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)