Wedding Day for Claire & Mark

My 25th May wedding was held at Caverswall Castle, a privately owned, 13th Century castle nestled in the Staffordshire countryside.

Claire and Mark have been together for 6 years and were finally getting around to tying the knot :) The day started at Claire's parents pad (and wow, what a pad) where we had loads of space and time with the girls all getting ready for the day ahead. Once I had met all the bridesmaids I knew we were in for a fun-filled day !

When I arrived over at Caverswall, I found Mark a little nervous, but we managed to get him posing for some fun shots with the guys.

The ceremony was beautiful and full of laughter ... Claire had asked me to look after some of her paperwork and so I would like to add a couple of personal sections ... the first from their vows, well chosen as it just sums these two up so well ...

I promise that I will love and cherish you for the rest of our lives together. I will honour, cherish, comfort and support you with patience, understanding and humour. More than this, I will love you with all my heart, forever

Their friend, Sally Barton, then gave a reading ... here are some of my favourite parts from that: The Art of Marriage

A good marriage must be created

It is a relationship based on love, respect and determination

It is never too old to hold hands

It is standing together and facing the world

It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow

It is having the capacity to forgive and forget

It is not only marrying the right person, it is being the right partner

I hope this is a lovely reminder for you guys and I would like to thank you for letting me part of such a fun day, and to wish you every happiness in your life together ...

And now for some of my faves :)

This last shot is of my glamorous assistant, Delphine :)

Gill

Introducing Isobel ...

I had the wonderful privilege of shooting a new baby today ... this is such a different pace of shoot for me, I'm usually running around at weddings LOL !

Isobel is 5 weeks old (or should that be young haha) and is a scumptious little bundle ... her parents are James and Gemma, I shot their wedding last August ... in face, Gemma is the beautiful bride on my home page !

We are going to do a year in the life project with this little mite so I am going to see lots more of her ... for now, here are some of my favourites from the shoot :)

Wedding Day for Lucy & James

The first of my double header of weddings this weekend started with Lucy and James ...

We started the day at Essalon hair and beauty salon in Stafford, where Lucy, her bridesmaids and her mum were all getting pampered and made up for the day ahead.

Next was a drive over to Keele University, where the rest of the wedding was to take place ... starting with the girls getting dressed in the management centre, then over to the guys and subsequently the ceremony at the very beautiful Keele Church. The weather was kind to us, too :)

The ceremony was beautiful and, for those of you who listened correctly, yes, the priest did say "breasts" by mistake LOL

We finished up at Keele Hall, an absolutely breathtaking stately home in the middle of the University Campus, where we had drinks and canapes on the vast lawns and had some fun with the photos too ...

My congratulations to Lucy and James ... here's to a long and happy life together, guys ... thanks for having me !

Here are some faves from the day !

A Week in Tuscany ...

"Italian cameramen grow up immersed in an awareness of light.

It is part of their mythology. " Barbara Steele

I chose this quote for my Italy blog post because this is exactly what my week was all about ... finding the light and using it effectively, and boy, the quality of light doesnt get much better than up in the hills around Florence ...

Anyone reading my blog posts will know that I am very proud to be associated with Jerry Ghionis, multi-award winning photographer from Melbourne, Australia. Jerry has probably the most energy I have seen in another human :) so not only is he still actively shooting weddings, portraits and fashion, he also runs workshops and seminars, as well as devising and selling his training product range.

Of the European workshops he was running, I decided that Florence would be a good one for me to travel to ... even though I am half Italian I have not been there since I was 10 years old ... I know, shocker ! I found out the week before I went that my Grandmother had attended a convent school in Florence, but sadly no-one could remember where, so I could not investigate further this time around.

So, me and a few other photographers landed in Florence for a week of insipiration, model shoots, critique and, of course, networking and fun :)

I spent the week in the Villa Il Poggiale, a beautiful setting for a workshop ... the food was fresh and home-grown, all organic, but of course with all that wonderful pasta, bread and buttered croissants, my jeans were a tad tighter by the time I came home :(

We spent Wednesday out and about in Florence, with 2 models, a load of camera equiment and the promise of italian ice cream ... I spent most of the day with Jerry's wife, Georgina, and helping out with rounding people up once they had their 15 minutes with the models ... Jerry also asked me to document what was happening, so no pressure there, then *eek*

I won't go into specifics ... let's face it, if you want to know what I learned, you are either a bride already booked with me and will find out soon enough, a bride NOW going to book with me :) or a photographer who should really book to go see Jerry for themselves ... talk about worth every penny ... I am so inspired (brides already booked ... WATCH OUT !!! :) )

Here are a few photos from the week ... please note that any of the posed shots are not fror my own self-promotion ... lets face it, Jerry, Georgie and Melissa did all the hard work organising the week, I just turned up and pointed my camera where I was told to !!! But I wanted to share with you what a total experience this has been ... enjoy !!

As always, comments welcome ...look forward to hearing from you !

This is one of our beautiful models, posed by Jerry ... processed by me to show you my take on her :)

Out and about in Florence ...

I love the labels on the boxes ...

My gorgeous friend, Melissa ...

No point trying to get a natural shot of Matt ... sheesh !

Jerry ... doing his thang !!!

Final shot ... this was set up by Jerry, demonstrating night shooting with video light ...

Can't wait to see a whole bunch more photographers doing it again in London in a few weeks !!!