Archive for September, 2008

Sussex Wedding / Sam & Mark’s Wedding at Newick Park

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

Finally the sun shone for Sam and Mark’s wedding day at the glorious Newick Park. The house looked magnificent against the blue sky so we stopped off at the gate to take some outside shots. It was Julie’s first time there and she immediately decided that this is the venue she wants to get married in, she just needs to bag herself a rich man first!

We found Mark completely ready and relaxing in the bar with his best man, while his Mum was setting up the cakes she made in the hall. This day already had a laid back feel to it and when we went up to the bride’s room, we found Sam wrapped up in a big fluffy dressing gown sipping champagne. Sam’s dress was very simple and elegant, the kind of dress that you need to have a great figure for which luckily she does. We took some lovely wedding photos of her against the huge old tree in the garden as the texture created an interesting contrast against the dress.

They are into travelling so their tables were named after favourite locations with pages from journals instead of table numbers and sticks of personalised rock as favours so everyone took home a little piece of Brighton. They seemed to have a fantastic time and as we left most guests were dancing to the great band that Mark had found only a few weeks before the wedding.

 

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Brighton Wedding / Vicki & Matt’s Wedding at Alias Seattle, Brighton

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

This was my first wedding at the Alias Seattle in Brighton since it’s renovations started. The hotel is looking fine so far and I have always loved shooting in the interior as it has a spacious contemporary feel. Vicki had lots of very charming young bridesmaids and it was fun photographing them all getting ready. Matt gave us all a fright by knocking on the door and saying that he needed to talk to Vicki urgently. Was this my first jilting? Luckily he just had a last minute query about the arrangements and we got back to taking some very cool portraits of the bride. The flowers had been done by the Talented Mr Casey from Pollen. Even the ceremony table looked amazing thanks to two huge goldfish bowls with domes of orange roses in them and the same colour of freeze dried petals scattered all over it.

The dress fitted in with the modern design of the Seattle and we made use of the beautiful filtered light in the new conservatory for the bride and groom shots. There are some fabulous new white leather banquettes that we used to great effect. Vicki has enviable cheekbones and looked effortlessly chic. My assistant Julie helped me persuade all the guests to go out onto the deck for some group photos even though the weather wasn’t great. There were a few complaints but at least they didn’t take long!


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Sussex Wedding / Leena & Rob’s Wedding at West Stoke House

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

BY CLARE MOORE

 

On my first visit to West Stoke House, the weather made a good effort of showing me just how versatile the venue interior is for wedding photography. Leena and Rob were very game up for going out in the drizzle and we managed to get out for a few portraits despite the elements (even our umbrella blew inside out). I love this shot of Leena sheltering under a tree in the beautiful grounds but unfortunately the rain got too hard to even shelter under the trees. We proceeded to have a tour of the house, taking portraits at various points where the natural light hit. All in all we managed to get everything covered. Leena and Rob were great fun and did not let the lack of sunshine spoil their day!
 

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Sussex wedding / Zoe & Edwin’s Wedding at Newick Park

Monday, September 15th, 2008

Zoe is an editor at Wedding magazine so although I was very flattered that they chose me as their wedding photographer, the pressure was on. However I was expecting this would be a very inspirational wedding and I wasn’t disappointed. The outdoor ceremony that they had planned was impossible due to the rain but as the house is stunning it didn’t feel any sort of let down. There were lots of pretty little tin birds everywhere and they also adorned a huge indoor tree with guests names on cards informing them of their table. The tables were all named after birds and each guest had a beautiful flower cookie at their setting. There were so many little touches and details that I managed to shoot three rolls of film just on the still-lives before I went up to the bride’s room.

The dress and headpiece was by the very fabulous Brighton designer, Sarah Arnett and made Zoe look like an incredibly chic 1920s starlet. Luckily we had enough gaps in the rain to do some outdoor shots. However I was very glad that I brought my umbrellas as they tied in with the theme thanks to their birds and are quite colourful. The staff at Newick park are very skilled at making you feel at home and it was as if Ed and Zoe were just hosting a glamourous country house party. As they had quite a few guests they had the wedding breakfast in both the dining room and the library. Instead of a top table, there was a table for two set up in each room so the bride and groom started dinner in one room and then moved. I thought this was a very romantic way of solving that problem and none of their guests felt left out.

Hopefully the photos will feature in Wedding magazine soon but meantime I have another real life wedding in the current issue featuring a very colourful wedding at Buxted Park.


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Brighton Wedding / Lisa & Lisa’s Civil Partnership at Brighton Pavilion

Friday, September 12th, 2008

This was my first civil partnership with two girls and I was looking forward to it as they had were both wearing Amanda Wyatt gowns. That meant two dresses hanging up, two pairs of shoes, two bouquets, two girls getting laced into dresses, I loved it! Although they had use of an Aston Martin Vanquish for the weekend, they couldn’t get in it with the dresses on so they travelled to the Pavilion in a VW camper van. Clare and I got in the front so we could take some photos on the way and they caused quite a stir driving through town.

Both Lisas were easy to photograph and as usual at the Pavilion I always find some new spot or angle that looks divine. We sat them down on a bench with some space between them and they looked extremely elegant. They were very game and skipped across some mud so we could get to the main building and we took some shots of one Lisa leaning on the wall with the other one beside her. Clare is getting married in the Pavilion in a couple of weeks and wants this shot on her day as it looked very cool. 


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