Hayley and Marc got married on Saturday at All Saints’ Church in Cheltenham and topped it off with a reception at the Pittville Pump Room. Not quite sure what it is about this couple but they always seem to bring the weather. They first came up to meet at my office in Clifton in Bristol on pretty much the hottest day of last year. I think we were all wearing shorts and I know I popped out for an ice-cream shortly afterwards. If only I could steal their skills for other weddings.

Anyway, on with the photos!

Hit the jump for more…

Ingredients:

Prep Location – Cheltenham Town House Hotel
Dress – Designed by Hayley (the bride) made by Chanticleer
Make-up – Donna Banfield
Hair – Sheena Sineta Warltire
Church – All Saints’ Church, Pittville, Cheltenham
Venue – Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham

As always let me know what you think in the comments!
More Soon,
Alex

One hell of a wedding, can’t quite believe I made it back to Bristol in one piece! Thanks guys, can’t wait to start editing all the rest.

I’d love to know what you think in the comments below.
More adventures soon,
Alex

Beautiful day, beautiful couple, here’s one before I knuckle down to editing and email! Feel free to let me know what you think below…

UPDATE: Just added a little video montage of the day. Hit the link to see it!

Massive thanks to Jon Mold of Jon Mold photography for covering all the groom prep and generally being an awesome second photographer on the day.

More soon!
Alex

I’ll admit it, I tend to be a sobber at weddings – even when I’ve assisted Alex on the weddings of people I’ve never met before, I find myself welling up. So you can imagine how much I cried at the wedding of two of my closest and dearest friends. From the beautiful reading (about two dinosaurs!), to the fantastic speeches and finally the first dance to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, where Gez surprised Natalie by breaking out some lindy hop moves he’d been learning in secret for the past 6 months. Yep, I was a wreck.

We may not have had the best weather, but that didn’t spoil the day one bit. South Farm is a beautiful venue and the couple had put so much thought into the little details that made the wedding very ‘them’. There was an Easter egg hunt, a fun questionnaire to answer at dinner, and beautiful hand made favours (bird seed feeders in the shape of hearts).

There are so many happy memories I’m going to take away from Nat and Gez’s wedding – it was a day of pure joy. And (although I admit I’m biased) I reckon Alex has managed to capture that feeling in his photos!

More soon, although probably from Me not Holly this time!

Alex

ps. special thanks go out once again to Tom Archer for helping out second shooting. I think I really do have competition these days!

I’ve known Katherine for over 6 years now. One spring night I turned up on her doorstep to take a closer look at the room they had for rent. A small box room in an unassuming part of Cambridge. The room wasn’t all that great, I’d seen 3 better ones previously, but I stayed for a quick cup of tea and began a friendship which would span houses, relationships, careers and countries.

We always jokingly swore that I’d never shoot her wedding if she ever got married. She wanted me to be partying rather than working and I thought she was probably right. Times change though and when Graham mark III proposed both ‘Frin and I had changed our minds; I somehow couldn’t imagine her having any other photographer. It’s strange to say this but somehow being so involved in photographing somebody’s wedding (especially a close friend’s) gives me the warm and fuzzies.

Anyway enough of that, time to get on with the photos!

More from a seriously sunny day in Cambridge after the jump…

More soon!

Ax

Unbeknownst to Steph, a charming, witty and intelligent boy named Nick had decided to be similarly adventurous and embark on a degree in London. As fate would have it, Steph and Nick’s families were good friends back in Hong Kong so the couple-to-be decided to meet up and swap stories of their adventures over rather tasty burgers.

Nick’s charm and wit was not lost on Steph and she soon ended up falling madly in love. Luckily from the first minute Nick had set eyes on Steph, he had gone weak at the knees and it wasn’t long before he also fell under her spell.

And so the story of Steph and Nick began. Somewhere along the line Steph decided it might be prudent to start looking for photographers and came across a mad, eccentric Brit called Alex. Months later Nick proposed to Steph and they decided to have a fairy tale wedding back in their family home in Hong Kong. Steph searched long and hard for other photographers but kept coming back to the eccentric Englishman. Luckily it didn’t take much convincing for him to agree to fly half way around the world and photograph the most epic wedding he had ever laid eyes on (and he’d laid his eyes on quite a few!).

To see all the shenanigans, hit the jump…

It all started with the fab Tom Archer covering the boys.

Just before we all headed our separate ways I tried to convince Steph and Nick to come outside for one last epic photo of them, and their home, Hong Kong. Steph came with me and we waited for Nick. And waited. Oh well I still love the photo with Steph alone!

Right well if you made it to the end of this your eyes are probably burning right now. Suffice to say if anybody needs another wedding photographer in Hong Kong or anywhere else in the world then please, let me know!

More adventures soon.
Alex

ps. if you like the photos, please feel free to hit the like button and leave me a comment below!

In the meantime, if you want to check out my progress, you can follow my other non-wedding photography blog here:
Http://www.alexanderbeckett.com/adventures

More soon!
Alex

Update: I’ve been banned from taking my big camera but here’s the view from the upper deck courtesy of my little X100.

Fast forward two days and I arrived at Brownsover Hall, bright and early before Zoe and Ben’s 11:30am ceremony. I’m not convinced that I was actually awake as I walked through the door, but I was greeted with a big hug and the welcome sound of a boiling kettle. I settled in getting shots and getting to know all the girls while my stellar second photographer Tom Archer headed to check out the boys.

It turns out that while Zoe had been avoiding me in person she’d actually been stalking this very blog, and had spotted another of my brides in the same make and style of dress that she was going to be wearing. Not a drama though, Zoe managed to completely own the dress (a fab Maggie Sottero number) and judging by the look on Ben’s face as she walked down the aisle it was everything he’d ever pictured her to be.

After a packed car ride (Zoe and her bridesmaids managed to make it to the church in one trip rather than the scheduled two) we arrived at possibly one of the most stunning churches I have seen. It was over 1000 years old and oozed history. The ceremony was equally atmospheric – a ray of light hit Zoe and Ben just as they were exchanging ‘I do’s.

The reception was a truly Christmas-y affair, with plenty of mulled wine to keep everyone warm while we took some quick formal photos (just enough to keep the family happy and a few fun ones with the bridesmaids and groomsmen). After a few more mulled wines we quickly seized the opportunity for some shots of Ben and Zoe together in some seriously amazing light. One of my wedding moments of the year was when Kim, Zoe’s sister’s other half, (picture the meanest guy from a gangster movie complete with facial tats and golden teeth) was a complete gem and held Zoe’s dress out of the mud.

Soon it was time for the wedding breakfast, which continued the Yule-time theme by offering up turkey and crackers. There were also some amazing wedding decorations made from underwater LEDs (seriously, if I was still planning my own wedding I would have been stealing this idea right about now!). Ben managed the impressive feat of giving a long speech that was funny from start to end, including rating his own wedding ‘Four Weddings’ style (although with no rating me of yet!).

In the evening we set up a casting couch crazy booth. One of the joys of my newest camera is that it links wirelessly to my iPad (yes, I’m an Apple man, what can I say), so everyone can see the latest shots. I also got the chance to try out my new ring flash, which I quickly learned leads to an awful lot of leg in some pictures.

Meanwhile, the band had started and the partying was in full swing. This was one of the best cover bands I’ve heard, and they had come all the way from Essex to play. The lead singer in particular combined great vocals with the skills of an impressionist: this is one of the few cover bands I’ve come across where the covers actually sounded like the original songs.

Despite having started so early we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave, and instead ended up partying the night away with the guests. I managed to grab a few more shots of Zoe and Ben – this photo shows off Ben’s piano-playing skills particularly well I think. The bridesmaids and groomsmen then headed outside for some sparkler fun – a must for winter weddings. It was only when the clock struck midnight and everything started to wind down that Tom and I realised we’d better begin the long drive back to Bristol, exhausted but thoroughly happy.

Right, on with the photos. I’ll start with that piano one, hit it to see more!

Survivors: Tom, Ben, Zoe and Me!

So what do you think? Do they make a great couple or what?
More adventures soon,
Alex

Last wedding of the year tomorrow, should be a good one!

I’d been looking forward to this shoot for quite a while. For those of you who don’t know, Out of the Blue are an amazing a cappella group made up entirely of Oxford students and specialising in some rather unusual renditions. If you haven’t heard them, stop reading this right now and go check them out or youtube their Britain’s Got Talent semi-final performance.

Unfortunately as is often the way on this sort of thing, we ended up getting a little pushed for time and losing one of our locations. Nevertheless we made the most of what we had and started in Exeter College chapel before heading down to Holly’s old college, Oriel, for this one on the steps.

I had a great time and it was really awesome to hear the guys put on some impromptu little jam sessions while I set up all the lights. Beats my normal model shoots!

More soon,
Alex

Edit: I also shot some pretty cool individual shots…