Wedding Photojournalism Blog by Martin Neeves: January 2012

Saturday 21 January 2012

Melissa & Andy's Wedding

Here are a few photos of Melissa and Andy's wedding at The Warwickshire Golf & Country Club in Leek Wooton, near Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

Despite the wedding being in the middle of January, Melissa and Andy were very lucky to have a beautiful sunny day - even if it was a bit chilly (understatement!). Melissa's wedding dress was from True Romantica Bridal and her make-up was expertly done by Bernadette of Aromatics of Kenilworth. Bernadette really went beyond the call of duty as she volunteered to help Melissa and Andy's 2.5-year-old son Henry, to get dressed while Melissa put her dress on. Henry was quite happy for his "new best friend" to help him get dressed as they really hit it off, so Bernadette was able to save Melissa a lot of time. After the wedding breakfast, the guests' children were entertained by veteran children's entertainer Wizardy Woo. Apparently, Wizardy Woo entertained Andy at parties when he was a child, so he was the obvious first choice for their wedding.

The prize for pageboy-stealing-the-show moment of the day just had to go to the afore-mentioned Henry. He was standing with Melissa and Andy throughout the wedding ceremony and during the exchange of rings he stood between them, put his hands in the air and said in a very loud voice just one word: "STOP!" It was so funny. It brought the house down. A classic moment. These are the sort of moments are the reason I love photographing weddings as you never know what's going to happen until it happens. Love it, love, it, love it!

This was the moment Henry said "STOP!"

N.B. This blog covers just the wedding and portrait side of my business. Please see my Commercial / PR Photography Blog for up-to-date news about the PR, commercial, corporate editorial, architectural and aerial photography and videography side of my business.

Sunday 15 January 2012

Bron & Rob's Wedding

On the day before New Year's Eve, I photographed my most local wedding for a lovely couple who live on the other side of the world.

While the bride and groom Bron and Rob live in Australia, they decided to leave the Ozzy sunshine behind and come over to the cold and wet winter in the UK to Rob's home village of Stoney Stanton (which is where I live) in Leicestershire to get married in St.Michael's Church.

It poured with rain all day, but that didn't stop Bron and Rob having a good time as they just enjoyed themselves indoors rather than outdoors. In fact the rain enabled me to take one of my favourite photos of the day, which was a shot of Bron inside the wedding car as she arrived at the church, shot from the outside, showing a rain-splattered window and a reflection of the bridesmaids smiling at Bron while keeping dry under a big colourful umbrella.

Trevor the vicar lead a superb service and he was really helpful to me as he let me stand next to the alter to take photos discretely (and without flash of course) throughout the wedding ceremony. Some vicars and registrars don't allow photography during the ceremony, so I am very grateful to him for this.

After the wedding ceremony, we had a very brief photo shoot in front of the church. The big colourful umbrella came in handy again! Then it was off to the fabulous Leicestershire wedding venue Ullesthorpe Court Hotel in Ullesthorpe, near Broughton Astley for a drinks reception and wedding breakfast. I was able to take lost of reportage wedding photos during this time of Rob and Bron and their guests. there were lots of smiles so they were clearly enjoying themselves.

Rob and Bron went away on honeymoon and then returned to Australia to have an Ozzy wedding blessing yesterday for their friends and family on that side of the world who couldn't make it over here. I hope the day went well for them. I doubt they will have had to use the colourful umbrella yesterday - unless they used it as a parasol!

Monday 2 January 2012

Christine and Jeremy's Christmas Wedding

Here is a small selection of wedding photographs of Christine and Jeremy's Christmas wedding at the very exclusive wedding venue Horsted Place Hotel, near Uckfield, West Sussex. I was honoured to be booked for this wedding as Christine is an excellent reportage wedding photographer with many years of experience, so I was really pleased she chose me to photograph her big day.

Being in the wedding industry, Christine paid great attention to detail and she told me that planning her wedding had taken over her life for the last few months! She chose Hot Pink Peony as her florist, who created some lovely Christmas-themed displays. Louise Large did a magnificent job with the bridal make-up, using an airbrushing technique for the foundation that I have never seen used before. Pianist Charlie Myers kept the wedding guests entertained with his excellent and wide-ranging repertoire. Like all great musicians, he made it so look easy - even though anyone who has tinkled the ivories will tell you, it is anything but easy!

Photography for winter weddings is always difficult when they are late in the day, due to the lack of light. The wedding ceremony started at 3.30pm and with sunset at around 4pm, I didn't have much light to play with and as the bride was a professional wedding photographer, the pressure was really on! It was a windy and rainy day day, so the overcast sky minimised any light coming through the windows too. Despite this, I still managed to take lots of photos by available light to give them a really natural feel and when I did have to resort to using flash, I used it in a sympathetic and creative way. What really made this set of photos was the big beaming smile was ever-present on Christine's face. Her happiness really shone through in the photos and it was lovely to be part of her and Jeremy's big day.