Real Life Wedding Feature - Katherine & James

Check out the current issue of Wedding Ideas magazine where my photographs from Katherine & James' wedding last July are currently being used in a real life wedding feature starting on page 144.

Joleigh & Sven's Wedding - Matara Cente

On Friday I travelled up to Gloucestershire for Joleigh & Sven's wedding at the Matara Centre, near Tetbury. What a fantastic venue the Matara is! There were so many places to go for wonderful photo opportunities and the ceremony itself was held around a sunken pond in the cloistered courtyard garden.

Joleigh got ready in the attached Kingscote Park House and then made her entrance into the courtyard through the 'moon gate' an authentic Chinese pagoda.

Despite the forecast for heavy showers the weather stayed fine and warm and the guests were able to enjoy drinks on the lawns outside Kingscote Park House, and later in the courtyard of the Matara Centre. The day was topped off with Joleigh & Sven's first dance beneath the starry domed ceiling of the Hilarium.

I will update this post when their full gallery goes online, but in the meantime here are some of my favourite images from their day:

Rachael & James' Pre-Wedding Session

What a glorious day for a photo shoot! Today I headed over to Hestercombe Gardens to meet up with Rachael & James who are getting married at Maunsel House in October. Hestercombe Gardens was in full summer bloom and made for a fantastic backdrop to their pre-wedding photographs.

Here are a few of my favourites:

Kate & Adam's Wedding - Orchardleigh

On Friday I had the pleasure of photographing Kate & Adam's wedding. Everyone got ready at Orchardleigh House, where all the guests were staying. And with five bridesmaids and eight ushers it was quite hectic! The flowers were provided by Lesley's Flowers in Frome and they looked fantastic and really complemented the bright pink bridesmaids dresses.

Although Kate & Adam live in London Kate has family ties to the Somerset area - in fact her grandpa was once the Reverand in the parish of Whatley, so it was only natural for them to have their marriage service in the church there. Afterwards everyone headed back to Orchardleigh for the wedding reception.

Kate & Adam's full gallery will go online once they've had a chance to view the images for the first time themselves. Please check this post for updates.

Here are some images from their day:

Catherine & Stephen's Wedding - Forde Abbey

I photographed Catherine & Steve's wedding the day before I went off on holiday so I apologise for the delay in getting their blog post up but here it is...finally! Well the weather wasn't the best - more like November than July - but it didn't seem to bother anyone at all. With Catherine and Steve getting ready fairly close to each other I was able to cover both of their preparations before heading to Hinton St. George's church, where the ceremony was taking place.

Catherine looking beautiful in her dress and long veil from the wonderful Abbey Brides of Sherborne.

The rain stopped briefly allowing everyone to throw confetti outside the church but soon resumed with gusto which unfortunately meant we weren't able to make full use of Forde Abbey's amazing grounds. That was a shame but we still got some great photographs around some of the covered outside areas. Well, Catherine and Steve got to stay in the covered areas whilst I braved the rain but, hey, if that's what it takes!

Here are some pictures from their day:

** Update: Catherine & Steve's full gallery is now online. You can access it here. **

My Andalucian Adventure - Part 2

As promised, here are some photographs from Andalucia last week (apologies for anyone not interested as this is going to be a long post!). Oh, and excuse the quality of some of the images, these were all taken with my little point-and-shoot camera as I didn't want to lug my proper cameras around for the week!

First up is Ronda, with it's Puente Nuevo (New Bridge). Ronda has the most dramatic location of all the pueblos blancos (white villages) as it's perched on the top of the El Tajo gorge:







A few things that caught my eye whilst wandering around Ronda:













Olvera was another pueblos blancos that we visited, here are images of its cathedral, white-washed village houses with their terracotta roofs and the view from the castle:













Next up was Cordoba and the massive fortified Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos (Castle of the Christian Kings) and beautiful gardens:













Cordoba's magnificent Mezquita - an Islamic mosque with a Christian cathedral built right inside:













Seville's Giralda, part of its cathedral:



Some examples of the beautiful mosaics that can be seen inside Seville's Alcazar: