Right well I best get back to it, madly trying to finish all the photos before I disappear on honeymoon!

More soon,
Alex

Congrats guys and thanks for trusting me and making it such a laid back, fun day,

More soon!

Alex

I was already prepared for the picturesque beauty of St Just’s, but I hadn’t bargained for the grand, atmospheric gardens at Rosteague. My stalwart assistant Chris Beaumont and I travelled down the day before and decided to take a quick look around Rosteague before it got dark. As we drove through the gates and down the driveway the setting sun beamed through the trees, giving everything a golden shimmer. Chris and I turned to each other and I believe my exact words were “This’ll do then”. After a walk around the manicured grounds and through the grassy meadow down to the sea we headed back to the hotel praying that it would be sunny tomorrow and we’d be able to take full advantage of Rosteague’s beauty.

Church – St Just in Roseland
Receiption – Rosteague, Portscatho
Dress – Susanne Nevile supplied by The Mews in Clifton
Florest – Designer Wedding Flowers
Marquee – Coast2Coast

More after the jump.

After a quick breakfast I headed to Jo’s Dad’s house where the day was to start. Jo is one of those uber-organised brides who have their day planned in every detail: I was greeted by a 7 page wedding plan list. I’m not usually a man for lists, despite Holly’s best efforts, but this was something else!

A must have: a carb-packed meal of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and smoked salmon to see Jo through to the wedding breakfast.

Washed down, of course, with a classy glass of pink champagne!

I love this image; it captures Jo’s whole attitude towards her wedding day – laid back, happy and always smiling. This despite the hustle and bustle of everyone around her and the fact that she was about to put her dress on.

Jo wore a beautiful lace dress by Susanne Neville from The Mews in Clifton (my local bridal shop, coincidentally!). I always find it a fun game to guess what sort of dress people will go for and I can’t say I’d have guessed right for Jo. I have to say it fitted her perfectly and the detailed lace looked amazing!

Unusually we actually got 15 minutes to take a walk around Portscatho while Jo waited for the wedding car to return from dropping the bridesmaids at the Church (normally this part of the day is a little freeform and more often than not we’re rushing to cram dresses, bags and people into the cars!). The sun came out for us as we went for a peaceful little walk checking out the local shoreline and, well, when you have views like this you can’t not take loads of photos.

It was great to see St Just’s again. If you’ve never been here, it’s a tiny, ancient church tucked away down a long path right next to the water’s edge. It immediately conjures up romantic images of ‘ye olde times’, and when the whole wedding party is milling around you get a real sense of community.

Here’s a shot of David and his best man Duncan, looking suave in their pinstripe trousers, waiting for the lovely bride to arrive.

I love the look of excited anticipation on David’s face as Jo walks down the aisle – and then her joyful grin behind him.

I always joke about not being needed during the ceremony – there are always so many cameras present anyway! This was no exception, and here one person had a very snazzy Canon:

After the ceremony, the newly weds were whisked away in this vintage chauffeured car:

Jo admires the gorgeous view while waiting for their grand entrance to dinner

And what an amazing view to have while eating dinner. In this case, the marquee (provided by Coast2Coast) was set up on the front lawn as close to the sea as they could manage:

Inside and outside, everything was the picture of elegance, from the white interior to the classic stone water fountains:

This was most definitely a wedding of happy, smiling children – see, I have the photo to prove it:

Just before the speeches we decided to head down to the meadow by the sea to take these sunset shots:

The speeches, incidentally, were some of the funniest I’ve heard. This is probably due to David’s antics in his younger years being so… unorthodox, shall we say. Grooms, take note – if you’ve had a colourful youth, make sure your best man doesn’t know about it!

Then it was time for dancing. Jo and David had an amazing swing band – I have a bit of a soft spot for swing music, and really wished Holly was around to boogie with me (in between taking photos of course):

And for my last offering, I give you: a long table, lots of lights, Rosteague House and the happy couple:

Thanks to Joanna and David for such a great day and to Rosteague for providing such a picturesque venue.

Do they make one hot couple or what?

More adventures soon,

Alex

Gemma and Matt tied the knot in St Chad’s college, where Gemma used to study – she even spent the morning of the wedding (and the night before) back in one of her old uni rooms. Very cool room on the 4th floor with a great view (not so good for carrying camera gear up though!). Very cool wedding and obviously with the pair both being officers there were uniforms aplenty. Gemma even had her own sword, how cool is that? (I really need to find an excuse to be able to wear a sword…)
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Anyway, contrary to the common convention I’m actually going to start at the end with this one of Gemma and Matt outside Durham Cathedral. After their first dance we decided to get some air and go for a wander. Seeing the magnificent cathedral lit up and casting amazing shadows over the nearby trees I just couldn’t resist.

Hit the jump to see more…

Have to thank the Padre for this one. He luckily remembered to book the weather and we actually got one of the warmest days of the year so far. Perfect for a spot of Jenga in the garden (even if my assistant did have to destroy one tower before the big group shot. Spoil sport…)

Just before dinner we decided to go for a mini adventure avec swords. I grabbed this frame during a small spot of squash-buckling amid the ‘Hogwarts’ cloisters.

Lots of fun. Thanks for being such an amazing couple guys and hope you have fun walking in the Lakes.

More adventures soon,
Alex

ps. Thanks to Chris Beaumont for helping me again. Great to have you along despite the snoring

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

Anyway, enough of all that, on with the photos. Here’s one from outside the water tower at Trelissick, if you want to see more from the day just click on the photo.

The day started with Rosie getting ready at her parents’ house, oh and an unexpected delivery from Chris with the photo frame and a really moving letter (I’m not going to include the tear shots for now )

Then onto St Just’s for the wedding with the Reverend Ken Bouiller giving a really lovely ceremony. Turns out Rosie actually got baptised here and what a location her family chose. St Just In Roseland church is set down a hillside in really pretty gardens, overlooking the sea. Yep, I know a lot of Americans read this blog and somehow I don’t think you’ll be able to beat that. Haven’t got as far as processing the photos of the church yet but you can rest assured they’ll come

Rosie and Chris had laid on some really gorgeous vintage buses to take us all via the King Harry Ferry to Trelissick gardens. There we all enjoyed ice cream and Pimms while basking in sun with (yet another) breathtaking view behind. Guys, seriously, how did you find all these locations?

Dinner and dancing followed with a bit of craziness in my makeshift photobooth type thing outside. Time flew and before we knew it Holly and I were heading back to the hotel. A quick check of the watch revealed it was 1:30am, quite a day. Thanks guys, I had a ball!

More adventures (and photos) soon,

Alex

More photos after the jump…

Oh yes, they found your song Kerry…

More adventure to come!

Alex

So, sheep, sheep and more sheep. That’s how I always envision Wales. This time however the only sheep were fakes ones in the grounds of Llyndir Hall for Kate and Paul’s wedding. I’m not going to say anything about whether it’s the most tasteful thing to have in your lovely lawns or whether it’s a good thing to prolong the Welsh stereotype but hey, they were kinda cool.

Anyway, I’d driven up to Llyndir near Wrecsam that morning with the ever gorgeous Holly in order to photograph the (also) ever gorgeous Kate marrying Mr Paul Sinclair. We spent the entire day there following Kate in her journey into married life, starting with her prep in the morning all the way through to the dancing at night. I had a really awesome time, thanks for having me along guys!

Click on the image or the link below for the rest of the photos….

The day started with Kate getting ready. She was to wear a really gorgeous Amanda Wyatt dress which her bridesmaids carefully unwrapped. After zipping her into it they finally allowed her Dad in to see just how beautiful she looked.

We were really lucky with the ceremony, it was held outside in what started out as sun. Unfortunately just as the rings exchange started the heavens began to open. With a bit of speed though Kate and Paul managed to get it all done, jump under the cover of a gazebo then walk off into the sun…

Onto dinner and the speechs. I know this blog post is getting a bit long but I really had to put this photo in. It’s Paul’s toast to absent friends. I think it’s one of the most powerful images I’ve shot at a wedding.

I don’t think I have to say much about the best mans speach. I think the look on Kate’s face sums it all up…

Finally I’ll leave you with one last shot from the first dance that I personally LOVE!

Truly fab couple. I hope you guys are having a blast on honeymoon. Hope to see you both again soon!

Alex

So hands up who remembers Cat and Matt’s engagement session? Well if you don’t go check it out. These guys are hilarious and on Saturday I had the privilege of shooting their wedding at Cooling Castle Barn in Kent. Awesome venue, hell it even has a castle in the grounds, could anybody ask for a more photogenic location?

Anyway there’s far too many great photos to share them all so here’s part of the story. I began the morning with Cat and the girls getting ready at Smudge’s hair dressers in Sidcup…
Hit the jump for the photos…

Matt had written his own vows. Quite simply the most romantic speech I’ve ever heard, had nearly all the congregation members in tears. To be honest, I don’t blame them, I was close myself! I think Holly managed to get it on video so I’ll add it soon, but I fear it could be a touch wobbly since she succumbed to the speech too.

After the ceremony we all headed out for first champagne then the formals. I have to confess I haven’t had so much fun shooting formals in a long time, especially the stags and hens. Can you guess Matt is a touch happy to be married?

And the girls. Oh the girls, when I could get them to put their legs away we got some fab pictures too (not to say the photos of the legs weren’t fab as well… naturally… )

Well next Friday it’s the turn of Kate and Paul. You’ve got a lot to live up to guys!

Alex

Anyway, onto the photos: Selwyn is a really gorgeous Cambridge college, wish we had a little more time in order to get more fun portraits but, as is the way with weddings, we were on a tight schedule (Emily and Chris had to get to a different location for the reception). Still, with their help I think we nailed it.

This one was a candid just after the ceremony. Really couldn’t ask for a more laid back, in love couple.

I spotted this location on the way in, I just love the symmetry of the Master’s Lodge. Emily and Chris really set the image off. Lighting here is from an SB900 flash just to the left of camera.

Click the jump for more pictures from the day.

Oh I almost forgot, this was shot in association with Jean-Luc Benazet. This was actually our second wedding shooting together and I thoroughly enjoyed it. You can see his blog post on the wedding here.

Alex