Wedding Photo Journalism

Stylish marriage at a stately home 

      A really cool thing happened to Wedding photography in the nineties. (Greatly helped by digital cameras which were faster and let you see your results as you went along) photographers decided to use photojournalistic skills from the field for weddings. This meant they needed some new wedding “rules”. It was time to allow the natural flow of the day, instead of lighting every event with studio lights –technology evolved to allow photographers to use natural light and their flashguns in cool ways. Wedding Photojournalism was all about capturing the reality of the day, getting the truth of the story on film without staging events. In short, keeping it real. 

These angelic bridesmaids found this lovely spot for me

“Most wedding photojournalists … focus on finding moments during a wedding that happen naturally, rather than setting up portraits.” With my background of twenty years (+) in Newspapers this is fairly obviously the route of my choice but while my children were growing up I was not only a photographer but a painter too so the formal portraits are dear to my heart and the client that I want is the one who has found a venue with a river, a lake or a view of the sea that means something special to them and at the same time allow me to create beautiful images in a gorgeous setting.

    Here in Wales I was asked for a period style approach to a recent wedding to suit a particular venue, a genuine stately pile with peacocks to prove it. 
       

Where were you on the wedding day?

       But by the time the wedding took place, the lake at the stately pile, a lake that I had much admired, had become a ditch full of red sand and, nobody told me that the grand entrance, where I stood to greet the bride with a head full of pre-planned images to create, had been dumped in favour of a gritty, hilly track at the back door without an atom of scenic splendour. As I scrambled round to the back of the building, just as the Rolls crawled gingerly down the track, I found myself repeating with considerable force that truly journalistic phrase, “just do it, just do it!”

Arrival of the bride

Wikipedia says: “The phrase wedding photojournalist has been in vogue for at least ten years and has now become almost synonymous with normal wedding photography”. Does that mean it is possibly a bit passé now?

   I don’t know what the next big thing will be, trash the dress never really appealed to me, and nor did the stiff line-ups of the sixties and seventies but the period mood brought on by Downton Abbey I would have liked to do properly. A stately home and sepia toning is not quite enough. Maybe the next period drama will bring in a look more suited to today’s young.

Dreaming the dream on your wedding day

      The important thing, I believe, is that the bride and groom when they look at their photographs remember how they felt about each other in that ‘just married’ moment, rather than remembering any exhausting antics their photographer might have been imposing upon them.

Wedding garters, Brides and Bacchanalian guests.

      Many brides have a pretty garter under several petticoats and the yards of lace, satin, taffeta or brocade that go to make up a wedding dress. Often they are blue, they are sometimes borrowed but they are rarely flashed at the photographer until late in the evening when the party spirit takes hold.

A bride's garter, too pretty to be hidden

Another bride with a pretty garter 

     I’m often surprised how rarely guests turn weddings into bacchanalian revels. However there are a colourful few who prove the exception to the rule from unruly guests to disgraceful fathers of the bride. and then there are one or two bridegrooms, so anxious to join their mates and party that the first dance simply doesn't happen, of course there are no pictures of that! 

About to tuck in to his breakfast.

This stand in for the deceased father of the bride was taking his duties seriously.

Wedding, what wedding? Brides father with his mates, preparing to make his speech

Did I really say that?

The new bridegroom can't believe his ears but the bride is not surprised.

Judging by the look on his new son in law's face whatever he said was truly unacceptable.

And a good time was had by all

There was a roaring noise coming from this lot but they were beyond speech.

When the groom is well over six foot he needs a lot of friends

     The best revelry pics often come from jewish weddings as the groom's mates hoist him on their shoulders in the course of dancing the hava nageela. I'm not sure that anyone has to be drunk for this but I think it helps.

For more beautiful brides and revealing moments visit my website

Glorious June in Monmouthshire

Llanvihangel Court a dream venue for a a period wedding

     Llanvihangel Court has it all: glorious old stones, lakes and lily pads, weeping willows and wild life to match. The most beautiful setting for a July wedding. At this time of year I enjoy my reconnoitres. I love to prowl around the setting for next month's wedding and find the best spots to which I'll bring my bride and groom in the 20 minutes or so that we can snatch away from their friends and guests to create the centre pieces for their albums.

The court peacocks on display for visitors and brides alike

          There is something extra special about a venue with peacocks strutting their stuff on the lawns and this one knew how to show off for a visiting photographer when I was up there a short while ago. 
       I'm wondering if he will be so obliging on my lovely couple's big day? 
       As I suspect his display was not for me at all, but for a shy, dun-coloured peafowl lurking in the surrounding bushes, I'm not sure that my bride and groom will be able to orchestrate any  display at all in July.  Even should they wish to. 

A beautiful weeping willow dips its fronds into the water

      The ideal spot for a bridal panorama is this stretch of water, brown and slatey on the damp day of my visit but hopefully reflecting those lovely trees accompanied by a blue sky and fluffy white clouds on the wedding day.

       If not,  the wedding umbrella is always on standby.

For more brides with and without umbrellas:

 

Laughter is.......

 Craig y Nos Parc after their wedding ceremony Anghared and Matin relaxing

       Having spent an entire week on my computer, closeted with the two romantic souls who married last week on Valentine’s day, I discovered that the gentle portraits I shot between the ceremony venue in Abercraf and the reception venue  at the Brecon Castle Hotel were not necessarily my favourite photographs of the day.

     I’m surprised at how often this happens and I imagine that possibly the couples themselves experience a similiar progression.  First checking out the images where they both look gorgeous and then maybe? preferring the laughter and shared special moments.

When it comes to carrying off his bride, no caveman could do it better.

 Beautiful Angharad pleased to discover her new husband has survived his efforts.

     The only problem with the computer is, it can't tell me what on earth Martin can have said to her
while the choir was singing to produce this burst of laughter.

I'm sure this has nothing to do with the words the choir are singing.

For more laughing couples visit my website

Wonderful Welsh Wedding Venues

   October 4th 2012

        The idea for this blog was to dig out some of the loveliest places to get married in this great country of Wales. However once you start searching your archives for pictures it is so easy to get sidetracked. Maybe this time I’ll stick to my brief!

The Brecon Beacons softened by distance

Last weekend I visited Brecon’s Castle Hotel where I shall be covering a wedding early next year. It’s a most delightful spot with views over the Brecon Beacons making them look pretty and tame, which they definitely, are not. Every time I set off to visit a picturesque castle within their remit the mist comes down and the road simply disappears in front of me!
      Being a natural wuss and not keen to join the sheep grazing goodness knows how many hundreds of feet below me, I always find myself scrambling petrified through a perilous three point turn, above an invisible precipice and creeping back home.

Brecon Castle attached to the Castle Hotel

         Hopefully the February weather will be more clement than the deluge that was this past August (not difficult) and the couple's driver won't lose me on the mountain road from the church to the hotel (or should that be hell)! 

         Once we get there this floodlit ruin and its comfortable adjacent lodgings should provide a welcoming retreat from the wild welsh countryside and a romantic backdrop for a most attractive couple's photographs.

Margam Park still my favourite Welsh wedding venue

Not everybody can hold their wedding ceremony in a Castle or stately home with ruins. Some because  religion or budget will not allow it, but even if the ceremony takes place elsewhere, in Wales you are never far from a dramatic castle, and often, time allows after the ceremony, for the couple to visit a place that is special to their relationship.

Coity Castle near Bridgend is a very special place to newly wed Ali and Darren Wyatt

For beautiful bride Christina 'La Torre Redonda' in Nerja is as romantic inside as out

   The wedding ceremony solemnised in the stunning catholic church in Nerja on the Costa del Sol, lovely Christina also appreciates the informal romance of the Round Tower in her reception venue.

For more Castle venues and happy couples see my website 

     The next place on my visiting agenda must be St Donat's Castle near Cowbridge back home in Wales, which looks to have it all, drama on the exterior, scenic views including beaches, a romantic interior and a wonderful banqueting hall. All that's missing seems to be a clanking knight in armour ? Surely that can be arranged?