A Wedding in Harrogate - The White Hart

The first week-end in September took us into North Yorkshire to Harrogate for the wedding of Rachel and Jason. Rachel was going to get ready at the White Hart Hotel which was also the venue for the reception, with a ceremony at a church in the pedestrian precinct in the town centre. Since we had not been to this venue before we travelled to Harrogate a couple of days before the wedding, to have a good look at the location and to attend the rehearsal. It was a good job that we did, as we soon discovered that parking was a problem - there wasn't any! Fortunately as we had been booked to cover both the photography and video on this wedding it meant that all three of us would be there, so we made the decision to park at the White Hart and just carry all the kit between the hotel, the church and the Valley Gardens, where we had decided to do most of the photographs. Rachel arrived in a carriage festooned with flowers and pulled by three beautiful brown horses which certainly made all the Harrogate shoppers stop and stare!

Wentbridge House Hotel

Our last wedding in August took us to St. Cuthbert's Church in Ackworth before going on to the Wentbridge House Hotel for the reception. We have been regular visitors to Wentbridge House this year and have noticed a distinct improvement there recently. The staff are very helpful, even suggesting that we have a little longer for the photographs, as the schedule was pretty tight. The grounds have also been improved and the food looks great! The bridesmaids looked pretty in pink and all the girls were good fun, diving for the bouquet and leaping into the air at Sarah's suggestion. Sarah and James had brought the band Madison over from Liverpool, and they really were excellent. Between Madison and Winston, Wentbridge's regular DJ, the dance floor was packed all night and we were quite sorry when it was time to leave to leave as the dancing was so entertaining to watch! At least they can re-live it all over again with their wedding DVD.

Roundhay Park and Leeds Irish Centre

Finally found a minute to start to update the blog! This year has been the busiest ever and every day had been spent either photographing weddings, filming weddings, editing weddings or designing wedding albums. Anyway, to begin to catch up we have to go back to 28 August when Catherine and Ronan had our biggest wedding of the year in Leeds. Despite the forecast being for rain, we managed to get all of the group photos taken at the church, before taking Catherine and Ronan to Roundhay Park for some photos on their own. Fortunately the rain held off until we were just about finished, before setting off to the reception at the Leeds Irish Centre. In the evening we were treated to some Irish dancing by the wedding party, which was quite something!

Woodlands Hotel, Leeds

The last couple of weeks have taken us around North, South and West Yorkshire with weddings at The Woodlands Hotel in Leeds, Carlton Towers near Selby, Rogerthorpe Manor near Pontefract after a ceremony in Doncaster and a new venue for us, Swinton Park near Masham. Hayley and Will had a civil ceremony at the Woodlands Hotel. We have been at the Woodlands many times for video coverage but this was the first time that we had been booked for the photography there. Fortunately the sun shined on the happy couple and for the second week in a row we had the pleasure of the company of Matt Stacey on saxaphone. Here are some of Will and Hayley's photographs.

A Day Out in East Yorkshire

This week I took a day off and spent a day on a picturesque farm in East Yorkshire, which is quite a change from the likes of Waterton Park and Oulton Hall etc.! The reason for my trip was a training day with John Denton, a photographer whose work I really admire. I love these training days, as working with talented fellow photographers and a great model allows me to try new ideas and to learn new poses which I can then incorporate into my wedding and lifestyle photography and hopefully keep it fresh and edgy.