Wedding at Waterton Park, Wakefield

Yesterday's wedding was just down the road at the Waterton Park Hotel at Walton near Wakefield.    Stacey and Tom had seen my wedding photographs in the Waterton Park wedding brochure and had got in touch with me from there.  Due to the Wakefield registrars being busy on their wedding day (can't imagine why!) they were only able to offer Stacey and Tom a 3 o'clock slot.  Since it now starts to get dark just after 4 then it didn't allow us much time to get in some photographs in the daylight.  It was decided that the best course of action would be to capture the couple and wedding party photographs outside in the daylight before moving into the library for the family photos.  One of the great benefits of Waterton Park is that they always keep this room available, so we can always take great group shots whatever the weather.  Besides getting all of our couple shots done while it was still light, we were also very fortunate to have the benefit of a decent sunset.  After the meal we took the opportunity to get some rather special shots around the hotel, including a rather unusual shot in the bedroom that they requested, before Stacey and Tom joined their evening guests in the Squires to make full use of Shane's fantastic lights on their first dance.

Brides Smiling Down the Aisle

One of my favourite parts of a wedding is the bridal procession down the aisle.  Occasionally there are tears, which is great for me as a photographer as I love to capture these moments of real emotion, but more usually the bride walks down the aisle with such a great big smile on her face.  This is Emma walking down the aisle at Swinton Park near Masham last week.  Not only has she got a great big smile on her face, but her mum has too!  Once I finish editing her wedding photos I will hopefully try and find the time to post some more photos from her wedding at Swinton Park.

Beautiful Yorkshire Churches

Just editing the images from Saturday's wedding and I felt compelled to share this photo.  Being a wedding photographer is just a fantastic job to do, but when places like this are your workplace, then it's just the icing on the cake.  There are some truly beautiful churches in Yorkshire.  This one is practically in the centre of Barnsley.

A 2 Hour Wedding in Wakefield

Last week-end was our busiest of the year so far.  Alex and I were at Thorp Park on Friday photographing a wedding while Yvonne had a video at The Old Golf House at Outlane, Huddersfield. Saturday saw us at The Village in Leeds for another video whilst Sunday was long day at the beautiful Oakwell Hall in Birstall.  The long week-end finished with a very different wedding - 1 couple with 5 guests at Wakefield Registry Office, followed by photos in Thornes Park in Wakefield.  Now at every wedding that I attend I like to challenge myself.  Quite often if it is a venue that I attend often, such as the Waterton Park Hotel, then I always try to think of a new photo to take every time.  In this case, it was to be how many good quality photos we could take in the two hours that we were going to be there  for.  I was hoping for around 150 or so.  In the event the wedding party were a really nice crowd and we had a lovely, relaxed wedding and managed to get 341 good photos. Result!  Here are a few of them.  Today it's a video at Wentworth Castle whilst Alex is at Waterton Park,  tomorrow wedding photography at Wentbridge House.  Busy, busy!

Wedding Photography at the Thorpe Park Hotel, Leeds

The Magic Moments team split up yesterday, with Richard and Alex going north to Leeds to photograph a wedding at Thorpe Park, while Yvonne set off to Huddersfield to video a wedding at The Old Golf House.  The weather forecast was for rain all day, so Alex and I filled the car with studio lights for indoor photos and umbrellas for any outdoor photos.  In the end we needed neither of them, as it only rained when Jo and Andrew were having their meal.  We had already taken the group shots before the meal and then managed to get outside again after the meal for some rather special couple shots.  As usual Alex worked his magic on the ring photograph.  To-day we have a wedding video at Woodkirk Church, tomorrow it's photography and video at Oakwell Hall, followed by a wedding on Monday in Wakefield.

Sunshine at Kings Croft, Pontefract

Just got home from to-day's wedding with Lisa and Steven at All Saint's Church in Pontefract followed by a reception at Kings Croft.  It made such a pleasant change to be photographing sunrays rather than raindrops.  It seems to have done nothing but rain for the last two months!

Wedding Photography in the Yorkshire Dales

Our wedding on Saturday is at St. Mary and St. John's Church at Hardraw, followed by a reception at the Yorebridge House at Bainbridge.  We have never photographed there before so to-day we made the 2 hour trip up to the Yorkshire Dales to have a look around the two venues.  I know a lot of photographers would not bother to do this but I think that it is essential that a wedding photographer thoroughly knows the venue at which he is shooting in order to ensure that he gets all the best shots possible.  It also gave us the opportunity to get some shots of the venue in between the rain showers - and wow, what rain showers we had.  I was pleased that we have a 4x4 to get to weddings whatever the weather, as in places the road had turned into a river!   I hope we have better weather on Saturday!

Brollies at Bagden Hall

I cannot believe how much rain we have had in June.  Vanessa and Wayne got married at the start of the month and it never stopped raining.  However, if you've got a set of white wedding umbrellas (we provide these - all part of the service!), a couple who are determined not to let a bit of rain spoil their day, and a wedding party who are game for a laugh, then you can still get some great photographs!  The church at Birstall had bunting up for the Jubilee, which added a really patriotic touch to some of the shots.  From here we moved onto Bagden Hall at Scissett, which has really great grounds for the wedding photographs.  I hope you will agree that you can still get a great set of wedding photos even if it rains all day long!