sharing such a fab wedding. You can see more from Peachey Photography here.

Laura x

Nothing Says ‘I Love You’ Like a Tattoo – Fiona & Liam

I absolutely adore tattoos. Especially tattoos with meaning, so much so that Tom and I are planning on some sort of ink fest on our NYC honeymoon! It is for this reason that Fiona & Liam’s gorgeous engagement shoot by fab Camden photographer, Laura Babb, is perfect in my eyes in every way. Liam tells all about his & Fiona’s day…

Fiona and I have been together for about a year and a half, and in January this year we decided that we would like to get married. I say “we decided” as before meeting each other marriage really wasn’t on the cards or in the thoughts of either of us.

The decision to get married was the easy bit… I then had to plan and pull off the proposal. Funny way round of doing things I know but I really wanted to ask Fiona to marry me properly. I decided to cook Beef Wellington, the dish I cooked on our first proper date as she had mentioned it was her favourite.

Date night was on, the Wellington was in the oven, the wine was on the table, all was going well. Trying not to show I was feeling a little nervous as I had never asked anyone such a big question before, I served dinner. We had just started eating I had moved the vintage family ring from my pocket into my hand then some words from Fiona that I really didn’t want to hear “If you’re not going to propose tonight you’re going to find it hard to top this”.

Well that certainly took the element of surprise out of the evening. I tried to regain some composure, managed to get down onto one knee before the tears started “Will you make me happy for the rest of my life? Fiona McRobie will you marry me?” then the best word said with tears running down her face “Yes”.

We decided to have a pre and post wedding shoot as Laura Babb, the photographer we wanted to work with, is unable to make it up to Grimsby for our wedding and also we get some cool photo’s to show everyone before we head up north.

For the engagement shoot we headed over to Brockwell park on a Sunday morning as we both like the park and we could have a play on the bikes too. It just so happened that we had planned to go to our friends in the afternoon for a bbq and tattoo party so we rolled the whole day into one big pre wedding photo shoot, and I think it worked really well and was a very fun day.

Before our shoot with Laura, I did start by poking a little bit of fun at some engagement photos that I’d seen… Fiona’s shown me lots! But after meeting Laura and having lots of fun in the park having our pictures taken…I’ve decided they are kind of cool.

A perfect end to a fab day 🙂 I will definitely be showing my other half your shoot as I’ve been trying to talk him into one but he has the same problem as you did Liam! hehe. A massive congratulations to you both!

Fiona also writes a great blog where she shares with us things she loves and of course, her wedding planning – The Corner of the Internet I Call Home.

Laura x

Street Art Sweethearts – Sarah & Paul

I absolutely love this short but sweet vibrant engagement shoot by Texas based Whitney Lee Photography. It’s true, the best things do come in small packages!

 

Sarah and Paul are super sweet and quick to laugh. They actually met at work when Sarah was tasked with training Paul for a new position. The locations for the engagement session were all around the east side of Austin, TX which has some really quirky street art and restaurants. Since there was a little bit of extra time at the end they let Whitney pick a spot so that’s how we were able to incorporate the mural with the pink skull and robot. We’ve been eyeing that for a while!

 

“I seriously couldn’t have asked for a better engagement session,” says Sarah, the blushing bride to be. “We wanted to stay away from the typical backdrops, poses, etc. and you definitely helped us with that. Everything ended up turning out so beautifully, and I think my favorite backdrop is the one that you picked with the robots and skulls! So fun!”

 

“We plan to have a laid back, fun wedding, while still keeping some tradition. We’d like our wedding to be a reflection of us. Hopefully our pre-ceremony cocktail hour will loosen our guests up, and we’ll have super yummy bar food for dinner, too! Think sliders and fried mac and cheese. I’m already drooling. We haven’t figured out all of the details of the wedding yet, but we know it will be a blast!”

 

I really hope I get a sneaky peak of your wedding photos Sarah. If this shoot is anything to go by your wedding’s going to be amazing!!

 

You can see more from the fabulous Whitney Lee on her blog. Her style is everything I’d love in a wedding photographer!

 

Laura x

Southbank Stroll – Lisa & Bev

Earlier in the month I featured An Urban Love Story by the fab Katharine Peachey, an expert in fun yet natural and sophisticated wedding photography. Today I have another great engagment shoot of hers, this time super cool couple, Lisa & Bev.

Lisa and her finance, Anthony Bevan, or ‘Bev’ as he’s known, are having a super low-key wedding – a quick registry job and a posh, scone-heavy high tea with just 8 friends afterwards. They had been umming and ahhing over whether to have a photographer or not but they eventually decided to go for it. I am so glad they did. These two are lovely. They are just so relaxed and easy-going that I forgot I was ‘working’ and felt like I was on a wander around the Southbank with two friends. We met on Lower Marsh where the couple had their first date and despite the early start and the grey weather they were in great spirits.

A huge congratulations to Lisa & Bev who are now Mr & Mrs!! I just love your engagement shoot and am so glad you decided to go with a photographer as your style is a bloggers dream! All the best for a happy future together.

Laura x

Tales of an Off Duty Wedding Photographer

Today I have a very different guest post from the fabulous bride to be Laura Babb, also knows as Babb Photography. When Laura contacted me about this I was intrigued and excited about featuring something more out of the ordinary, that I’m sure many of us wonder – how a wedding photographer sees a wedding from a guest’s point of view. The lovely lady herself explains…

When you’re paid to photograph a wedding or you have a duty to the couple to get the shots that they want and to record the day from their perspective and that of their nearest and dearest.  There are certain things and parts of the day that you need to capture, what ever your photography style. 

 As an off duty photographer, however, you can photograph the little things that capture your attention and mess around a bit and I decided to do just this at Pete and Alison’s wedding. 

 I shot all of these pictures on a 35mm film camera, with a fixed focal length lens.  For those not familiar with photography jargon, with a fixed lens you can’t zoom in and out unless you physically move yourself closer to or further away from your subject (if you want to know why this is a good thing, whilst fixed focal length lenses are less flexible than a zoom, they’re usually of better optical quality and often work better in low light situations).

 Sorry, we digress a bit and I’ve started sounding like a camera nerd….

 

 Anyway,  with Pete and Alison’s wedding I took photographs as and when something interested me, rather than being constantly ‘on’ and recording as much details as possible, as I would if I was working.

 I thought it might be interesting for Bonfire Night Bride readers to see the sort of thing an off duty wedding photographer might photograph.  Grooms men (my own husband to be) stroking cats and going to the loo, mainly! 

 

 I love the quality of film.  It really does bring a depth to images that digital can’t replicate and it was wonderful to be able to work in film at Pete and Alison’s wedding and photograph some of the moments that would never make it into a wedding album (yes, that toilet shot!).

Have to say Laura, I love the toilet shot! I would be more than willing to include it in our wedding album but that might just be mine and my fiance’s ‘not taking anything very seriously’ personality shining through! Thank you for such an unusual submission Laura, it’s great to see such a different take on wedding photography.

If you’d like to read more about Laura and her work you can visit her blog here.

Laura x

Modern Elegance (with some Jimmy Choos!) at Styal Lodge – Charlotte & James

 Back in June I featured Luisa & Chris‘ beautifully English affair by the fabulous McAvoy Photography. Today it’s a pleasure to share with you Charlotte & James’ hot pink and purple contemporary wedding which took place on 18th June at Styal Lodge, a unique Cheshire venue built exclusively for gorgeous weddings like Charlotte & James’. Bursting with modern elegance, enjoy!

 We first met Charlotte and James at the National Wedding Show at the NEC in March 2010. They took advantage of our free engagement shoot offer and we met them in Worsley for an evening shoot along the Bridgewater Canal in March 2010. We then went for a drink and a chat and looked through albums in more detail. After viewing their engagement photos Charlotte and James booked us to photograph their fabulous wedding. We kept in touch regularly, meeting up for a pint to go through wedding logistics and plans and seeing how we could help their day run smoothly.

Charlotte was getting ready at Styal Lodge so I met her there to cover her bridal prep with her four gorgeous bridesmaids and mum. Keith headed off to the Hilton at Manchester Airport where James and his groomsmen were getting ready.

 Charlotte looked amazing in her dress and the bridesmaids looked fabulous in short purple dresses and sparkly shoes.

 Charlotte was very emotional and fought back tears for a lot fo the day. Styal Lodge looked gorgeous and the ceremony was lovely. The weather was decidely changeable so some of the group shots were taken indoors before the sun finally came out and we took Charlotte & james away on a golf cart for 10 minutes for some gorgeous shots of just the two of them by Styal Lodge’s lake. We spend a lot of time planning where shots will be taken and how so that we could grab Charlotte & James for the shots for a small amount of time rather than for hours-then back to their guests while we set up another shot for later in the day-this way we can tell a story of the day and you can visibly see it unfold and at the same time your guests get to see you!

 Later on whilst taking photos of Charlotte and James with their friends, there was an appearance by an unexpected guest -a spider dropped onto Charlotte’s dress-can you guess when the spider appeared from the photos?

 We stayed for some great party shots as everyone let their hair down. Charlotte & James had booked a fabulous singer before the DJ took over.

 

There is just pure sweetness and love captured within this wedding photography. Sending my congratulations and well wishes to Charlotte & James. All the best for an amazing future together!

Laura x