Archive for the ‘Vintage weddings’ Category

Country Vintage Wedding / Nina & Patrick

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Want a vintage style, shabby chic wedding in the English Countryside? Then you need a lovely Aunt and Uncle like Nina’s who own a beautiful sprawling manor house with plenty of room for a marquee and some quirky ramshackle outbuildings. As Nina and Patrick live in Germany, they left most of their wedding planning to the fabulous Savoir Weddings who also did an amazing job decorating the venue. Our approach to Bramble Park was slightly hairy as we encountered a vintage motorbike rally in a country lane. Once there, things were looking pretty magical as the Marquee was filled with country flowers in old bottles, floral lampshades and vintage lace tablecloths. The ceremony was over at the Archbishop’s palace in Maidstone and we stopped off on the way back in a stunning poppy field with a great view of the Kent countryside. We also had fun in the grounds, which provided an amazing backdrop for the photography. Afternoon tea was followed by an acoustic set by the Groom’s Dad who had fronted sixties band The Flowerpot Men. It was a great wedding and Nina and Patrick who are childhood sweethearts, made us very welcome.


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Vintage Wedding Sussex / Lauri & Stuart

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

I love it if a bride shows me her dress before the wedding as it gives me a sense of what the day will be like and their style. Most will have it on their phone or in a wedding file but Lauri’s amazingly pretty vintage dress was in a shoe box in the boot of their car! She had picked it up in a retro shop in Brighton not long after they had first got together but it took Stuart a few years to get around to the proposal. This was a DIY wedding done with lots of style but not a big budget, though they did stretch on the photographer as they realised how important it is to have a great record of your day. After the Town Hall ceremony, they had a champagne picnic in Southover Gardens in Lewes where we had been for their cherry blossom e-shoot. The meal was in the super funky Needlemakers cafe in the middle of a vintage market. There was a Morris Minor, balloons, floral mismatched bridesmaids’ dresses, Victoria sponges, vintage crockery and meadow flowers. Just my cup of tea and I had been really looking forward to this one, not least because I knew that Lauri and Stuart would look gorgeous. The best man finished up his speech by leading everyone in a rendition of ‘All You Need is Love’ complete with gazoos. When I left, Stuart and Lauri were taking turns to DJ and dance. This couple are seriously cool and seriously in love.
Oh and before anyone asks me where they got the beautiful bunting from, Lauri’s Nan made it.


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Vintage Wedding / New Products

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

So we have been trying to think of ways of using all these lovely engagement images. My wonderful clients Olivia and Mark who are getting married in the Cotswolds in a few weeks mentioned that they were thinking of getting postcards for guests to sign instead of a book as they have a big passion for travel. Lovely, vintagey looking postcards, I LOVE that idea, so this is what we have come up with. Each design needs a minimum of 10 copies but I think they will be a gorgeous keepsake, wrapped up in some lovely ribbon. Get in touch if you want to know more about these for your Vintage Wedding.

Brighton Wedding Photographer / Marnie & Bevan

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

These are Marnie’s thoughts on her Brighton Beach Wedding and the story of that beautiful vintage wedding dress.

“I can honestly say that our wedding day was the best day in my life. We wanted a joyful, intimate, classy day for us and our 50 guests…and that’s exactly what we got. So many of the guests at our wedding have said to us that it was the loveliest wedding they’ve ever attended, which is wonderful to know. And I’m also really pleased that we decided to ask guests to donate to Oxfam, rather than buy gifts that we didn’t need….people were really generous.

For my wedding dress I definitely knew that I didn’t want anything new and meringue-like. That’s really not me at all. Having said that, I didn’t have a definite style in mind…I just wanted to find something that I fell in love with. I searched high and low for several months in specialist vintage clothing shops in London, but nothing had that “je ne sais quoi” and I was beginning to panic somewhat as we now had only had 8 weeks to go before the wedding. When I did eventually find the dress, it was virtually on my own doorstep, at Andrew Fionda’s vintage bride shop in Kemptown in Brighton. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the one. It took my breath away…and because it was vintage, I knew it was a one-off and totally unique. Just like my husband in fact…a one-off, totally unique and with all the je ne sais quoi I could wish for!”

Other special aspects for me included:
The little white Morris Minor that we hired for our wedding car
Having our wedding photos taken on Brighton beach
Having our little dog Woody at our wedding ceremony – and a model of him with us on our wedding cake!
Showing the pop video my girlfriends & I shot as part of my hen party
Due South, the gorgeous little restaurant on Brighton beach that we hired for our reception
The wonderful registrars and the beautiful wedding room at Brighton town hall

Brighton Wedding / Sarah & Andrew

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Sarah readily admits that she ‘Has a thing for Gingers!’ Not only is the groom a redhead, but so were each of the four bridesmaids. Their colouring looked gorgeous against the soft blue fabric of their dresses. Since they first met just over a year ago, the couple has kept every cork from the bottles of champagne that they have drunk and this set the theme for the wedding day. They used the corks for place names and named the tables after brands of champagne, with the kids sitting on the Babycham table! The ceremony was in the very beautiful St Mary de Haura which is just around the corner from their flat. Despite a mix up with the wedding cars causing a delay to the proceedings, it was a very lovely service with an amazing rendition of Ave Maria by bridesmaid Kay. We had just enough time to make the most of the sunshine and go to the beach for some photos before the reception at the Royal York in Brighton.


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A Tale of Two Weddings, Part 2 …..

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Two best friends, two weddings. This time the roles were reversed with Clare as chief bridesmaid to Leanne for her gorgeous wedding to the lovely Simon. The ceremony was at St Marys in the grounds of Buxted Park but we traveled to the utterly incredible High Rocks near Tunbridge Wells for the reception. This is one crazy place but very inspiring for a shoot. It is a bit like a little piece of Australia in the middle of the English countryside with a steam train running past every now and then. As Clare had been up there a couple of months before for a wedding, she already knew that there was no way a bride could get up to the top in bridal shoes so Leanne had sourced some very cute pink wellies which became a feature of the photos but didn’t affect how elegant she looked in her wedding dress.
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A Tale of Two Weddings, Part One……

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Shooting a wedding photographer’s wedding is quite a challenge but luckily Clare, my second photographer was very laid back and of course I was thrilled to be part of her big day. I hadn’t realised that Clare was a secret glamour-puss and her fantastic dress from Blessings in Brighton was very sparkly and slinky. She seemed very calm but I think it all felt a bit surreal for her after helping so many other brides get ready. She looked truly beautiful and I was incredibly proud of her. She had three very sweet little flower girls and the morning seemed to whizz by. Suddenly Susanna, one of our other photographers was there to drive them to the Seattle in her very funky, very decorative soft top Beetle. The flowers by the talented Mr Casey from Pollen were gorgeous posies of old fashioned garden roses, wild orchids and fresh flowering herbs. They looked and smelled sensational. The Maid of Honour, Leanne’s dress was from Monsoon and looked fabulous. Clare had a theme of English Eccentric meets the Orient which was inspired by the ceremony venue, the Royal Pavilion and was great for the wedding photography. The reception was at Bartholomew’s Barn in the Sussex countryside and looked splendid. We had fish and chip canapes and fortune cookie favours. At dusk they released some fire lanterns which went off for miles. Such a very lovely day.

Sussex Wedding Photographer / Hazel & James at Ashdown Park Hotel

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

There might have been quite a few rain showers but there was still a great atmosphere at Hazel and James’s wedding in the beautiful Ashdown Park Hotel in Sussex and it had little impact on the wedding photography. The dress from Browns Bridal collection was incredibly elegant as was Hazel’s specially commissioned pearl jewellery. Apart from the veil, she may well have been preparing for the Oscars as the look was 1930s screen siren meets modern laid back beauty. Hazel choose a pair of gorgeous Christian Laboutin sky high heels for the daytime and had a killer sparkly pair for the evening. Gemma, the bridesmaid was extremely lucky as she got to wear a stunning couture gown from the amazing Brighton designer Joanne Flemming

As the rain simply would not leave us alone, we used the grand covered entrance to the hotel for all the group shots and had a well timed dry spell for portraits of the bride and groom. For some unknown reason, their meal was brought forward by an hour so we had to work quickly but managed to squeeze in some elegant shots in a window seat. Their gorgeous cake was by the very talented Zoe Clark and there was a Beatles theme to the table decor. This is one of my favourite vintage inspired weddings to date.


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Brighton Wedding / Rachel & James at The Royal Pavilion

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Rachel and James first got in touch through the enquiry form on my site but it turned out that they were my neighbours. So I had the easiest ever journey to work, I just had to stroll over the road! When Rachel opened the door she was looking great in full make-up and rollers but confessed that she had barely slept all week. She then showed us the dress and veil which had been stashed in the spare room away from James and their two cats. Rachel’s dress from Pronovias was very classic and elegant but the veil was amazing. It was the longest one I have ever seen and was covered in tiny polka dots and edged in lace. I immediately thought that it would make a great silhouette shot against the windows in the Pavilion Music Room. I caught a great shot of James just as Rachel walked in, looking very overawed.

Their theme was mint and chocolate. When they suggested to The Talented Mr Casey from Pollen that they needed brown and green flowers they thought he might be stumped but he came up with chocolate cosmos and flowering mint. Their flowers looked great and smelled yummy, the man is a genius which is why I rave about him. After the ceremony and family groups, I thought it would be a grand idea to take the bridal party to the front of the pavilion for some wedding photography in what I think of as my “Vanity Fair” style. After a short time lots of officials appeared telling us that we were not supposed to be there as the scaffolding was being taken down above our heads and it was dangerous. However the shots we did get look great so although I was in a little bit of trouble, it was worth it.

As the reception was at Due South we also took some portraits of the Bride and Groom on the beach, making the most of the glorious sunshine. We took some very cute pictures in the deck chairs and of Rachel throwing her bouquet. We left as they began eating what looked like a very delicious meal while the sun set over the West Pier.


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Wedding Photography Sussex / Walled Garden at Cowdray

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Jill and John’s very pretty wedding was at the beautiful Walled Garden at Cowdray. This historic garden is set in the estate of Cowdray Park next to the castle ruins at the entrance to Midhurst. Jill’s look on the day was modern and chic which sharply contrasted with the ancient surroundings. I loved the juxtaposition as she got ready at the antique stuffed Spread Eagle Hotel, though the floor is so uneven we were feeling a bit disconcerted. The room smelled fabulous, thanks to the bouquets from The Real Flower Company that were stuffed full of fragrant herbs and scented garden roses. After the very lovely ceremony, we took the Bride and Groom to the castle for portraits in the ruins. It was very sunny but the light amongst the old walls and stone windows was stunning. I got Jill to climb onto a wall, which she wisely did barefoot to take these beautiful shots, making the most of the location. The food by local firm Jacaranda looked delicious and as we left the guests were tucking in under the giant white round balloons that decorated the dining room. I love this wedding as it was extremely modern in an ancient location.


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