October can be a very unpredictable month for a wedding, Jo and Ian’s at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire was no different but this time the weather gods where smiling, in fact they must have had the biggest grin ever because it was the hottest day in October for 100 years at nearly 30C.

Brocket Hall is only 3 miles from home so I didn’t have a long journey, which is always nice; I started with some detail shots just to warm-up, Cake, flowers, the building & breakfast room etc. Today I was shooting with Deborah Newton as my second shooter, a very talented children’s photographer but this would be her first wedding, but what a wedding to start with, we had a great venue, the best weather in 100 years, a beautiful bride, opera singers, fireworks and a terrific band.

Bridal prep is always fun, a mix of girly chit chat, champagne and diamonds, but today we had a full house today with the bride, two bridesmaids, friends, hair and makeup, two photographers and a videographer, oh and a four poster bed.

Here are just a few images from Jo and Ian’s wedding at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire.

Jo’s Hair and Makeup by Shahnaz “themakeupgirl“.

Jo gets her man.

The First dance

Now a dance with dad.

Dating back to 1540, Down Hall in Hertfordshire was a wonderful wedding venue for Cheryl and Chris to get married in. As you can see from the photographs the weather was perfect, well at least for the bride, groom and guests, for us photographers a outdoor full sun drinks reception can cause a few problems what with the huge contrast different between the bride in white and the groom in black.

Bridal prep was blast as usual, its always fun when you get all the girls together doing hair and makeup, some of the stories you hear!  Cheryl had a open door policy at the hotel, I think mostly because it was such a hot day and what with hair dryers,curling tongs going full blast for a couple of hours, anyway this meant that we had a constant stream of friends and family popping in to congratulate the bride, which can make for some great moments to capture.

Here are just a few images from the wedding day, I will post more on my wedding site when I get time click for more. Hertfordshire wedding photography.

A proud dad getting ready to walk his daughter down the aisle.

I though I would try something different for my group shot this week.

It’s embarrassing story time again! this time the bride.

Not to be left out the groom gets his embarrassing story.

It was an early start for me as Devika and John where getting married at ‘High Noon’ which meant hair and makeup for the bride and brides maids was in progress when I arrived at 8:00. The wedding was being held at Tewin Bury Farm Hotel a 17th century farmhouse with its converted farm buildings set amidst idyllic Hertfordshire countryside.

This is a tale of two weddings, Wedding one: Devika and John got married a few months ago in Mauritius ( the home of the now extinct Dodo), where Devika’s family and friends are from, I talked to bride about the wedding ceremony and it seems to be a much messier affair compared to an English ceremony, both the bride and groom get cleansed by rubbing turmeric into their skin and hair, and then they walk around a fire seven times, there’s a lot more to the ceremony then these two events, blessings, prays, flowers etc, but these two stood out the most of all to me.

Wedding two: the return match happened on 29th July, this time in England, and nobody would be rubbing turmeric into anybody, I don’t think that the bride would have liked her elegant ivory wedding dress modified with a bright yellow spice!!  Although the colour of the dress was a break with tradition Devika did hold onto a little bit of home her Red High heels. The Brides maid took up the red theme looking stunning in custom made Red Silk dresses from Mauritius. One more suprise for her family and friends was that the top tiar of the wedding cake was made with the inside layers of sponge in Red,Blue Yellow and Green the colours of the  Mauritius flag.

Here are a few images from the day, more to follow on my Hertfordshire wedding photographers main site.

Although brides in Mauritius traditionally wear red wedding dresses Devika did hold on to a small bit of home with her Red High heels

Devika showing off her red high heels to the girls.

Now here’s a first for me both the groom ‘shown above’ and the best man had their speaches on an ipad, it seems that not even a wedding is safe from apple.

This week I had the privilege to be part of the very first Jasmine Star workshop in the UK, myself and 19 other Photographers took part in a one-day workshop all about ‘Branding’, something that I and I’m sure other photographers all have had problems with when they first start out.

Over the last five years Jasmine Star has established herself as a photographer and as a ‘Brand’ so who could be better to learn from. So when the opportunity arose I jumped at the chance.

The whole event started the evening before on the roof gardens of the Sanctum Soho Hotel where Kat ‘RocknRollBride‘ had arranged a small drinks and nibbles get together, a bunch of photographers and their partners waited in anticipation for the guests to arrive. Then it was time, Kat, Jasmine & JD walked around the corner to whispers of ‘she’s here’, a hush fell over the bar briefly, Jasmine looked slightly nervous but that soon disappeared as she started chatting to us.

Within minutes we where all talking and  chatting in are little groups around the bar again, Jasmine and JD then spent an hour or so talking to each and every one of us, I found Jasmine friendly, easy to talk to and after talking to her for awhile was looking forward to the workshop the next day.

To echo Cristina rossi’s Blog:

“I would highly recommend Jasmine’s workshop to any photographer seriously wanting to take their business to the next level, it surely was worth every penny. Jasmine talked openly about every aspect of her business and answered every single question that was asked of her honestly and concisely”.

The workshop was held at a great venue ‘One Marylebone”, it’s so classy, elegant and the light is simply awesome with huge windows and white walls.

Workshop catering supplied by The Recipe

Rachels Hair  by Severin Hubert of The Hepburn Collection

Caught on camera during the photo shoot Kat (left) From “Rock n Roll Bride” & Elbie Van Eeden (makeup) where busy Tweeting away about the days events, many thanks to Kat for organising the event.

Photographer Dave McNeil trying out his just out of the box Fuji film X100.

JD arriving with a flowers for the outside photo-shoot, Jasmine husband and second shooter.

And yes Jasmine Star is in London look a Red Bus!

All great things have to end, and so it was with the workshop, but that wasn’t end of it we all walked down to a local restaurant where we got to spend a few more hours the Jasmine & JD over a meal. Jasmine moved from table to table so that she could chat to every one of us, still happy to answer any of are questions.

Final Thanks to Kat, Venetia, Delia, Mark &  Gareth for keeping me out bar hopping in Soho until the small hours!!

Here is a list of everybody envolved in the event.

Venue: One Marylebone http://www.onemarylebone.com/ (Alicia)
Flowers: Pollen Nation http://www.pollen-nation.co.uk/
Cakes: Restoration Cake http://www.restorationcake.co.uk/ (mini cakes) and The Art of Cake http://janetmohapibanks.com/ large ‘rose’ cake)
Furniture (chairs/tables/screen/sofas): Great Hire http://www.greathire.co.uk/
Caterers: The Recipe http://www.the-recipe.co.uk/
Hair: Severin Hubert of The Hepburn Collection http://www.hepburncollection.com/
Make Up: Elbie Van Eeden http://elbiehairandmakeup.wordpress.com/
Behind the Scenes Video: Richard Wakefield of FX Films http://www.fxfilms.co.uk/
Organiser/general dogsbody: Kat Williams of Rock n Roll Bride http://www.rocknrollbride.com/
Models: Rachel & Dan

At the end of May I shot a wedding of two parts; Hayley and Ross got married on 12^th May in Las Vegas and had their reception in Royston Hertfordshire, two places worlds apart, Royston can trace it roots back to Roman times, Las Vegas Established in 1905.

Even though the reception was separated from the wedding via more then 5000 miles and 2 weeks here in Hertfordshire we had the ‘Full Monty’ Bridal prep, Groom prep, Bridesmaids, best man, drinks, cakes, speeches, dancing and lots and lots of fun.

And a first for me we had Bridal and Groom prep in the same room a the same time, we had two panics the groom had forgotten his tie, good job this happened here in the UK, lucky the best man came to the rescue and did a quick trip to pick it up from Ross’s house just down the road. The second, once again with the groom, lose buttons on his waistcoat, many thanks to Joanne one of the bridesmaids who came to the rescue.

Here is a small selection of images to give you a flavor of the reception of Hayley and Ross at the Banyers Hotel in Royston.

My First wedding of 2011 was on a overcast and chilly January day at Moor Park Golf Club, Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire. Moor Park is a Grade I listed Palladian mansion set within several hundred acres of parkland and a great venue for a wedding, and for you golfers it has two challenging courses.

Natalie and Andrew where getting married at 2 o’clock which for me as a photographer could have been a problem with light, but all went well the light held until 4:30 and I got some great shots.

With a 10 o’clock start for hair and make-up we had plenty of time for some bridal prep shots, and then had time to take advantage of the rooms and staircases at Moor Park for some more great images.

With a break from traditional the groom would not be waiting on his own for his bride to arrive, as the couple decided to walk up the isle together. This gave me an optionality to do what the Americans call a “First Look“, I set Andrew up in one for the bedrooms with some good lighting and his back to the door, Natalie then walked in and tapped Andrew on the shoulder he turn to look at her for the first time as his bride, click a great emotional moment was captured.

As I had a bit of time this weekend I thought I would create a wedding show reel of some of this years weddings. I used iphoto to export the images in HD 720p format video, seems to work ok. The video has weddings for Luton Hoo, Sopwell House and St Nicholas Church Harpenden.

Hertfordshire Wedding Photography Show Reel 2010 from Peter Hearl on Vimeo.

Day one of the Britain’s Best Photography Course at Chatsworth House started for me with a Sunday afternoon drive up to Derbyshire, about 130 miles up the M1 which for a change was a incident free. Arrived at the Premier Inn just after 5:30, this would be my base for the next 5 days. Event organiser Elaine Sanderson had arranged a meet in the bar and a meal for the people who arrive early, on entering the bar a ordered a pint of cider and had a look around, there where a few groups of people at the bar so I had a walk around and eavesdropped on some conversations. After a while the words “are you a photographer?” came out of one of the groups and that was it I had found some of the people on the course, this phrase triggered even more people to join the growing group of photographers. Like moths to a flame more and more photographers join the group, we all seemed to eat, drink and breath photography, this was going to be a good week.

As time went by more and more photographers joined the group, as even new person entered to restaurant the group checked them out to see if they where a possible photographer, and then someone I recognised “Crash” I shouted across the bar, the man the other side of the bar waved and came round to join us, yes it was Crash Taylor
one on are tutors for the next 4 days. After a while we sat down to eat, we had about 19 of the 24 people who where on the course all around the table hanging on crashes ever word. I wasn’t all plain sailing as with most groups of newly formed people we had the occasion period of embarrassing quietness. After the meal we had more drinks then as with ever group people started to drift away to bed. Elaine didn’t make the meal as she had to pick up Gordon McGowan and Louise Sumner from the airport, a few of us did meet the just before midnight for a drink in the bar, even after a short time I could see that Gordon was a great character and I was look forward to his part of the course. As its now tomorrow it’s time for bed, looking forward to my first day at Chatsworth House.

Just into October after a week or two of bad weather Saturday the 9th was looking good, but as usual the BBC weather was wrong. It didn’t rain which was good but it was a bit cold and overcast all day. The day started with me heading to the venue about 9 o’clock to photograph the bride prep.

Luton Hoo was the venue, and what a great venue a 18th century Grade 1 listed Mansion House on the boarder of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. I then off the the Cross Keys in Harpenden to catch up with the groom. After a quick bit of Dutch courage the groom and best man made there way across to St Nicholas church to wait for the bride.

The venue Luton Hoo

Shoes By Rainbow

Hair and Makeup by Candace Roberts

Harry the ring boy arrives, 18 months old and looking the part.

Russell making sure the boys know there jobs.

Laura arrives with her father looking fantastic followed by two flower girls.

Harry getting down on the dance floor.

The next Luck Girl.

On a sunny but windy 25th of September Vicky and Paul got married at St Mary’s church in the centre of Luton. The bride stayed with tradition and arrived at the church a bit late, but well worth waiting for she looked beautiful. A great service followed by a tea and cakes in the church hall for some of Vicky and Pauls friends then off to Letchworth Hall Hotel for the wedding breakfast and evening reception.

The church building you see today is the largest in Bedfordshire and one of the finer medieval churches in England. It dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries. The earlier church was built about 931, founded by King Athelstan as an act of thanksgiving for victory over the Danes. The land here was owned by the king in Saxon and early Norman times and the church was very richly endowed.

Here is a small selection of the images from the day.

Hair, Nails, Make-up, rush rush rush!

Four!!