Wedding Photographers Bristol, Somerset Wedding Photography

I do enjoy weddings that take place all in one spot! It makes life so much easier when you don’t need to factor in travel time from where the bride is getting ready to where the ceremony is and again to the reception venue. That’s why it’s so nice to photograph weddings at the Rectory Hotel in Crudwell, Wiltshire – where everything takes place in one location. And it certainly made life stress-free for Charlotte & Matt who got married there on Saturday.

As usual I started my coverage with the bride’s preparations. Charlotte had a great production line going on in her room with herself and the bridesmaids having their make-up and hair done professionally – even little bridesmaid Megan got the pampering treatment! As tends to happen things were very calm and relaxed until the time comes for the dress to go on…and this wedding was no exception. I think it’s at this point that everything starts to feel very real!

So I left the girls to it and headed down to the ceremony room to meet up with Matt and check in with the registrars. Wiltshire is well-known for having very restrictive rules on photographing the ceremony, and despite coming across a very accommodating registrar the last time I was at the hotel, this time it was back to just being allowed to photograph the ring exchange and the kiss. This is so disappointing because of course I miss out on capturing all those looks between the couple and the guests reactions, tears, etc. I know Charlotte was very disappointed that this was missed from her coverage and it’s such a shame that the Wiltshire registrars can’t take the more relaxed approach that most other county registrars do.

Anyway, enough of my rant! After the ceremony people didn’t seem to want to go outside – it was a bit windy and drizzly to be fair – so they congregated around the fire and made use of the various rooms within the hotel. Charlotte, Matt & I decided to take the opportunity to head outside for some portraits whilst we didn’t have an audience – but as I suspected the lure of photographs soon drew a few of the guests outside, which then enabled me to get some nice candids of the guests!

Charlotte & Matt had gone for a black tie theme and this elegant look carried through into the decorations for the marquee dining room – it looked really beautiful.

Charlotte & Matt’s full gallery will go online once they’ve been into the studio to see their images for the first time, but here are a few of my favourite images from their day:

Suppliers: Dress: Suzanne Neville; Stationery: Rebekah Daley.

Holly & Phil’s wedding took place at the Orchardleigh Estate near Frome. Although I’ve photographed many weddings at Orchardleigh, this was actually the first time I’ve photographed the ceremony in the Estate’s own church – St Mary’s. It’s a beautiful, small church that is infamous for having no artificial lights – everything is lit by candles. It’s very atmospheric as literally every surface is covered with candles – amazing!

I started my coverage with the girls getting ready in the Bonita Suite and had planned to nip to Phil’s room to get some shots of the guys getting ready – but when I arrived at the House Phil was already dressed and ready to go! How organised is that? So I stayed with the girls instead! Holly had opted for a very glam, Cheryl Cole inspired look and I think she looked fabulous!

Once the girls were dressed I made my way to the church to photograph Phil and the arrival of the guests. It was a gorgeous autumnal day, with lots of colourful leaves on the trees and on the ground – I love this time of year and think it’s a wonderful season to get married – especially if you get good weather like Holly & Phil did! After the church service I photographed Holly & Phil outside being congratulated by their guests. As everyone boarded the buses back to the House I nabbed Holly & Phil so we could do some portraits of the two of them amongst the foliage.

Back at the House there was time for some candid images of the guests enjoying themselves outside in the sunshine before we all headed inside for the speeches.

Holly & Phil’s full gallery will go online once they’re back from honeymoon and have been into the studio to see their images first. But in the meantime here are some of my favourite images from their day:

Suppliers: Dress: Suzanne Neville; Cake: Holly’s Auntie – Marianne Pateman; Florist: Lesley’s Flower Shop.

Big apologies for the lack of wedding posts recently…things have been pretty hectic this past few weeks, but I’m now back on top of things and I’ve got THREE weddings to post this week!

First up is Emma & Andem’s Bristol wedding. Emma and her bridesmaids were getting ready at the Marriott Royal Hotel so that’s where I started my coverage. It was all very relaxed and calm – and the time was mostly spent picking the make-up artist’s brain on MAC make-up! After photographing Emma having her dress done up I left the girls and made my way to Elim Church, where the ceremony was taking place.

The church was very unusual – it looked more like a warehouse than a church and I completely missed it on the first drive past! On the second pass I saw a big cross on the side of the building and knew I had the right place. Inside was also unusual and made for tricky lighting conditions, but the service itself was lovely, with lots of singing from the congregation!

Afterwards everyone headed back across town to the Bristol Council House for the reception. I snuck off with Emma and Andem for some relaxed portraits around College Green before photographing the guests enjoying themselves followed by the speeches.

Below are some of my favourite images from Emma & Andem’s wedding. Their full gallery will go online once they’ve been into the studio to see their images first.

Suppliers: Dress: Alfred Angelo from The Bridal Room; Florist: Sarah Styles – Wedding Flower Gallery.

Thanks to all those who managed to vote in our poll for the favourite portrait image from our recent Kodak Awards promotion – and apologies to those who missed out. Unfortunately the poll software can only take a maximum number of votes and this was reached much quicker than I expected, and I know a lot of people’s friends and family didn’t get a chance to vote.

But anyway, we totted up the votes received and the winning image is shown below….I have to say I’m really pleased with the result as this was one of my favourite images from the promotion too!

We have contacted the winners and they have chosen to receive a beautiful 8″ x 8″ album with 10 images from their session in it. Congratulations!