Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Rolling up to Mythe Barn with Kate on the 12th of September this year felt a bit like coming home. Despite the grandness of the place, the overwhelming feeling I always get is one of welcome and the promise of a really good day ahead of you. With smiles so warm you can see them in the eyes despite people’s face masks.

Back when we first met Tom and Jade of course none of us knew what was coming this year. The wedding business has been turned on it’s head for sure, and quite understandably many couples have opted to postpone, even where they could have gone ahead with smaller numbers. But Tom and Jade decided the most important thing was to actually be married. And at the time photographers had to be included in your 30, so we were all the more honoured to be asked to photograph and film the big day.

Knowing there would be many people who couldn’t attend we managed to fit a bit more video into our plans so they could watch the ceremony and speeches afterwards. But our main video production was their highlights film, which we’re so proud to share over on vimeo here.

Thanks to lockdown, this was by far the longest gap I’ve ever had between weddings in my 17 years of wedding photography, so the feeling of coming home was strong as we started to shoot that morning. Here are just a few of our favourites.

Roll on the Summer! For lots of reasons we can’t wait for August this year. And the sunny weather today got us thinking back to Andy and Jess’s Cracking Wedding last year. Such a sweet couple and a beautiful day. Jess was absolutely gorgeous in her dress, and it was wonderful to see another classic big church wedding!

The ceremony was at Holy Trinity Eccleshall, and the reception over at Pendrell Hall, which is a beautiful old house with wood panelling, lovely gardens and endless charm. Andy and Jess had added some lovely touches of their own including a really splendid cake.

It’s wonderful to work with a couple who are so visibly in love and just don’t care who sees it. And that first dance! Needless to say, it went down well.

Here’s to another Summer of Love, just as soon as they let us out of lockdown.

We’re hanging in here through the storms and cold weather. Summer feels a long way away now, but we don’t need to wait for summer. April, April can be glorious! Here’s what we were doing last April.

I met Gemma and her mum at the NEC. We hit it off straight away and they came back later in the day to book me on the spot for Gemma and Chris’s wedding photography. I love it when a bride knows exactly what she wants.

Getting to know Chris and Gemma in the run up to the day I discovered they were both engineers at Rolls Royce, which is just awesome. Chris mentioned in his speech that the marriage certificate is actually not the first legal document with both their signatures on it. That would be patent #R2563-B. Alright I made that number up but it was very funny.

I absolutely love meeting women who work in STEM, but Chris and Gemma also love Sigur Rós, sparklers, interesting old buildings, and garden games. So we have a LOT in common. Needless to say, the day went beautifully with the guests enjoying drinks in the grounds and orchard over a game of croquet or table tennis. A brilliant reception, very enjoyable speeches and lots of dancing. All topped off for me by waving sparklers about singing to the Jurassic Park music “I’m a dinosaur, I’m a dinosaur…” (bet you didn’t know that famous theme had lyrics, huh?)

And we got another chance to say hello back in the autumn when Gemma brought her sister Kathy to the NEC again as she was planning her own wedding. We’d actually made a sample album from the wedding to put on display and they were surprised and happy to see it there. Of COURSE we made a sample album…