In the meantime, the bride and groom in their pre-wedding shoot had a game of Pooh Sticks and so on the wedding day, armed with a bride and groom duck they played it again.  The question is where are the ducks now… the bride won the race and off they drifted down stream as Mr & Mrs Duck, Mrs Duck leading the way of course!!

So have you seen these bride and groom ducks, do you know where they are?!?

Once such couple I have had the pleasure to photograph was David and Anna, I do believe the ceremony to be the shortest I have ever witnessed, which is exactly what they wanted.  They chose the Hotel du Vin in Henley on Thames to host their short but intimate ceremony and drinks reception.

The Hotel du Vin is a lovely venue for those who aren’t looking for a church ceremony, its a converted brewery in the middle of Henley and the ceremony room is akin to a barn and even has a mezzanine balcony.  So its certainly true to say the wedding ceremony was packed to the rafters.

David and Anna held very much importance on their friends and family being a part of their day, they even wanted them included in the signature artistic portraits, that I take of all my brides and grooms on their wedding day.  It really did make the images a lot of fun as Davids brother relished being in front of the camera which lead to lots of laughs.

We headed off by the river in Henley and after stopping for an ice cream for the bride, got some really fantastic shots.

Later on it was off to just outside Thame to their friends farm, where they had a huge marquee and enjoyed the rest of their wedding reception with even more guests.

I knew it was going to be a merry reception when I saw the tables, the favors where bottles of spirits and shot glasses!  Needless to say there was definitely a state of joyful exuberance and some very high spirited guests by the time the wedding breakfast was over.

Here are some of my favorites from David and Anna’s wedding day.

Wedding favors are small gifts given as a gesture of appreciation or gratitude to guests from the bride and groom during a wedding reception, and its believed that it started with aristocrats giving a small trinket box filled with sugar cubes or delicate confections, as in this era sugar was an expensive commodity and it was believed that sugar contained medical benefits.  (Can you imagine giving sugar in this day and age people would think you where slightly bonkers and perhaps jealous of their teeth!)

As sugar became more affordable it was replaced with almonds as the bitterness of the almond and the sweetness of the sugar was said to signify the bitter sweetness of a marriage.

Today I think couples have gone well away from sugared almonds as most people don’t like them, except perhaps your Gandpa!

Favors have become a big part of the wedding reception planning and are usually picked to compliment the theme of the wedding.

So here are some ideas for the future brides and grooms who might be struggling for ideas!

At my own winter wedding which was in late December I had tiny stockings for everyone, thanks to my mum who painstakingly made them all….

Another good idea is a lottery ticket like this wedding I covered in Oxfordshire, I would be pretty happy winning a million courtesy of the good friend or relative who included me in their wedding!

A wedding I covered at The Tythe Barn in Oxfordshire gave mini-love spoons.

At snow covered wedding at Missenden Abbey the candy canes went down a storm.

One of my favorites is defiantly sweets and this wedding I covered at The Randolph in Oxfordshire gave everyone their own little jar of jelly sweets.

One wedding at The Friars Court in Oxfordshire had a really great approach to it, the wedding itself by purpose had a very non traditional theme and the favors where no different, the where bags of tablet (a scottish fudge type sweet apparently!) baked by the groom himself in a big basket for guests to help themselves… with a cuddly monkey for the younger guests!

And finally I think we all look forward to a wedding to see our friends or family member tie the knot and enjoy several drinks to celebrate, so what better favor than a shot, this wedding at The Hotel du Vin in Henley went a little further with the favors…. each table was named after a spirt and said spirt was on each table as the favor; but to be sure everyone partook in the favor the name places where shot glasses, I think the tequila table was the first to drain their bottle!

Whether you read my blog all the time or you have just found it, if your a guest, bride, amateur , professional or just enjoy reading the blog and looking at the images please do comment I would love to hear your thoughts!

Elcot Park is a lovely wedding venue, it has a historic building and some lovely ground looking across the Berkshire countryside which provide a prefect backdrop for the artistic style of photographs of the bride and groom which I like to take.  Andy and Hazel really are a lovely couple, I don’t think ether of them stopped grinning all day and I felt very honored to be able to capture it for them.

I hadn’t shot at Elcot Park before so I was really looking forward to their day, I really enjoy shooting at a new location it really keeps my creative juices flowing as its a whole new canvas that I haven’t used before, so photographer prefer to shoot a the same venues over and over again perhaps because they are a perfect supplier for said venue, but for me its better creatively and more challenging to mix it up a bit and shoot here there and everywhere.  That said I never shoot in the same way even at a venue I know, to me its about the couple not the venue, its the couple who would dictate how I will shoot on their wedding day as I do it in more a documentary way than a posed one to enable me to get that loving look and emotional moment that can not be faked.

I particular enjoyed with Andy and Hazel shooting their bride and groom portraits, they radiated happiness on their wedding day the love they feel for each other was clear, so for me it was a perfect combination to get some great images.

Here are a few of my favorites

Whether you read my blog all the time or you have just found it, if your a guest, bride, amateur , professional or just enjoy reading the blog and looking at the images please do comment I would love to hear your thoughts!

Which is why only a few weeks ago I finished an album which I shot back in December.  Andy and Kerry got married at the Vineyard at Stockcross near Newbury in December, it was a fantastic day and we got some great shots.  Which in part is why Andy and Kerry took a little while to pick their album; they had so many images they wanted to include that it took them a while to pick the ones they wanted for their wall and those they wanted for their album.

One unique thing that they wanted for their album was their invite to be the cover, when they showed me the invite I had no doubt it would look fantastic and Im pleased to say the finished version looked even better than the electronic one, the gloss cover really suited the purple.  I couldn’t wait to hand the album over to them and Im pleased to report they are as pleased with it as I am.

Thanks Andy & Kerry for choosing me to be your photographer, Im really pleased I have been able to give you wedding photographs and a wedding album that you can cherish for many years to come.

So here is the album below, enjoy….

http://tiny.cc/hvzwq

It was a lovely sunny day which is good and bad, its great because all of the colours there are so vibrant; the greens of the golf course against the blue of the sky, but also not so good because bright sunshine means harsh shadows which is not so good on faces, but I wouldn’t be much of a photographer if I didn’t know how to cope with that.

Im really looking forward to shooting Neil and Charlottes wedding, they are a fantastic couple to work with and the intimate touches in decor they have chosen for their special day will really make for a very special album.

Here are a few favorites from their pre-wedding shoot.

The latest such words are from Calum Scott, who’s wedding I photographed at The Friars Court in Oxfordshire, you will be able to see the images and the story behind their booking me in previous posts.

Thank you so much for our kind words Calum it means everything to me to know I have provided you with such a good service and images which you treasure.

Here is what he said….

We both feel very lucky to have been able to have you as our wedding
photographer, firstly because of your little one’s early arrival allowing
you back to work in time but more importantly because of the talent, skill,
creativity, enthusiasm and professionalism you bring to your work which has
given us a truly amazing record of our big day!  I remember trying to watch
you at our friends wedding a year or so before ours to try to pick up tips,
I recall having to actively look out for you as you seem to make yourself
almost invisible at times – I’ve seen a few who think that the photographer
is more important than the bride! We’ve had all sorts of comments from our
guests too, all saying how amazing your images are but also about how hard
you work on the day.  I think you must have covered a half-marathon round
our venue!

So we now have a fabulous album which really shows off your skill – a
brilliant reminder of the day.  Not only that but because of your package
with the files included we have a massive canvas of our favourite shot
gracing our lounge wall!

Any of my friends who tie the knot and are looking for a really artistic
finished product will be sent your way without a doubt!

Do we think they will grow up, grow old and live happily ever after, she looks a little unsure to me…..

Its has been a long journey to get to the finished album, Calum and Hannah called on me to photograph their wedding in desperation not two weeks before their wedding in fact, it turned out that had unfortunately made the wrong choice of photographer and realising their mistake in time asked if I could cover their wedding for them, luckily I could.  I always consider it a huge compliment when any couple chooses to put their trust is me to capture their wedding day and being as Calum is something of a photographer himself it was even more of a compliment.

Im was pleased when they where blown away by the images I did for them, but there came the stumbling block.  I knew that I was on the hunt for a new wedding album supplier to add another option in my packages when it comes to albums, I also knew that their images would work extremely well with the new format album, so I put this to Calum and Hannah and as I suspected they really wanted the modern coffee table wedding album where the fabulous images from their country garden wedding could be shown panoramically.

The problem was from the initial decision I make to source a new supplier to actually producing an album with them can take months, I have an extremely fastidious nature when it comes to choosing which display products to use that will show case my clients photographs; so I would like thank Calum and Hannah for being so patient waiting for their album while I looked and sampled different suppliers and some 5 months later confirmed the new album supplier.

The album was produced and as soon as I saw it in the flesh I knew we had made the right choice, certain wedding venues really lend themselves to having panoramic images stretching from edge to edge in the album and the Friars Court is without doubt one such venue.

So below is a slideshow of Calum and Hannah’s wedding album, I hope you enjoy it.

Their response to the album …… WOW!    One word that made me extremely pleased to have served them so well, my work is done; a happy client with a wedding album they are extremely proud of and will look at and show off for many many years to come.