I hope you're having a good day.
 Joseph

Neil and Kat got married up in Liverpool back near the end of last year, there were still leaves on the trees, bright golden they were.
I had never visited Liverpool before so for me it was quite exciting. Everywhere you turn has some reference to the fab four, (no, not the Backstreet Boys).
Neil and Kat held their reception at the incredible Sefton Park Palm House, a conservatory palm house built in 1896. It was beautiful inside and out, with a huge variation of exotic plants.
At a few times throughout the day I looked out of the window...the whole building is basically a big window to be honest...and noticed 3 or 4 wedding cars drive up to the front gate, brides were getting out of the cars to have their picture taken with the house in the background. I felt quite lucky to be inside a building that obviously was a popular landmark that meant a lot to local people.
During the evening reception I was talking to one of the guests, she said that when she was a little girl she used to come to the palm house on a Sunday with her parents and read the newspaper. It was much warmer in the Palm house than what it was at home. Apparently, it was quite common for everybody to do this, it saved on heating costs!
Now the Palm house has been beautifully restored and it's a pleasure to be inside.

Neil and Kat didn't have the best day weather-wise, It was a typically chilly northern late-Autumn day with lots of showers. Personally, I can't stand the rain, but I do like how rain makes people huddle closer together to try and stay warm and dry under one umbrella. It makes for great pictures. That panic that hits people when the heavens first opens is quite a funny site to record through photographs. Californians might have a steady supply of golden and lush light, but we've got the rain and atmosphere!
I'll keep on telling myself that's how I like it.

Regular readers might recognise Neil here, he's appeared on the blog before along with another couple which I'm very sure you'll recognise.

Enjoy the pictures and please leave a comment at the bottom of the page!

Last Friday I shot the wedding of Nathan and Kate.
Nathan was an usher of one of my very good friends, also called Nathan.

So, whilst I edit the rest of Nathan and Kate's wedding pictures from Hotel Du Vin in Birmingham, please enjoy this little teaser.

Hello everybody. I hope you had a great weekend. A little fact that I can't let go of (and Jessica is more than ready for me to drop it now...) is that this weekend, I've been taking pictures for 24 hours. A 14 hour wedding, followed by a 10 hour one. I can't wait to show you some of the pictures.
You'll love them I know.

A couple of weekends ago, I travelled up to Manchester to meet a couple who booked me months ago (It feels like years though!)
Gavin and Lucy are getting married at Eleven Didsbury Park Hotel, a really beautiful hotel in Didsbury, just a few minutes outside of the city centre. We ended up shooting in Didsbury, but we shot around the city a little to start off, concentrating on the Northern Quarter; Jessica's old stomping ground!

For a change(!) Lucy and Gavin are just the same as my other couples, just generally pretty darned awesome and not looking for any pompous displays at their wedding. They just want their guests to enjoy their day. Simple; a nice meal, a few speeches, games in the garden and drinks. Sounds perfect to me!
Also, I have strongly expressed my intentions of beating everybody at Garden-Jenga, Simply put, I haven't and won't be beaten.

Enjoy these pictures from Gavin and Lucy's engagement shoot in Manchester, and look out for their wedding later in the year! Should be great one!

I do love a shoot in the city!

I've taken a liking to strong shadows recently, so this was a perfect little spot for me!

And I'm a big fan of street art. Manchester (and Bristol of course) are great cities to discover amazing artists!

This is when we started to shoot in Didsbury, in a beautiful park called Fletcher Moss Park. For years, this has been Gavin and Lucy's "own" garden!

Great smiles + Great light = A happy photographer.

I've really fallen for this picture. I love the light just slightly catching Lucy's great smile!

And this right here is the moment where Gavin lost his car keys! D'oh! Thank you daffodils for letting us crush you. Sorry.

Lucy is a real smiler! I love her face in this picture!

Thank you guys!
I loved spending the evening with you talking about music and fixed gear bikes (Gavin, you've really turned me onto fixies now, I just have to work on these calf muscles)

I hope all enjoyed these pictures. Like I said earlier, look out for their wedding pictures in a few months!
Have a good week.

As I mentioned in my last post I met up with Lorna and Adam just a couple of weeks before the wedding and really took a shine to them; they're a wonderful couple! Guests and friends will know just how awesome these two are.

In fact I was talking with another couple who are equally awesome... (I will blog about them soon, you'll love them)...I was explaining that as the majority of my couples are very similar, I'd love to arrange some kind of shindig/rave/tea party.
Of course, this won't happen, it'll be a little weird.
But naturally, Adam and Lorna would be there swapping hilarious and flattering anecdotes about their photographer! I'd be presented with an expensive bottle of single malt and then be asked to give a speech.
I'm joking of course...but seriously...

I met up with Lorna at her parents house which was a 2 minute walk to the church where she'd be marrying Adam.
After the ceremony, Adam and Lorna joined their lovely guests at the family run Dunsley Hall in Kinver where they were greeted by the wonderful and accommodating staff.

Adam and Lorna, thank you so much for making me feel welcome throughout the whole day. I enjoyed every part of your wedding and I could tell that you and your guests did too.
Enjoy the pictures and as usual, share, tweet and comment.

Stuart, Lorna's brother refused to see Lorna in her wedding dress before the ceremony.

Mum gets to see Lorna. Wonderful moment. 


Lorna's mum had Orchids everywhere. Everywhere!!

Lorna's Nan, Ivy was all up for seeing Lorna before the ceremony, I don't think Lorna had much say in the matter!

Here she is!

Here's the Groom. I don't want to say that he was running late, but... 

A small selection of Adam's important men.

I also find hymn books hilarious.

Nervous much Adam?

"Adam was how late?!?"

Unfortunately, we were allowed to take very few images during the ceremony, so make sure you watch the flipbook version of Adam and Lorna's wedding here.

No more kisses for you Mister!

Let the congratulatory kissing commence!

I'm very fond of this funny little shot.

And then on to Dunsley Hall in Kinver, and personally greeted by the manager and general nice-guy, Wilf.

I almost feel like I don't even need to tell you this, but here is "The Heckler".
He did a great job of contributing to the speeches...and calling me Harry Potter.
Look at those eyes, you can see his brain working and trying to find a way of making me crack.

Speeches time. Lorna's Dad's speech was very special.

Hi Adam!

After lulling the guests into a false sense of security with childhood stories about paper aeroplanes with matches selotaped to them, Joe, Adam's Best Man, proceeded to individually and thoroughly mock all the other ushers using a pointy device. No need for that at all. But it was hilarious!

This has been added to my growing pile of "Favorite pictures"

I love Adam's Dad's laugh! This picture makes me feel good!

All in good spirits of course...

And here is the beautiful Bride.

I think Lorna's eyes are incredible in this picture. A super cool couple.

Lorna runs back to the party, rocking the shoes that her mum got married in 35 years ago.

And why not hey?


Lovely stuff!
I loved shooting your wedding Lorna and Adam, and I really enjoyed editing and blogging too.
You both made Jessica and myself feel so welcome and we really appreciated it!
Thank you also to the staff at Dunsley Hall in Kinver, you were excellent!
Also, you might notice that there are none of my usual grammatical mistakes in this post and Mr Phill Allen is to thank for that!

I recommend that you read the above mentioned post before reading this one, it'll just make more sense!
...
I'm guessing you've read it now, I'll continue.

The other day, on the way up to Adam and Lorna's wedding up in the Midlands, I bought Brides Magazine.
I often buy it as I actually enjoy reading it, it gives me plenty of inspiration and being in the wedding industry I think it makes a lot of sense to read the same sort of material that my brides are reading too. I keep on top of some of the trends that I might of missed previously on the interweb.
I also like to laugh at the adverts.

So, like I said, I bought it. £4.90 please. Ouch!
I failed to notice, until I was taking the glossy magazine out of the packaging that there was a DVD in there too.
The Sherlocks upon you will work out that this was likely the same DVD that I could of been featured on as the recommended photographer for my region.

Inside the magazine, lots of pretty pictures, plenty of dodgy adverts (some taking up 5-6 spreads, and one certain company showing a model posing as a bridesmaid who I can only presume previously had a career as a boxer)...but no mention of the scores of information and links found on the free DVD.

I pop the disc into my laptop and follow the appropriate links to find who was the photographer for my region, and I get this;

...Ta-da

This photographer paid £495 for that advert.
Nothing else, no additional links, no extra pictures and no slideshow. Infact, when I typed into everybody's favourite search engine "three acorns photography brides magazine" and even "Thornbury Brides Magazine" (this photographer is based in Thornbury, a little town down the road), nothing came up.
So Brides magazine don't even have the time to put together a simple online directory for their paying customers!

What am I saying?..or not saying for that matter...

I'm not saying that Brides magazine is conning photographers out of money.
I'm not saying "don't invest in having your business listed on their free DVD"
I'm not saying I'm bitter, because I'm not. I consider myself pretty lucky actually.
I'm also not saying that every single photographer  listed on the DVD will get no bookings, they just might...in fact I really hope they do!

I'm saying, if you're a photographer, then research these things first so that you don't end up spending a lot of money on very little.
If you're a bride looking for a photographer, then the DVD might be perfect for you.
Probably not though. It wasn't that good to be honest!
Just use google.

But again, I thank you Conde Nast publishers, and Brides magazine for asking me to be one of your recommended photographers.
Very kind of you...I'm still on page one for "Brides Magazine Recommended Photographer"

hehe...

I really appreciate the coverage, It will be a huge help to me! It will also be a huge help to other couples getting married as it was a very inspiring wedding.

Although I am based in Bristol, I am always happy to cover a Manchester wedding.
I love it there and have plenty of bookings across Cheshire and Lancashire for this year and next already!

If you'd like to see the whole of Matt and Annie's wedding from last year then you can either look on the home page here as it is still my featured wedding, or you can view the blog here.

Again, thank you Claire for featuring me!

We shot around the Bristol docks for some grungy textures but ended up in the Millennium Square area of Bristol to make use of the artificial lights and cool architecture.
It was a little strange doing a shoot in my own city. It's very rare that I'm this close to home, I'm usually doing an engagement shoot in a field in Shropshire, a forest on Halloween or on a farm in mid Wales! I loved it though, it's great to welcome in the wedding season with a couple like this!

This photo was taken at the Lloyds building on the floating harbor in the centre of Bristol.
Mark was saying that this is a world famous spot for skaters and although there was just a handful of skaters around they were more than willing to help out. Cheers guys!

Look out for their wedding at the end of the month and of course the rest of their pictures from this shoot very soon. Mark and Amy are getting married at the beautiful Priston Mill, just outside Bath. I'll be there a few more times this year, so that'll be good!

On a side note, Mark ran the Bath Half Marathon yesterday, not sure how he did yet though!

Enjoy!

I'll soon be putting together a list of equipment that I use too, it seems like most of the blokes wanted to know what gear I use. I wonder why that is?!
I created a video showing all my gear and my reasons for using it, but I chose to quickly delete it as I hate my own voice, I have a sore throat so I sound like a tramp, and I was rambling too much.

So thats the end of that!
Perhaps I'll put together some pictures for the gear-heads soon.

I know I've neglected this blog recently, I'm terribly sorry about that. I can assure you that this blog is going to be very busy.
I've got plenty of shoots coming up, along with weddings-a-plenty!
I really can't wait to shoot my next wedding!

The next wedding will be Chris and Victoria up in Preston. We had a great time at Ashton Court in Clifton, Bristol, having a photoshoot in the amazing grounds!
I ordered a few business cards especially for their wedding at Samlesbury Hall. Each card has a different picture on from their Bristol engagement shoot.

...and here is what they look like!

Front

And back. Neat aren't they?


I'm sure they'll go down well when I offer them to guests who ask.
I'll be ordering some more of these after I've edited the pictures from a shoot I have on Saturday. They're a really great couple, I'm sure you'll like them!
Keep your eye on the blog.

Take care.
Joseph

At the weekend I shot another wedding at Clearwell Castle.
Remember Jimmy and Louise's photoshoot in Bath?
We had loads of fun in the fog and the cold on that day.
Unfortunately, Jimmy and Louise wern't exactly blessed with good weather at the weekend, but the great thing about Clearwell Castle is the fact that it always feels so warm there and even if it's rubbish outside, there are so many great rooms to discover!

This was the biggest wedding I've shot at Clearwell and certainly the most fun!
It was also my first chinese wedding, so plenty of new sights I've not witnessed before, like the tea ceremony which I found fascinating!
I'd love to be there for their Chinese wedding in Hong Kong, it sounds loads of fun!

Friends and family flew in literally from all over the world to see Jimmy and Louise get married, so the atmosphere was amazing!

Unfortunately, so far this is the last wedding of the year. I can't imagine getting booked for another December wedding now!
It's been a pretty busy year and I've loved it, I think I'll post a "best of" like I did last year.

Whilst I edit the rest of the images, enjoy this little teaser.
The full blog will be up in a few days.
Check back soon.

Joseph