Spring time wedding

It's been a long time since my last post and I have been busy.

Hopefully I will post a bit more regularly over the winter.

Back in April we photographed a lovely spring wedding at a fantastic old church St Mary and All Angels Newburn followed by a reception at the magnificent Grand Hotel in Tynemouth

The bridesmaids dresses were all different spring shades and looked fabulous

They complemented the vintage style wedding gown perfectly

The home made direction sign at the church was a lovely and personal touch

The wedding was a family event with a relaxed atmosphere

Bride and groom portrait with a difference

There was a great vintage wedding car

The wedding breakfast was in a wonderful room at the Grand Hotel

The always excellent Chris Cross provided some entertainment for the guests

If you have a great dress like this you need to twirl

A last shot of the Grand Hotel and then we left the guests to party

An elegant wedding

In the summer we photographed the very elegant wedding of Clare and Fletcher at Ellingham hall in Northumberland

We took a quick picture of the hall on arrival and then went to find Clare and the bridesmaids and some very posh footwear

We found a nice doorway to show off the dresses 

Some meaningful gifts from the groom

We found the guys being cool in the rather plush drawing room

Then on to the ceremony, which was full of love and joy

The grounds outside are fantastic for photography, the roaming peacocks didn't want to be in the pictures on this occasion, so we had to do without, but we managed

The meal and speeches were great fun, the power-point presentation by the Dads' was excellent and provided everyone with a lot of laughs, the room looked wonderful and the little touches were everywhere

Clare and Fletcher had a first dance routine that they had been learning and it was very slick and well done

We stopped into the evening capturing the party and taking a few twilight shots before leaving

These are only a small selection of pictures taken on the day which was a fantastic celebration of love and family, we were honored to have been asked to document it

Newton Hall Wedding

We recently had the good fortune to photograph the wedding of Jill and Steven.
The ceremony was in the very grand church of St John the Baptist in Annitsford near Cramlington, the priest was a long standing family friend who had known the bride for many years which added to the emotion of the day.
Another unique touch was that Jill's dad is also an organist and played at his daughters wedding.

We first called in on Jill and took a few pictures.

Then it was off to visit the guys and see how they were doing

The ceremony was lovely with family and friends from all over the globe attending, after completing the paperwork and making it official, we took a number of family portraits, then off in the cars to Newton Hall a fabulous wedding venue a few miles north of Alnwick in Northumberland.

There were some fantastic looking cocktails for guests on arrival, along with a range of afternoon tea type nibbles to keep everyone going. Jill and Steven traveled up to Newton Hall in a lovely vintage Daimler supplied by Alnwick wedding cars.

The wedding breakfast included a quite amazing barbecue followed by the speeches and music from a live band with loads of guests on the dance floor and a party which went on for quite a while (so we believe).

The whole day was filled with love and laughter, and despite having to do a bit of shower dodging due to the typical British summer weather, a wonderful time was had by all.

A visit to Chester Zoo

I was visiting my eldest daughter in Liverpool as the weather was so good we decided to visit Chester Zoo (top tip: buy the combined rail, bus and zoo entrance ticket from the Merseyrail ticket office for a discount and to bypass the queues)

As you enter the zoo, the first animals you see are the Elephants.

This young one was touching the large elephants tusks with its trunk as they were standing face to face

We then had a walk around to the Giraffe enclosures, where the family group were enjoying the sun

The younger Giraffes were racing around the area like spring lambs (2.5m tall ones!)

In the butterfly house there were a wide range of beautiful butterflies, but this one that landed on one of the walls really caught my eye

After this we took a stroll along to the land of the red ape and saw some of the magnificent Orangutan, these lovely animals radiate an intelligence and serenity that is a privilege to witness - I took a few portraits of them, both of these are females, the larger one had a babe in her arms - due to the crowds I couldn't get a clear picture of the babe but it was lovely to see

The big cats were magnificent and I loved the male lion who was walking around his compound 'gruffing' whilst the lionesses just watched looking rather bored

We finished our visit by the Rhino, it was amazing to see a mother and young one playing chase running around the compound, in and out the having fun in the sun, the mother was amazingly agile and light on her feet considering she must weigh a couple of ton

I would highly recommend a visit if you are at all interested in animals and conservation

New Year Eve

We normally have a quiet new years eve at home, but this year we went out for the evening. We were invited along to the Plough Inn in Alnwick to hear a family friend Tom Wyllie sing (check out his web-site  http://www.tomwyllie.co.uk/) and have a lovely meal.

Alnwick looked lovely in the clear evening light (although they needed one or two bulbs replaced)

The Plough in was very welcoming and in a great position on the main road, only a couple on minutes from the car-park.

Tom did a sterling job providing background music whilst we were dining (leaving the more up-tempo tunes for later)

 

 

After dinner, Tom helped with the party atmosphere, singing right through until the new year with barely a break, including serenading a  newly engaged couple

 

 

 



 Audience participation was welcomed and invited

 

 

Then of course there was the conga around the restaurant, with Tom as leader

 

 

Finally a group shot of the diners and ringmaster, all in all a great way to finish 2013 and welcome in 2014. (ps the food at the Plough was really good)

 

Not only weddings

This last couple of weeks have been varied to say the least, we have been booking weddings for 2014, photographing a charity event run by NUCAS bootcamps and shooting babies who are also cousins - love the variety

First up were a photo-session with Jack who was about 8 weeks old when he had his shoot, mum and dad loved the black and white versions the best and picked a framed 4 image composite for their wall

Then we called in at the NUCAS bootcamps (look them up and see Chris for a serious workout) charity event - over £600 was raised for children's charities, and the kids had a great time playing loads of games, conducted by Chris

 

A relatively new girl group (+ 1 guy) THE SWEETS were providing some live music and very good they were too, keep an eye out for them (unfortunately they were one member down due to work commitments). Below is Chris from NUCAS Bootcamps with the sweets (-1)

 

 

My daughter has also been helping Santa by working in his grotto at Manor Walks in Cramlington, and will be the next two weekends

We then had another baby photo-shoot, this time of little Leo who was only 8 days old when he made his debut in front of our camera (he is Jack's cousin)

Then in the afternoon we were off to Whitley Bay for my niece Chloe's 2nd birthday party

We can't wait to see what the next few weeks bring

 

 

 

 

 

 

Busy weekend

We had a busy weekend photographically, first on Friday we got to shoot little Jack, who was the son of a couple who's wedding I photographed almost a year ago to the day.

This is mum and dad at their lovely wedding at Doxford Hall near Alnwick last October

This is Jack who found the whole thing very tiring this November

So tiring that he went off to sleep for a while

 

 

Then on Saturday night I went along to the last night of the King and I by Whitley Bay operatic society (I have been taking photographs for the company during the rehearsals) and they put on a great show - This is one of the well known moments - 'Shall we dance?'

 

 

We finished the weekend by exhibiting our wedding photography at a wedding fair held at the Newcastle falcons rugby ground, in a new event arranged by count me in events. We had a great time talking to many future brides, and giving out a lot of flyers.