Justine & Graham | Pre Wedding Shoot | Historic Lichfield

The final shoot of las weekend found me in historic Lichfield, an absolutely beautiful city with a cathedral, numerous parks and a river. Justine and Graham are getting married in 5 weeks time, so we got together to take a few photos to get them used to me before the big day !

A few favourites ...

TJ & Kian | Portraits | Trentham Gardens

I had a lot of fun last week with Nina and her boys ... Kian is 8 months old and TJ is a 2 and a half year old spitfire ! Man, so much energy packed into such a little body LOL

The idea was to let them have some fun in the leaves and park at Trentham Gardens and to capture an autumnal feel ... the weather was kind to us and we weren't short of leaves and autumn colour.

A few faves ...

Lynne & William | Pre Wedding Shoot | Aberystwyth

This weekend I travelled over to North Wales to meet up with Lynne and William for their pre wedding shoot. We actually started off at the beach in Ynyslas but headed over to Aberystwyth before we got blown out to sea !

In Lynne's own words, here is the reason we were there:

We met at uni in Aberystwyth 6 years ago and quickly became great friends and partners in crime! I told my best friend within 2 weeks : "I bet I end up marrying Will." A year and a half later we got together and here we are! As for Ynyslas, we've spent many happy summer days there together and with friends, and many very windy evenings there walking our dog in later years! It's just a beautiful place, that has some great memories for us as a couple and as being lazy students!

Without further ado, some photos from a very windy Wales !

Aberystwyth (the old uni) and some seriously choppy waves ...

Digital Wedding Forum | Featured Member

I am so excited to have been chosen as the Featured Member on the Digital Wedding Forum.

The forum is the oldest and most established of it's kind and, with over 5000 professional photographers as members, this is truly an honour.

You can check out my interview and some photos here ... please feel free to leave any comments on there, or here ... enjoy !

Andrea & Ben | Wedding | Crewe Hall, Cheshire

I had the pleasure of shooting Andrea and Ben's wedding at Crewe Hall last weekend. The day was filled with emotion and fun in equal measures. They have been together for 18 years and so this day was a long time coming !

As the guys were both getting ready in different wings of Crewe Hall, I was able to spend time with both of them in the morning. Andrea was calm as anything, Ben was another story LOL ... his nerves soon calmed once the ceremony was over and he and his buddies could get to the beer part of the day.

Andrea contacted me a couple of weeks ago and booked me to come and shoot the first dance as a surprise for Ben ... he looked a little confused when I got back to the venue haha ... that wasn't the only surprise ... I had to hide as he thought I had left after the dancing, as Andrea had booked fireworks as another surprise and I was there to capture those as well.

As always, a few favourites from the day ... thanks for having me guys !

2 different shots on the bed, the first with a 24mm (ooh, look, I broke a rule LOL), the second with my beloved 50 ... both wide open ...

1 from Kim at the back of the ceremony room ...

Speeches, dancing and those fireworks ...

Venue: Crewe Hall, Cheshire
Dress: Ian Stewart
Florist: Faerie Godmothers
Tiara: Princess Poppy Tiaras
Band: The Funtime Frankies

Tess

You know, I haven't blogged about my baby girl for a long time. While we were in Nice last weekend our friends asked how easy (or otherwise) she has been to train. The short answer is "not really". Beagles are notoriously difficult, they often get labelled as stupid, but are far from it. They are super intelligent and have minds of their own, their own wee way of doing things. However, patience has been the key (that, and bribes) and we feel she is actually a fairly well-behaved dog. We have a way to go, but she is a beauty.

I found myself with a fantastic excuse for shooting her today. I took delivery of a new toy, the Canon 5D Mark II. So far, it is scoring points with me and is, as with all my Canons over the years, very intuitive to use and the ergonomics are marvellous. I popped the 85 1.2 II on it and shot this through the conservatory doors, where Tess had been sleeping (until she heard me coming haha).

Enjoy ...

National Wedding Show | NEC Birmingham | UPDATE

WOW ! What a fantastic weekend we just had at the show ! We had so much fun I want to do it all again this week LOL

Big thanks to (in no particular order) my wonderful helpers, (ex-bride in her beautiful Jenny Packham dress) Louise, Steve and Kim, to all those who booked at the show and by phone when I got back last night, to all my current brides who just stopped by to say hi and of course to the other exhibitors / photographers who were super-friendly and made it such a fantastic weekend.

I thought I would take today off to recuperate but am buzzing from the show and raring to get going, so I'm here if you want to contact me :)

Gill

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Hi all ... just a heads up to let you know I am exhibiting at the National Wedding Show tomorrow to Sunday. I am on stand P16 so drop by and see me. I have some friends helping out over the weekend, and an ex-bride in her wedding dress, so you can hear first hand what it's going to be like if you book with me ! And you can check out her wedding photos in a stunning digital album too.

Even if you have already booked with me, it would be great to see you, so remember P16, right by the catwalk!

See you there ...

Gill

Birthday Fun in the South of France

Hi guys ... sorry I've been absent but I have a great excuse ... last weekend I celebrated my 40th birthday by flying down to Nice with my husband for a short break. I didn't want to be at home on this dreaded milestone and we both love Nice, so why not.

Here are a few snaps of the trip ... all taken with my Canon G10.

Just turned 40 ... having fun with the G10 outside Waynes bar (great opportunity to hang with our friend Dave who has worked there for 6 years ... check out the team profiles)

Seriously, how hard is it to try and look cool for the camera LOL

The view from the hotel ... so many of the buildings in Nice are like this, rustic and very, well, French !

A few more of the buildings and sights in and around Nice

The stunning coastline

The incredible war memorial by the harbour ... some people in the image for scale

Little old us ... enjoying the sunshine

We headed off to Monaco for the day on Monday

John with his new purchase (the sunglasses that is LOL)

The harbour

The palace

A final shot of John looking pretty cool