Here’s the highlights clip from Brian and Lesley’s recent wedding in South Africa. Is it just me, or does this clip make others choke up to?!  

Please feel free to leave a message, comment or contact me if you would like more details about the wedding films/cinematography which we now offer as part of our services. I’m so excited about our new addition – it’s going to be wonderful to  be able to keep it all in the family and keep the same informal, reportage style of coverage for both stills and film.

From the recent teaser post about this wedding, you’ll remember that I mentioned it was the most emotional wedding I’ve ever had the privilege of photographing. What an amazing wedding this was and to be on hand photographing was just the best thing ever.

We photographed this wedding at the Tala Game Reserve in South Africa (near Durban/Pietermaritzburg) in late April. Whilst everyone got ready at Paperbark, the wedding ceremony was at Acacia - a beautiful reception venue overlooking the watering hole.

Their full online gallery is available to friends and family. Please get in touch to ask for details or ask Brian and Lesley for the password. In the meantime, here’s a few of our favourites. Please feel free to leave messages or comments.

Next up is the bridal party portraits..

After their gorgeous wedding ceremony overlooking the watering hole at Tala Game Reserve, we had a game drive to capture a few romantic images of Brian and Lesley as well as a few of them just having fun with the bridal party. I know this was definitely a highlight of the day for the two of them.. and it was a really special moment which exceeded even their best expectations. This big guy was so inquisitive and just kept coming closer and closer to come and have a good look-see.. Add to that the quietness of the bush at sunset (apart from a few excited and amazed whispers!) and you had the makings of some truly spectacular memories..

On to the evening reception..

One ash cloud.. no flights from the UK and most of Europe actually.. 80 hours of travelling.. driving from London to Lisbon and eventually arriving with barely a day to spare.. but the wedding went ahead, although unfortunatly Brian’s parents along with most of the Irish family couldn’t get a flight out to SA in time.. instead his aunt read a message from his parents to him and well, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house after that..

Wow, I’ve so loved this wedding and sharing it with you.. feel free to leave comments if you like.

Brian and Les, thank you so much for sharing your very special day with us. Wishing you an amazing future together, may it always be full of happy adventures. Can’t wait to celebrate with you in Ireland! xx

Sam and Jenny met at school and although they had been in the same year at school for seven years, it wasn’t until a few weeks before their final weeks at school that they got together. Another seven years later and it was their wedding day!

The morning started at Jenny’s parents home in Orpington. I always love photographing the wedding preparations.. it’s always so exciting and there’s such a buzz in the atmosphere. And of course, you discover things like Jenny in her dressing gown playing the piano to calm  her nerves

Next was the wedding ceremony at Combe Bank School, near Sevenoaks in Kent:

Sam and Jenny got married at Combe Bank in Kent and when Jenny told me about their venue, she added “Teresa Howlett is basically the wedding co-ordinator at Combe Bank and she organises EVERYTHING. She’s amazing!” When I asked her about their dream team, she included lots of personal details and you can tell she had tons of fun putting together all the special touches to their day. It was themed: “Afternoon Tea & Butterflies”

Their dream team also included:

Wedding Dress: A Trudy Lee from Bride & Groom, Bromley

Bridesmaid Dresses: Tea Rose Pink bridesmaids dresses from Alfred Angelo, Bride & Groom, Bromley

Hair: Lauren Palmer

Suits: ‘Suits You’, Bromley

Shoes: Rainbow Couture (Santi), Bride & Groom, in Bromley

Tiara: Borrowed from Jenny’s best friend, as her “something borrowed”

Catering: the in-house catering team from Combe Bank – Chez Vous

Cake: this was made be a neighbour and family friend – 4 tiers of fruit cake with champagne icing and ivory hand-made sugar paste roses cascading down the side

Florist: Sue Ball from A Time For Flowers, Orpington

Birch trees with fairy lights: David Jones

Lighting: ‘Ambient Lighting’ (Tel: 07966 235255)

Wedding Cars: Eden Wedding Cars and EA Travel

Church Music: Jenny’s piano teacher played the piano during their ceremony and Sam’s brothers, played ‘Cavatina’ on the guitar during the signing of the register

Entertainment – Cornucopia

First Dance Song: ‘Everything’ by Michael Buble

Invites and Table Decorations: Cox and Cox and Confetti

Videographer: David Brazier from Wild Angel)

Honeymoon Destination: Velassaru, Maldives

The next two images are two of my favourites from the day as the girls had no idea I was shooting these and they were clearly lost in their own world..

Oh, if you like any of these images or would just like to tell Jenny how gorgeous she looked on her wedding day, please feel free to leave a comment. Thanks!

Next up: reception..

Combe Bank was the perfect wedding venue for Sam and Jenny’s wedding in early April.. apart from the weather of course being amazing (they’d ordered it in specially 18 months before!), the venue is gorgeous with lots of windows, lovely architecture and beautiful light everywhere.. so just perfect for wedding photography!

We managed to do a few portraits in the evening.. Evening portraits not only show off a venue amazingly, but they are brilliant as the couple are usually so much more relaxed (or the groom is anyway as he’s speech is out the way!). And of course its a great time for them to slip away and have a few minutes to themselves..

On to the dancing.. as Sam’s in a band, the evening entertainment was of course very important to them. Cornucopia did a brilliant job ensuring the dance floor was always full!

Congratulations Sam & Jenny! Wishing you two an unbelievably amazing, bright and happy future together.. x

Mike and Tina’s wedding was at  Cooling Castle in Kent at the end of April. I had loads of fun photographing them under all the cherry blossoms and here’s one of my favourites as a teaser. More images to follow soon!

Their online gallery will be available to friends and family from tomorrow onwards. Please ask Mike and Tina for the password.

Congratulations Mike & Tina. Hope you had a wonderful time in Italy! x

Finally a chance to blog a little more (see their highlights clip here) about Fabian and Nicole’s day which started out with their civil ceremony at the Chelsea Registry Office. I had so  much fun photographing these two.. we never stopped laughing!

Here are a few of my favourite images from their day. Feel free to leave a comment if you like them too.

After the ceremony we went for a walk along the river in Battersea Park. It’s the perfect location and quite close to Chelsea Old Town Hall for portraits after a wedding.

We caught a cab to Old Street/Shoreditch where the restauarant is, and found a few more opportunities for portraits along the way.. Now not everyone might be able to pull off these “poses”, but Nicole sure could! I love these as well as the gorgeous natural ones of her and Fabian having a giggle in front of the brighly coloured walls!

At the restaurant, keen discussions followed about the food.. the restauarnt, SAF is known for it’s botanical fine dining.. if you’re veggie/vegan or just love raw food, definitely check them out!

Dear Fabian and Nicole.. wishing you both much love and joy on this part of your journey together xx

Brian and Lesley were married at Tala Game Reserve in Natal, South Africa on Friday.

We were lucky and had flown out a week earlier to spend time with our friends and family in SA so had no trouble getting to the location, but many of the other guests, especially the groom’s Irish family (including his parents!) had their flights cancelled because of the volcanic ash.. On Tuesday we were all still holding thumbs that the wedding was going to go ahead as “the Lisbon crew”, including the groom were driving from London to Lisbon to get a flight out.. way too many euros and 80 hours of travelling later they arrived safely and all was set for the wedding to go ahead. It was a rollercoaster of a day.. it turned out to be one of the most emotional weddings I have ever had the privilege of photographing and I can’t wait to share more images.. here’s a favourite in the meantime..