Singin' in the rain

A few weekends ago I shot a wedding in the wonderful leafy areas surrounding Oxford – an amazing place for a wedding and for wedding photography! As we are all aware at the moment, the weather is not at its best this summer so we had to be creative with some of the group shots later in the day, but the bride, groom and all guests were game for trying some new ideas and it added to the drama and joyousness of the occasion…  and we were rewarded with some amazing photographs! A huge thank you has to go out to the bride and groom and all the people that worked hard to make it such a great occasion – We were treated like part of the family and the happiness of everyone concerned shines through in the images. Great success!

As we still have a young whipper-snapper at home – again I was in need of an assistant shooter for the wedding. Up stepped Paul Mills, a friend of mine and someone i’ve worked with on weddings before, so he is aware of the organised chaos a fantastic wedding creates! Paul was incredibly helpful and got some great shots on the day – so a massive thank you from me. You can see more of his work here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peeandcat/

Having met Emma and Mike before – I was best man for Mike’s cousin, who is a best friend of mine – it was certainly a bit more relaxed than shooting a complete stranger’s wedding photographs, but with that comes great responsibility! It feels slightly more relaxed, but you can’t fall into the trap of taking your eye off the ball because people are chatting to you, and when you know a lot of the people who will be seeing the photographs you need to up your game to make sure all the photographs look great!  Both Mike and Emma are two of the loveliest people you could meet, and both sets of family were a joy to work with – and there were plenty of nerves flying around the start of the wedding! One of the main staples of wedding photography is the ability to portray emotion through each frame I shoot – so excitable nerves at the start of the day make the frames full of energy which is fantastic. Emma especially was incredibly calm to start the day, but when I came to get some prep shots i think it really hit home that she was about to get married which made her quite emotional – and i think this really came across in some of those shots – and they are some of my favourite pics from the whole day. The guys were in fine form too for the preparation shots – it’s sometimes the case where men are a touch reluctant to get some posed shots to start the day off with, but they were great sports and we came away with some real corkers.

Here are some from the pre-wedding venue shots:

Once everyone was ready and starting to disperse, Paul and I went across to the ceremony venue to set up and start capturing the pre-ceremony shots. There was a wonderful rendition of Bob Dylan’s ‘Make you feel my love’ by the Bride’s brother which brought a few ‘specs of dust in the eye’ moments during the ceremony, and some lovely words by both bride and groom for each other – and some really touching readings from the groom’s mother and one of the bridesmaids. They also managed to get the whole room singing ‘Lean on me’ by Bill Withers – no mean feat and it really got everyone united. There was also a secret ‘fly-by’ arranged well in advance by one of Mike’s friends and his mother (Mike has just qualified to be a pilot so it really was a nice touch) – I’m not married yet so one day when i do get married i’ll be able to take all these little hints and have the coolest wedding ever, haha. Just don’t mention it to Helen just yet eh?

a few shots from the ceremoney and post wedding drinks:

After everyone had mingled and had drinks – we headed off to the evening venue for food, speeches and dancing! The veune was a village hall (which looked like an old converted barn) in a lovely old village, with some beautiful countryside surrounding it – and as we got there the heaven’s opened! we managed to co-ordinate umbrella’s to get some great family shots, and then everyone moved inside to get some well earned food and drink. After people were fed and watered, we had some fantastic speeches, with a great mix of sentiment and humour. after the speeches were done – it was all about the partying!

a few from the evening here for you:

All in all it was amazing day with an amazing bride and groom, great guests, and a room filled with love and laughter – what more can you ask for?

A big pat on the back for all concerned – and it was a great pleasure to be a part ot it, and I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Justin