The Memories Thru a Lens Blog

To everyone getting married, the actual marriage ceremony is obviously the most important part of the day.  To some couples however it is more about the whole day and celebrating with friends and family.

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.

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!

The Randolph Hotel in Oxford to me is a bit of a photographic gem, so when Oliver and Ruth booked me after meeting me at the wedding fair held at The Randolph it really got my creative juices flowing. I exhibit quite a lot at the Randolph wedding fairs and I often hear the people questioning whether they will get many nice photos there, being in the centre of Oxford means that The Randolph hotel is not set in large grounds and does not have manicured laws for your drinks reception or indeed your wedding portraits but don’t let that fool you.

The Randolph is in the centre of Oxford, its inside has beautiful features not least a sweeping staircase and outside is the marvelous architecture which Oxford is famed for, so I believe countless places to get some really artistic and creative wedding photography.

Oliver and Ruth where a fantastic couple to work with, they where happy to follow my lead no matter how odd it might sound; when you suggest a bus stop for a backdrop it doesn’t ring the cord of traditional wedding photos! So I am very grateful that they put their faith in my creative mind and let me know do my stuff.

It was a wonderful day and The Randolph provided a lovely backdrop for their intimate ceremony, so to follow are a few of my favorites from the day… enjoy!

The new year has definitely been and gone, I can’t believe its already February. With the new year I have been designing a new website which will showcase more wedding images and portrait images, as well and having more information on the site. It takes a long time for me to create my new websites as picking the images I will use for my galleries is no mean feat; firstly I have my photographer head on and go through many many photographs to check which ones are the best technically, then my next head goes on and I pick which ones are best creatively, but then I have to have a third head on which is the hardest one of all…… which images are best to potential clients!

Then to add into the mix is different feelings on different days, when I have carried out a photographic shoot be it weddings or portraits I always tell my clients to take their time looking at the images, as to pick which ones the like the best can sometimes change in your mind from day to day, exactly the same has done to be done when I pick the images for my portfolios, so this is why when I decided on the theme for my new website it is over two months later before I have finally created the galleries.

Its will soon be live so watch this space, but in the meantime here is a sneak peek at the image i have chosen for my home page, Im hopeful it will entice you in to look at the rest of my work.. hope you like it!

I have updated the images in the galleries on the main site, I have also added a couple of albums to the galleries.  So grab a cuppa or a glass of vino and enjoy! www.memoriesthrualens.com/flash

Another one of my winter wedding was at the Notley Tythe Barn near Thame. Steve and Juliet tied the knot at Garzington Church in Oxford and then headed over to the Notley Tythe Barn for the rest of the celebrations.

Garzington Church really is in a fabulous spot atop a hill looking out over the Oxfordshire countryside, once you have managed to find the small latch gate and path that leads you to it that is!

It was a lovely day and Steve and Juliet smiled all day long making it easy to get some cracking shots. It was a pleasure to photograph them and here are a few of my favourites form their wedding day.

Just before Christmas I covered Stuart and Ashia’s wedding at The Thythe Barn, Launton.  It was a fantastic day and a fantastic venue, the candlelight and fairy lights really helped create a romantic atmosphere. 
  
Both Stuart and Aisha looked fantastic on the day and we got some great shots, sadly it rained all day so we where only able to get one shot outside, but being such a  picturesque barn it didn’t matter and we still got some great shots. 

Here are a few of my favourites form the day. 

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!

I’m very excited for this weekend as I will actually be attending a wedding as a guest, I shall be leaving my heavy camera bag at home and replacing it with a clutch bag to match my outfit.  My husband is home too so I can’t wait to go and be on the other side of the lens and drink some of the fizz rather than photographing it!