So I've been waiting for the right time to blog this wedding and I'll be straight with you here; this is a long post.
Colin, my web-guy will probably kill me for this. Sorry Colin.
We're talking like, 120ish images here. So, I'm sorry but at the same time I'm also not sorry at all because I know you'll love this wedding.
Alex and Sian, as I mentioned in my previous post featuring their engagement pictures, are both doctors.
A fair percentage of doctors were present at the wedding, I'm sure they would of had an absolute field-day poking my odd little body and wondering what the devil is up with it!

Alex and Sian had their wedding ceremony in Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan, just a few miles outside Cardiff.
They then were joined by their friends and family at Sian's parents amazing house in a little village called Bonvilston.

It was an utter pleasure to shoot. I was looked after so well by everybody, especially Sian's parents who kindly hosted their daughter's and new son-in-laws wedding.
They had an amazing marquee on their land but as you might know, a marquee requires flat land and it meant that earth literally had to be moved to make everything even!
I joined Sian and her bridesmaids, as well as Alex and his boys as they got ready for the most amazing, musical wedding that Bonvilston has ever seen. Probably.

Enjoy.

Sian and her girls got ready in a room that was big enough to host her 21st Birthday party with a bouncy castle!

An asian/south american/english fusion breakfast! Of course!

These bouquets and the button hole a few pictures up were by Vida Flora in Porthcawl. Really amazing!

Sian surprised her girls with pearl necklaces. I loved their reaction!

I think all of Sian's girls all looked amazing, they were great fun too.

I then met up with Alex and his ushers in this funny little B&B.

We popped over the road to a petting zoo for some quick formals.

Simples!

The amazing Welsh male voice Choir filled the church with their incredible voices!

Does mother approve Alex?

Don't they all look great! Sian's sister is the one in the middle.

That's a proud Dad!

Married!

My favorite picture from the day I think!

It was so hot. Alex and Sian had kindly made sure that the ushers handed out bottles of water to the guests outside the church. Little acts of kindness like this cost so little, but say so much!

We visited the castle ruins that we did part of their photoshoot in. I was expecting the castle to of been finished by then, but no.

Samuel Davies, an incredible jazz pianist set the mood whilst the guest enjoyed champagne and canapes.

Enjoy these detail shots from the marquee!

Both Alex and Sian's parents are still happily married so they chose to display wedding pictures from previous generations.
Call me slow, but it was right here that I realised the importance of my "job".
In 30 or so years, pictures that I've taken will hang next to these pictures at their child's wedding! Such an honour.

The table names were all named after pubs on a famous Leeds pub crawl.

A review I found online of the Polybop charmingly said:
"Every darn saturday we always get ourselves completly drunk and end up going to this complete dive. But the thing is, every time we go here we have a right good time. I dont know what it is, mebbies because everyone who is there hates the place as much as you do then everyone is out to just have fun and pull anyone they can..."
Great choice for the top table then!

Look at that view!

Time for food! Catering by New House Hotel, they did an incredible job.

Just as they started the first dance, they had a power cut! Thank goodness it didn't last long because it looked like they'd been practising!

Without a shadow of a doubt, this was the best wedding band I've seen. They're called SoundAwake. I can't wait to work with them again!

Look lady, we all know how to play a vuvuzela!

Yes, there were a lot of pictures, but I could of easily blogged them all!
I had such an amazing day, thank you so much for letting me capture all of this Alex and Sian!
It was a pleasure, all day!

Hope you enjoyed!

A few weekends back I shot the wedding of a friend.

Rowan is the brother of one of my friends and Faye is the twin sister of one of my previous Brides.
It's always a pleasure when friends are willing to trust the recording of one of the most important days of their life to me.
No pressure or anything!

Rowan and Faye are an incredible couple. Rowan honestly has to be one of the coolest guys around. You instantly feel relaxed in his company!

They had their ceremony at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Bishopsworth, Bristol and then went on to Flax Bourton village hall, just ten minutes from Bristol Airport.
They had great weather, in fact it was another boiling hot day! Cocktails on arrival to the reception were just what the guests needed!

It was great to be shooting a wedding with some many friends as guests from all over the country.
Enjoy these pictures and leave a comment at the bottom.

Good ol' Mary and Pete! Breaking their usual tradition of leaving 7 kisses on a card!

"Joe, don't you dare show Faye me doing this in this kitchen, she'll kill me!"

"What'd you say Rowan?"

I always like a little bit of guerilla tayloring!

Hey! I took that!

I didn't know that tie-tieing was such a serious past time worthy of judging!

Not the most steady drive to the ceremony I have to say...!

Such a great smile!

I love Mark's smile too. Legend

And here comes the Bride.

With no hiccups and everybody arriving on time all the important people walk into the hall. No hiccups at all. Especially not with front doors.

Faye's Dad, naturally was so proud.

Kevin, the speaker gave a great illustration about marriage being like a brand new car that needs maintenance to stay healthy. Me? I just like toy cars.

One of my favorite pictures from the day:

Faye looked perfect didn't she!

I don't have a clue what's going on here either.

The imagination of the boys got a little out of control in this field. Again, I don't really know what's going on. I just turned up and shot.

Time for dancing!

Ashlee is a good friend of mine and is Rowans little sister!

This was the response when "The Bunsen Honey Dew Band" played a bit of JLS.
Or...she was doing an impression of me reacting to the band playing JLS.
Who knows!?

Another familiar face!

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery!

Awwh! Cute!

...oh my! What sharp teeth you have!

There we go then!

I really enjoyed this wedding which probably won't come as much of a surprise as you know I  love shooting them!
When a couple are as relaxed and happy as these two and have guests who are 1)a ton of fun and 2) previous josephyarrow.com clients, it's a recipe for a killer wedding.

Congratulations Rowan and Faye and Thank you.

Finally, something local!

Jessica and myself travel all over the country to shoot weddings, I guess that's just something that you get from being so good looking.
Ah well.

Shooting all over the country does have it's benefits. We've made some new friends and we can stay in contact with old friends too.
But, it tires us out and we can never wait to get back home to our own bed!

Moses and Sabrina are getting married early next month in Thornbury, Bristol. Then on to Caldicot Choir Hall.

Like the majority of my couples, Moses and Sabrina chose to invest in having an engagement shoot around Clifton where Moses popped the question.
You might recognise Sabrina from the Hornby Photoshoot back when it was freezing. You can see the Bristol pictures here and here.

As I'm super busy at the moment (Two weddings this weekend; local too!)...so I won't be inundating you with pictures from their shoot. Enjoy this little collection!

We couldn't believe this sunset when we were shooting next to the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Hope you enjoyed

Brilliant!

This couple here are Ed and his lady, Lucy and they follow my unusual strain of couples who are so amazing.

Ed and Lucy are getting married in Aberystwyth later this year and want Jessica and myself to cover their wedding and I honestly can't wait!
When we met up at Boston Tea Party, which is my favorite coffee house, we had a general chit chat about what's going on and about how their plans have been coming along.
They really surprised me when they asked me if Jessica and myself would like to join them on the beach the morning after their wedding for a paddle. We are so there!!

These two are the loveliest couple around and we had loads of fun shooting in Bath. (Bath, the city where you can shoot with your lens cap on and still get beautiful shots)

Enjoy!

We were blessed with amazing light!

See?! I'm hilarious!

Such a gentle couple...

Looking at this image now, I really wish I photoshopped that car out on the left! So annoying!

Lucy is leaning against the glass wall of the Bath Thermae Spa which Jessica and myself have been to and it is A-MAZ-ING!

Lucy and Ed really spoilt me! They were the perfect couple to shoot!

And Lucy has such great eyes!

I shot through the heads of a night time tour of Bath, I love the feel of this image!

And finally...

Ed and Lucy, honestly, you really spoiled me, I really loved being in your company and when it comes to your wedding, I just can't wait!

Thanks for reading.

I was inspired today by two photographers.
One of them is Zack Arias. Without wanting to sound like all weird, he's a real rock and roll photographer.
"Just how rock and roll is Zack, Joseph?"
"Well, he named his youngest Son, Hawke Danger Arias (yes, Danger is his middle name)"
Awesome baby names aside, Zack is an inspirational person and I highly respect his opinions.
A while ago, Zack set himself the challenge of shooting 10 total strangers in 10 hours.
Today, after months of me thinking "I could do that", I did "it" or something similar.
Before you see any pictures, I'll show you who else inspired me today.

His name is Jonas Peterson, and I've been following his blog quite closely for the past year, maybe?
I read his "About me" page today and watched his slideshow.
I recommend that you also do that, along with very carefully viewing his latest wedding here.

Before I went out to find amazing people to take pictures of in Bristol, I knew exactly who I would start with.

Didn't know his name, I just knew where I could find him.

His name is Julien.
Julien is 65.
He owns a shop or "a sh*t shed" called Garden Trappings
Julien has owned his...ahem...shed for 10 years. He sells plants and flowers.
He like to throw bird seed onto his corrugated roof for the pigeons.
He has managed rock and roll bands, owned a chain of fashion shops and used to work in Saudi.
He believes in respect. He doesn't want people his age to be seen as Racist, he just wants fair play.
Julien is a non practising Christian, believes that someone, or something is up there, but that's about it.
He doesn't believe in global warming, he knows we're not helping but it's just not as bad as the media are making it out to be.
Julien loves his wife of 8 years.
She is called Faye.
She calls Julien "Faye's Fossil"
He gave me some advice.
"Follow your own trail, don't be led by others"

I knew Julien was going to be interesting, I just didn't realise how interesting he would be!
So he's my new friend!
Enjoy getting to know Julien a little.

Thanks for reading.

Matt is a professional bowman so he ends up travelling all over the world as part of a boat racing team. Yvonne also works in same industry so she gets to travel to some pretty incredible locations sometimes too.

So we met Yvonne and Matt in Matt's home town of Lymington. We were pretty late as some inconsiderate person decided to let their van catch fire on the M4 and by the time we arrived the light was fading very very fast and we were left with very little light to play with!

It was yet another shoot where I struggled on a technical level, but I learnt from it, so there's a silver lining behind every cloud!!
Yvonne and Matt were great company, and I can't wait to shoot their wedding this weekend!
I'll tell you more about them both when I blog their wedding pictures.
I'll also tell you how many wedding rings Matt has.
I'll give you a clue; it's not one.

Enjoy these pictures, and keep an eye out for their wedding pictures pretty soon!

Because these two are such a darned good looking couple, I can't actually show you their faces, instead, you'll see reeds.

Ok, you twisted my arm! Here's Yvonne!

...and Matt. I really love these colors. They look so cool, yet also so warm!

These are all Matt's Boats...I think

Laughing so much your legs give way. It's the only way to laugh!

Can you say "Cheese"? All the best with living this one down Matt!

We used all different types of light on this shoot; shop windows, ambient light, and off camera strobes.
And in this case, we ended up in the middle of the New Forest on Halloween (which didn't scare me in the slightest, honest!) Jess held up the strobe to light their faces and the leaves, whilst Matt and Yvonne's car gave us some nice ambient which created a nice warm halo around them! Cool!

Thanks for being so much fun and hospitable guys! I'm really looking forward to shooting for you at the weekend!

Jessica and myself just went for the evening, so it was very kind of them and Hayley's parents to invite us.

Enjoy this little handful of pictures.

All the best with your lives together.

As I said the other day, we all knew that this would be a killer wedding!

I was lucky enough to be at Jasmines house with her family whilst she was getting ready.
I always love the atmosphere at the Brides house. So Electric, but so fun. Rushing back and forwards to the hair dressers, make up being done and girly music being blasted out. (no, I'm not a fan of the girly music, or make up for that matter)
Btw, the incredible Naomi from Angel Face Make up did Jasmines make up

Its slightly different at the grooms place. Fry-ups, Xbox, putting the ribbon on the car, failing to do a good job of putting the ribbon on the car, tieing cravats, failing to tie cravats without the aid of the internet, realising that they should of left the house 15 minutes ago. All good stuff.

The advantage of this job is that you can step back from all the nerves and excitement and be more aware of the emotions, because you yourself aren't actually involved in the emotion, even though you might get caught with watery eyes... =)
It's Fun!

A Classic Citroen picked Jasmine and her Dad, Marcus up and drove to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Craven Arms.
Now get this: We had to stop in a housing estate because we realised that we were running about 15 minutes early! How many times has that happened?!

From the Kingdom hall, the fresh and new Mr and Mrs Morgan along with a gorgeous Mrs Yarrow and Myself went to Stokesay Castle to do our little thing that we do.
That is a beautiful building, and I hope I can shoot there again soon.

We then went back to the reception in Craven Arms where Luke and Jasmine were greeted with a ruptious applause.
Then the Party started and they lived happily ever after.

Congratulations Luke and Jasmine!

Enjoy these pictures, and leave a comment at the bottom!
All of the pictures can be viewed and purchased here



The back of Jasmines silk wedding dress was laden with Swarovski Crystals




A bit of needed moral support from Bridesmaid and a Josephyarrow.com regular,  Mel

Here's Daddy




I don't think this picture will ever age.

In-case you didn't catch the teaser.



How's this then for a proud Mum and Dad?

This book was packed with helpful facts. There, I've written it now!




Jasmine Rocks


"Wow, you've got some really good looking friends Joseph" said Cindy, my previous bride!




Stokesay Castle Had billions of beautiful wild flowers, so I think a little color is in order here




Look who it is everyone!!

OK...Marcus (Jasmines Dad) is a bit of a dude when it comes to Origami.
This was the centre piece for the top table, it was about the size of a small football and was assembled with no glue (true origami uses no glue) If I remember correctly, Marcus asked for this very intricate design from a polish (?) origami expert, who designed it himself, so he's probably only the second ever person to make this? Probably
Now I'm really pusing my memory here...The whole ball is made up of 20? 24 pieces? (I've forgotten) and each piece took about 15 minutes to make and interlocks with the neighbouring piece.
After that very accurate description, I expect all my blog readers to create this and send it me so I can judge them.

And then... (I know, there's more)...on each table was this beautiful floral center piece with roses and peonies and the like, but Marcus had made origami roses and hidden them inside for the guests to find and take home as gifts. We found one in our center piece that was kindly given to us about 5 days after the wedding!! We were so pleased!! =)


Ben was the best man, well done Ben, and congratulations on getting married!


I didn't have any, but apparently, this cake was "off the chain"

Yes, this is relavent

OK..Usher time.
We have L>R
Jimmy
Mr Matthew Ives
Mr John Mark
Mr Tristan Khoo
Mr Luke "The Groom" Morgan
Mr Nathan Sonny Lee
Mr "Hot" Ben
Mr Davy Flavell

Ok...You ready?
Check this out!

No, your eyes aren't decieving you, that picture just happened!
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Jasmine and Luke chose "Your love gets Sweeter" by Finley Quaye, One of my favorite songs

India rocks out the Charleston.

If you were wondering "Joseph, that picture of Jasmine and the ushers just looks too good to be true, surely something like that needs a whole team working together to make it happen?" Then you'd be right.
Thank you Dan.
On a different note, after checking through this post for typos and things like that, I realised that I hadn't actually edited the next two pictures. All that crazy blur is done completely in camera, no photoshop here.

It was great seeing the kids dance just as hard as the big kids



A suitable and relevant ending to the pictures I think!

Again, thank you Luke and Jasmine for choosing me as your photographer, I felt blessed to be there and be an important part of your day.

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/josephyarrow

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Time for a load of pictures!!

This was a really important wedding for me and Jess, we've both known Bianca for years. I met Bianca in 2001, and after being friends for so long, Jess had her as a bridesmaid! (so no pressure there then, it's not like her mum AND sister are wedding photographers)

Jimmy on the other hand I've not known for as long unfortunatly, but anybody that truely knows him will tell you what a gentle loving man he is.  How he managed to turn Bianca into this lovey-dovey slushy girl, we'll NEVER know!

Saturday was such an emotional day, the rain didn't put a damper on it at all, but it was a shame that we couldn't go outside much because of the weather.
Hopefully I can shoot there again and take advantage of the amazing grounds of Mellington Hall Hotel.

Just one highlight of Saturday evening was the band that played. They were called Function and I really can't recommend them enough, they were all very talented!
Talk to anyone at the wedding and they'll tell you how incredible they were. Unfortunatly they don't have a website so I can't link to them here!

Bianca and Jimmy, Congratulations to you both.
Seeing you both marry each other was absolutly incredible!

Enjoy these pictures, and please leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
I'd love to hear from you!

Don't worry guys, this is just the Best Man, Dan (and what a best man!)

Here's Jimmy! In Biancas Mum's speech, she was telling us how he had to ask to see Jimmy's ID card because she didn't believe how old he was!


The Florist was incredible!

...as was the Dress..






Waiting patiently...



Bianca's Mum, Tania walked her down the aisle.








Sabina is awesome. Full Stop

This may or may not have been the reason for the weather. Socks modelled by Luke



Did I tell you? Jimmy is a highly decorated Chef, these cakes were his creation.


One of my new favorite bridal portraits...


This was cool!

Megan was an awesome bridesmaid! Well done Megan!!



Ask Jimmy what he's laughing at, perhaps this isn't the place to tell such things!! =)

Brotherly love.

Jimmy's Boys
From L to R we have Matt (who helped me with the crazy grooms-men picture)
Luke (Who is getting married on Saturday, remember their shoot?)
Dan, The very best man
Jimmy
Ross
Sonny
Al, who had everything in charge. Awesome
And Nathanael (Remember the photoshoot with him and his sisters?)
And Bianca's Girls...I think the boys win though, sorry Bianca.
From L to R we have Bianca, Obviously,
Mel, sister of Nathanael,
Sarah, sister of Jimmy,
Sabina, sister of Bianca,
Abi, getting married in November
and a recently married Melly.

Well done girls, you were awesome!

When its raining outside, an indoor group shot is the only option. Very tricky. But thanks everyone for your patience!

How many weddings have you gone to where the first dance was by the 'Yeah Yeah Yeahs'?



Very good friends, Zack and Tristan. Hi Zack and Tristan.



MK won the 2009 dance off. Congratulations! (You'll see MK in a few weeks time on the blog, keep an eye out for him)

Whew!! That was a big load of pictures!
Sorry if they took a while to load, but I really hope you enjoyed them.

Bianca and Jimmy, Thank you so much for choosing me as your photographer, it was a huge honour. Me and Jess had a fantastic weekend.
And thank you to the guests for making it so special for the two love birds.

I've almost finished editing Cassie and Paul's Wedding pictures from Friday, and the more I look at them, the more I realise what an epic wedding it was.
Congratulations Guys!
Come back soon for the best from this amazing wedding in Bristol.