Set in leafy Kent, surrounded by acres of green countryside is Combe Bank School. It’s a really beautiful place, perfectly kept and seriously impressive to boot. Perfect for a wedding you might think and, well, you’d be right. Normally a public girls school, Amy and Justin put their creative talents to good use and transformed the place with everything from love hearts to a picture frame table layout.
By a strange coincidence (well OK not all that strange) Amy’s Dad is also the site manager, quite handy when you’re trying to find places to take photos: he quite literally opens all sorts of doors (oh and gives a damn fine speech)!

I first met Amy and Justin at St Pancras station in London (a common meeting place for me with out of town couples) where we shared a few drinks and talked things over. Justin’s also quite into his photography and I later heard rumours that he has a team of photographers and retouchers working under him at Sky. I have to admit to being a touch scared in advance but I think we pulled off some really great images and it really helps working with somebody who knows where I’m going with the photos. Amy was an amazing sport putting up with all my wackball ideas and allowing me to take her into a dark, dark, smoke-filled forest (just after the first dance…)

More photos after the jump…

Amy got ready at the Spa Hotel in Royal Tunbridge Wells. We were meant to have about 45 minutes to get some photos in the fab gardens but unfortunately time got a bit ‘squeezed’. We did manage to quickly run down to the lake though for a (literally) 30 second photo shoot!

More adventures soon!

Alex

If there’s one cardinal rule of wedding photography it’s got to be “don’t get the bride wet”. At most weddings the bride is up at the crack of dawn and spends literally hours perfecting hair, makeup and everything else to make herself look stunning on the wedding day. Jennie was no exception: she got up early, had a great morning laughing and giggling getting ready with the bridesmaids, she made sure her wedding photographer got covered in glitter and above all else looked really fab for the wedding. I knew the rule, I’ve always stuck by the rule, except this time I failed.

We went out for a nice wander just as the weather had cleared from earlier rain and found some awesome locations around Cambridge. Just as we stopped by the side entrance to Kings College I felt a raindrop hit my cheek. I thought nothing of it, we were getting some really great pictures… but then it happened, the heavens opened. I have to say I must be the luckiest wedding photographer in the world: I got soaked, my gear got drenched, both Jennie and James looked like they’d been for a swim in the river, the only comment I got though was “ah I really needed to cool down”. Wow, thanks guys you are some seriously cool customers!

So there we go, I came clean. I have to say despite the rain ‘incident’ I had a real blast and I think everybody else did as well. Had one of the funnest CrazyBooth’s to date with lots of people rocking it out. Don’t think I can say any more than thanks guys, from the moment we shot your engagement shoot earlier in the year I knew it was going to be fun and, well, it lived up to expectations. So much so that instead of my normal photo blog post I thought I’d start with a video slideshow. Enjoy!

More adventures soon (hopefully without the rain)

Alex

Wow, nobody warned me the Canadians could get so crazy. In hindsight with nine groomsmen and five bridesmaids I should have known I’d be in for some stick! All great fun though, who could have asked for a more fun and beautiful wedding to photograph.

So Hannah and George got married in Childerley Hall Gardens; made famous (as we later found out during Hannah’s Dad’s speech) as the location in which Charles I was imprisoned by Cromwell . They chose to be married in the gardens on the croquet lawn. Mother Nature did her bit and we ended up with a perfect day for a wedding. Couldn’t ask for a more natural and beautiful place for a ceremony, surrounded by leafy trees and loved ones (even if the wind did attempt to blow out a few candles…)

Hannah and George had to jet off straight after the wedding to do it all again in Canada with George’s family. Hope it all went well guys and I hope you like the photos from this side of the pond!

More after the jump…

The wedding took place quite late in the day which meant we had a bit more time than normal in the morning. The girls filled it with Champagne and did their best to make us all cry with a seriously awesome “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” box. Really nice touch, good on you bridesmaids! The guys made do with the croquet lawn outside and psyching themselves up while drinking Pimms. Not a bad combination!

With it being quite a late ceremony we had to rush a bit to catch some really gorgeous photos of Hannah and George just as the sun was setting. Seriously worth it though!

Yep, as the night went on, the Canadian contingent broke out more and more crazy. All good fun and part of me is really hoping I get given the bumps at my wedding…

Good luck guys and hope the Canadian side of the wedding went as well as the British side!

More adventures soon,
Alex

Remember Emily and John from their engagement shoot around Cambridge earlier this year? Well a couple of Saturdays ago I finally got to shoot their wedding at Hotel Felix. I’d actually taken a look around while photographing Unnada and Graham’s wedding there a month ago and came in with some ideas of things I wanted to try. Until, that is, the weather put paid to those and we had to find some new options. Emily had told me she wanted some drama in some of the photos. Not being your average wedding photographer I decided to take that idea and run with it – smoke time. Really works for the first photo I think, creating a whole load of atmosphere.

More photos after the jump…

Hotel Felix has a really nice garden and luckily the weather held long enough for us to have the wedding outside. Only slight problem is that the gazebo is surrounded by flower beds, meaning I had to get a little dirty getting the photos. Oh well, that’s what washing machines are made for! If you look really closely you might even be able to spot my flowerbed cameo from one of the photos taken by my amazing assistant Tom…

More adventures to come,
Alex

Wow, what can I say? Two firsts in one day: my first Greek wedding and my first Jehovah’s Witness wedding. Second time at (actually that’s how Jon and Elaine found me – through Alana and David’s blog post here…). I must admit I was a touch daunted going into this one but my fear was misplaced. This was quite simply one of the most fun weddings I’ve ever photographed. Jon and Elaine are a really fab couple and I can’t thank them enough for supplying such a great set of photo opportunities and trusting me on the day – yes those Minis were doing about 30mph less then a couple of feet away! A truly epic wedding and an epic set of wedding photos to boot.

Not sure I can say much more than that. I think this is one of the most photo heavy posts I’ve ever made but I just couldn’t whittle them down. Somehow I ended up with 75% more selects than normal. So many fab shots are still waiting to see the light of day; I had to be really hard with the editing! Anyway without any further ado, I’ll say thanks to Chris Beaumont from Gryphon Photography for helping me out on the day and leave you all with the photos…

Well that just about sums it up. More adventures to follow in the very near future.

Alex

Love prevails.

I’ve known Alan and Sarah for quite a long time: Alan used to be my Gun No. 1 when we were in the Officers Training Corps together and, well, those were some really fun times. I don’t normally photograph friends’ weddings but I was proud as punch when they asked me to be part of theirs (well Alan asked me since Sarah was in Afghanistan at the time). Was one hell of a day in quite possibly one of the most beautiful locations I’ve ever shot and with the craziest crazy booth to date. Oh and I also got to stay in the Castle keep, how awesome is that?

For this first shot we actually snuck off after dinner to Durham Cathedral, an amazing place (a little aside: it’s also where they filmed Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. Cool hey?) If anybody reading this is planning a wedding up there and needs a photographer please do get in touch!

Thanks guys, I’m so glad you made it and I wish you every happiness in marriage. We definitely need to go for a drink soon!

More adventures to come, including some rather cool Minis…

Alex

ps. I almost forgot. Special thanks to BK from BKPhoto for helping out. Really couldn’t have done it without you man.

Thought I’d take a break from posting (and processing) wedding to put this one up. Took it a couple of months back in Mongolia by the side of the road. If you haven’t been to Mongolia, it really is an experience. You can quite literally take a photograph composed of green grassland, sand dunes and mountains all at the same time. I challenge you to find somewhere like that anywhere else in the world!

Anyway, yes this was taken on the way out west, about 8hrs drive from Ulaanbaatar, we pulled over and Holly actually went for a ride on the Camel. I was planning on stopping her since our medial insurance covered everything except camel rides, but hey how can you stop a girl with an idea in her head? After the ride I asked the nomads who owned them if they’d mind me taking a photo for prosperity. Needless to say this being the land of friendly people it was no problem and they were over-the-moon with the mini Polaroid print I gave them. Wish people around the rest of the world would be seduced by an English accent and a print of them with a camel!

Strobist info: Lit with an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra into an extra small Chimera softbox.

Right well that’s my break taken, back to the world of weddings!

More adventures soon,
Alex

Those of you who follow the blog regularly might remember Al and Graham from their fab engagement session around Cambridge earlier in the year. Was great to get back together with them for their wedding at Hotel Felix in Cambridge. Sun shined on us and it was really nice to be able to get out into the garden for the ceremony. It was a really special day with tonnes of emotion (including a few tears from the Scotts) flowing. I have to say though I’m always jealous of just well Scottish men manage to scrub up, us Brits really don’t stand a chance! Saying that though Al *with her four dresses* did manage to outshine everybody else around.

I’m actually going to start the photos with one from the end of the day. Between courses (and yes the food at Hotel Felix is amongst the best I’ve had – I even liked the fish!) I spotted this little corridor and grabbed the pair away for a little alone time and some fun photos.

Back to Hotel Felix next weekend for Emily and Jon’s wedding. Looking forward to it already.

More adventures soon,
Alex

Right sorry about the delay all, I’m just about getting my head back above water. Turns out four weddings and a move in a week isn’t such a good plan!

This was a bit of a strange wedding for me, I actually only came along for a few portraits and a crazybooth. Jo and James were both at Rosie and Chris’s wedding last month (James is Rosie’s brother) and they loved the photographs so much they asked me to come along for theirs. They already had a photographer there for the day but they really wanted a crazybooth and some portraits of them in the evening. Not something I would normally do but since they’re such a great couple I thought “what the hell”.

Anyway really glad I accepted, it turned out to be a blast. We started off with some photos in a nearby cornfield, then set up the crazybooth for some fun, pausing in the middle for a quick sunset shot. Oh and these guys really know how to book a sunset!

Right back to the editing cave (well OK it’s not a cave any more, it’s now a partially painted room)…

More adventures soon,
Alex