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.

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.

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.

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

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.

But I did managed to grab a quick half hour out of Glenn’s busy schedule for a quick photo shoot around Luton. We did get a few raised eyebrows as we rushed about the centre of Luton on a busy Lunchtime, Suited and booted Glenn in a very sharp suit and me in my old jeans and tee shirt. I wish we could have had a bit more time to find some different locations and shoot for longer, but some times you have to take what you can get.

Anyway many thanks to Glenn and here are a few of the best shoots from the shoot.

Here are just a few shots from the couple of days is was there.

Guitar Heaven

She beats Tony Blackburn any day.

One of those mad drummers

Just a stack of Orange crates.

Unfortunately, a couple of days before the event Kevin had to pull out, this seemed to trigger a huge drop out of people, but as long as a couple of us turned up I was still up for it. In the end there was just the three of us, Kim and Jeanette from CocoonPhotography and me, which by a strange coincidence I had also meet on another photography course with Crash Taylor.

One the day I got to the meeting point at Nelson’s Column a bit early so I started taken pictures and started walking about this was my first mistake! 12 o’clock arrived and I walked back to Nelson’s Column, there I meet up with Kim & Jeanette, we decided to spend ½ an hour taking pictures around Trafalgar Square, this was my second mistake! I had trigger some sort of police alarm, I was taking picture of people in a public place over a period of time, with a BIG Camera, not that I stood out from the crowd of 200-300 people also taken pictures of people with big cameras. It was like a Canon & Nikon advert everybody seemed to have a DSLR, I think the difference was that I was behaving strangely, lying on the ground, standing on things, leaning up against things.

Policeman: What are you doing?

Me: Taken pictures.

Policeman: Why?

Me: I’m a photographer.

Policeman: You have been here a long time and some people noticed you at taken lots of picture.

Me: Yes, I’m a photographer.

Policeman: ooh, ok then.

The rest of the day went without incident, we all had a great day out and I can’t wait to do it again.

Here are a few images from the day.

I really enjoyed spending the day with Kim & Jeanette, check out CocoonBlog for their picture.

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.