The Memories Thru a Lens Blog

Having been a bride myself I know that most brides would like their wedding to be remembered and be a little bit different to anyone else’s and one of the big conundrums for your wedding day its the favors.

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!

In one of my last posts I explained how I add my photoshop magic to my wedding photography and portrait photography and this post will explain a bit more about my style of photography.

Anyone who is looking for a photographer to capture their wedding day of the wonderful memories of their child growing up will often be asked if they know what style of photographer they are looking for; indeed I will often be asked what style of photographer I consider myself to be so that the potential client can weave their way through the field of potential photographers out their and pick the one that best suits what they are looking to achieve in their photographs.

When asked what my style of wedding or portrait photography is I would say I am bespoke and artistic, but why would I say this.

Firstly lets address bespoke; the dictionary definition of this is “made to order” which I feel couldn’t describe my service better, to me each and every client be it for wedding photography or portrait photography is different and deserves to be treated as such.  So I don’t head off to a wedding shoot or portrait shoot with a list full of poses that I use each and every time, instead I judge on the day and the person and adapt how I take photographs to that, so therefore each and every shoot is made to order.

So that brings me to artistic; now the dictionary definition of this is “having a creative skill” do I have creative skill in my photography?  Well that would be a question for my clients but what I do know is that I certainly put my own creative mark on all the images I take.  First its the actual shot being taken, how I do this is something I find very hard to describe I simply look around, look at my subject then look through my lens and out the shot comes.  Luckily for me its the most natural thing in the world to capture a photograph, a skill which I certainly cherish.  Next I edit the photo adding my photoshop magic, I guess this is where my creativity really comes into its own to make the shot a work of art that when my clients see it will love it and be proud to hang in on their walls.

To follow are  some images that I really feel are artistic…. enjoy!

So a couple of weeks ago I had a wedding I was looking forward to as I got the booking from a referral which I am still very flattered about.

Ryan and Emma got married at the charmingly English church in Ducklington followed by a superb wedding breakfast at The Oxford Thames hotel.

Emma had a superb dress with the longest train of the year for me I think, they had a lovely vintage car to take Emma to the church and then the happy couple onto the reception, it was a lovely service with some great courses from all the guests throughout.

After the ceremony I kept Ryan and Emma back while the guests made their way onto the reception and we did some portraits of the two of them by the lovely little duck pond outside the church.

I saw them off in the vintage car and made my way to the venue; however when I got there I was told the bride and groom had broken down, turns out they made it about a mile before spluttering to a halt, I couldn’t believe I missed such a jovial photo opportunity, note to self always follow the wedding car!

Well I’m sure you all know the age old saying ‘break a leg’, I’m sure if anyone had said it to the groom, Andy, who’s wedding I covered last weekend would have actually meant him to do it, but sure enough a week before the wedding Andy broke his foot.

Emma his bride took it all in good spirits and neither of them let it ruin their day, I first thought Andy must have broken it on the Rugby field however a dance off was responsible it seems, which made it all the more humorous for both Andy and Emma and their guest’s.

Thanks guys for being such a relaxed and fun couple you where a pleasure to shoots and here are a few of my faves from the day: