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!

Cupcakes in the form of a wedding cake really do make a modern statement with a fun twist, I mean who doesn’t love a cupcake (plus there is no paying the venue to cut it for you!). Cupcakes are also great to photograph too and they can really make a lovely background to your cutting of the cake album page; now don’t think you cant cut a cupcake at the crucial moment on your wedding day there are options that cover this too, a cake topper which is your more traditional cake on top of your cupcake tower can be used or just as fun is to actually cut a cup cake between you, I mean why not it may not last as long when you actually slice but I’ve no doubt it will get a laugh from your guests.

I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon photographing cup cakes the other day, Im not sure my expanding waist thought it was good news as I couldn’t stop nibbling on those butter cream topped beauties, of course this was much in part to the fabulous baking skills of Gazeli Bakes, their cakes are lighter than air and the butter cream is to die for, so if your looking for cup cakes I can’t recommend them enough, visit their website for more information at www.gazelibakes.com

In the mean time something to wet those taste buds… I give you the cupcake with no calories, of course a picture is a bit tougher to chew on!! Enjoy…..

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!

I was really pleased to see snow on the day, enough to make nice shots but not enough to stop the guests getting there!

The day went really well, it really was the prefect setting especially with the snow, Wasing Park is a relatively new venue but a fabulous one, the converted barns with tea lights in the alcoves really do make for a magical day.

Andy and jill had a hot chocolate van parked up to get rid of the chill and it was delicious a virgin one for me being as I was working, but there was a tipple of whiskey in most I’m sure!

Thanks Andy and Jill for being so easy to work with, I really enjoyed the day and hope you did too.

Here are my favorites from the day:

At the beginning of February I had the pleasure of shooting Andy & Jill’s wedding at Wasing Park just outside Newbury.

Before the day Andy and Jill had asked if we could do a pre-wedding shoot, Andy in particular wasn’t very keen on having his picture taken so wanted a trial run. So a couple of weeks before the we

dding we headed to Wasing Park for a pre-wedding life style shoot.

The snow made a fantastic backdrop, so here are some of my favourites.

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.

I was lucky enough to cover a wedding earlier this year at Blenheim Palace, a stunning venue! Leo and Rebecca where the bride and groom and where as fab as the venue, I thank them for making so much time to ensure we got some great shots.

Blenhiem Palace is certainly a stunning venue and in January it seemed all the more magical with the low light.   It’s the place Bec held in her heart as a wedding venue from an early age and its easy to see why; The Orangery is a fantastic place to hold a sumptuous wedding buffet and being January it was dark earlier which added to the romance of it all, with dimmed chandeliers and candles providing the light for the wedding breakfast it really was a very memorable day.

Leo and Bec jumped in the golf cart with me and Bec was even happy to don a blanket to stop the shivers after all 5th January was a pretty cold day (still gave them a chance for some quiet cuddles to keep warm!).

Thanks guys I got some fantastic images and you where a brilliant couple to work with, I hope your as happy with the images as I am.

Here are a few of my own faves from the day: