Lucy and Michael at St Thomas's, Halliwell and Haigh Hall

RIGHT! I haven’t reported on any wedding stuff for a while, simply because I’ve not had time. The last 7 weeks have been my busiest ever since I picked up a camera. Time to get you all up to speed with what I’ve been up to…

Heading back to mid-July, I was present to capture the big day of Lucy and Michael. Michael and his brother grew up in the same area as me so it was good to catch up with some familiar faces on the day. But I wasn’t there to socialise so I set about capturing the preparations of Michael’s lovely fiancée Lucy at their home. The bridal party were very chilled out as they got ready whilst quaffing some champers. Lucy looked amazing in her dress, and as she made her final preparations I nipped to the church to meet a very nervous Michael and the lads. Michael kept his eyes facing front until Lucy made it to the front of the aisle, and I think the photo I caught of them first getting a glimpse of each other is priceless!
The service was great with some nice personal touches, after which we all headed to Haigh Hall for the reception. The sun had come out making the picturesque grounds sparkle for what was a fantastic day. Highlights below.

























Congratulations to you both. Thanks for letting me capture your special day and I hope you love your photos.

Babies, Toddlers and Families!

Here are some more portrait photo's from shoots that I’ve done this year. I’ve had a great time meeting new people whilst photographing their families. Plus I've have had the chance to catch up with some former wedding clients after they’ve had some new arrivals!

Bride To Be, Bridal Wear, Prestwich, Manchester

I'm delighted to announce a new bridal wear shop is set to open in Prestwich, Manchester called Bride to Be. The Boutique, owned by the lovely Hannah Lois, is on Bury New Road in Prestwich village. It offers a large variety of wedding dresses and bridesmaids dresses to brides to be, who are looking for the perfect dress to wow the one they love on their big day. All the staff have a friendly and down to earth approach to allow a good browse whilst enjoying yourself; sipping on some fizz, or coffee & cupcakes in order to find the wedding dress of your dreams and to make sure you look amazing on your special day.

The Bride's collections include wedding gowns from Alfred Sung's Always and Signature Collections, Jasmine Couture and Jasmine Colllection, Jade Daniels, Mikaella by Paloma Blanca and a Plus Size range from Callista for beautiful brides with curves. There is also a fantastic range of bridesmaids dresses from Jasmine's B2 and Alfred Sung's Lela Rose Collection. There are a great range of sizes and styles to suit all tastes, and with a large price range for wedding dresses, the boutique caters for every budget too.

Bride to Be has flexible opening hours to suit everyone, opening 6 days a week. Appointments can be made from Tuesday - Sunday or you can call in anytime for a browse. The boutique opens on the 25th June and Hannah is holding an official launch event there on Saturday 2nd July 10am - 6pm. Prospective brides can visit the boutique and enjoy champagne, canapés, coffee & cupcakes, mini manicures, pedicures, acoustic music and much more!

Some of my own wedding photographs will be up on the walls in the boutique and you can look through one of my wedding albums too, which will be on display to be browsed through.

Visit www.bridetobebyhannahlois.co.uk for more information.

Claire and Chris’s Wedding at Walton Hall, Warrington, Cheshire

The final wedding that I covered in my mad month of May was at Walton Hall in Warrington, Cheshire. It’s the first time I’ve photographed a wedding here and not the last, I sincerely hope. The venue is a big stately home in the middle of a beautifully kept park. As nice as the Hall is, the wedding was due to be held in the grounds, north-west weather dependent of course!

The skies were dark and threatening rain around half an hour before the service. The venue dressers had set out the indoor room for the service as it looked to be rained off. A mild tussle was going on as the registrar wanted it indoors but the venue coordinators were insistent that is was going to be outside as planned. The anticipation of what was to happen was nearing fever pitch (am I building this up dramatically enough for you here?)….

Anyway, about 10 minutes before the service, the clouds parted and the Cheshire sun started shining down on the park, starting a mad dash to set up the bandstand for what was to be an amazing ceremony. Claire and her bridesmaids looked amazing as they walked down the aisle in the sun. The park proved to be a splendid backdrop for the group and portrait shots, as did the staircase of the venue itself. The evening reception was held up by the Champions League final with the bride and groom's first dance happening at half time, again outside on the bandstand: Awesome stuff! The match result wasn’t quite what a lot of the lads would have hoped for, but it didn’t spoil what was a fantastic day. Highlights below!




























Congratulations to Claire and Chris. Hope you love looking at your photos as much as I loved taking them (and looking at them again actually!).

May Portraits!

May has so far been my busiest month this year. On top of the weekly weddings, I’ve squeezed in a few studio and location portrait shoots. I’ve been playing around with different lighting and post production stuff and have worked with a make-up artist to get variety to my portfolio. Here’s a few of my favourite shots taken.













Thanks to my willing models Micah, Claire, Natalie and Emma for letting me order them about on the days. Thanks to Jodie Dean for the excellent make up work on Claire and Natalie. Thanks to Len at Elegance Photography Studio in Bury (www.elegancephotography-studio.com) for allowing me to mess up his studio and thanks to The White Room in Whitefield (www.whiteroom.uk.com) for allowing me in before they opened up to do the shoot with Micah.

New Exciting Promo Stuff!

I attended a marketing workshop yesterday to try and get some new ideas for promoting my business. Right at the start of session, the lady running the workshop asked who had business cards. I was the only person to put my hand up. She asked me to show her my card and as I was getting my wallet out, I felt a shiver of embarrassment run through me. This was because I knew full well that I’d given my last business card to a close up magician I'd met in a Parcel Force collection office the previous day. Anyone who is friends with me on Facebook may have noticed that I've had a bit of a running battle with Parcel Force this week over their 'Express 1 day service' that I eventually received 3 days late after 3 phone calls, 2 visits to the depot and a strongly worded letter! Anyway this magician did a trick for me whilst we were waiting to be served and was quite good so I said I'd recommend him to my clients where necessary. He didnt have a business card on him so said he'd email me his details through, which he is yet to do.

Anyway, I’ve digressed into a babbling and ranting idiot now. Back to the marketing workshop. So I didn’t have a business card and felt quite ridiculous admitting this after just saying that I had one. The workshop leader gave me a mild dressing down and instructed me to never leave the house without them! I wanted to tell her that I was leaving to pick up a batch of business cards (at a 3rd attempt) immediately following the workshop. But I didn’t as this would have made me look like the a schoolboy (that I used to be) making excuses for not doing his homework.

Here they are anyway, I love them! I got 13 different photographs printed onto the front of the cards. It's like carrying a mini portfolio around in my pocket. I've simplified the contact details on the back going for a 'less is more' look. The print quality is superb and I couldn’t be happier with them. (Which is more than I can say for these poor quality iPhone photos of them.)


Pics!


Lots of pics!


Back of the cards


The postcard front


Postcard rear

The only problem I have now is that I really don't want to give them away!