Tag: shoot

Helen & James: A pre-wedding shoot amidst the bluebells and ransoms

Helen and James came up from Devon for their pre-wedding shoot. We were lucky enough to catch the bluebells and ransoms (wild garlic) and even some rays of sunshine!

They are a super fun couple that are really in the throes of wedding preparation, so it was nice for us to take a little time out from the madness and go for a stroll through some woodlands, which were carpetted with swathes of blue and white flowers, with wafts of wild garlic on the breeze. A huge herd of deer also passed our path…Bristol really is great for finding places, even close to the city, that are super peaceful.

I loved this shoot because it shows how much fun Helen and James have together, as well as love being abound amidst the bluebells!

They’ll be getting married soon at Westward Ho! so watch out for their wedding images 🙂

30 May ’15
Cherry & Duncan’s Bristol pre-wedding shoot with a lot of sunshine and laughter

What a pre-wedding shoot bonanza! This is a really special wedding as I happen to know the family of both the bride and the groom, Cherry and Duncan and they are getting married in the church I used to go to for school. We had great fun on their pre-wedding shoot, which turned into an almighty megashoot out – I’m sharing just a selection of the photos with you!

Having both grown up in Bristol, Cherry and Duncan wanted a mix of nature and urban locations and chose to be photographed around Ashton Court and the Harbourside. I include pre-wedding shoots as part of my wedding packages to help my couples get more comfortable in front of the camera. We also get to know each other and it’s my opportunity to see how the couple relate to each other. It soon became obvious that Cherry and Duncan have a lot of laughs together and I think this is evident in the images from our prewedding shoot. I’ve included some of the out takes, as the giggles they share are very heartwarming. I think this bodes well for their future life together 🙂

We were gifted with some golden sunshine and I think my favourite images are the silhouettes against the sun as well as the ones with the yellow background.

I’m really looking forward to their humungous wedding in a couple of weeks time!

PS. If you are wondering what is going on in ‘those’ out takes, Cherry started trying to chase a persistent bee with her shoe…!

And…I couldn’t resist including this one too! 😀 😀

If you’re interested in having an engagement shoot with Marie, drop her a line!

25 Jun ’14
Sophie & Ben: An urban rooftop engagement shoot ‘neath stormy skies

When I met Sophie and Ben over a year ago – their wedding at Coombe Lodge (which will be my first of 2014), seemed so very far away. But 2014 has come around super fast! Sophie studied photography herself so it was really important to her to find the right photographer and I was honoured when they chose me 🙂 When they admitted to me that they didn’t have any ‘proper’ photos of them together, the challenge had been set!

Sophie and Ben chose to be photographed close to where they lived, which is an urban area that has a great mix of industrial and residential buildings with more than a dash of street art – the Urban Paint Fest (UPFest) is hosted nearby. As they are both somewhat camera shy, they chose somewhere away from the crowds and we went up…high above the people! Airpoint gave us permission to shoot on their rooftop which has a gym and running track, then we popped downstairs to make use of some fab textures (I’m sure every photographer likes a good brick wall and a bit of brushed metal!) I had hoped for golden winter sunlight, but of course we had wind and rain instead. No problem though as stormy skies make great backdrops though as you can see in the pictures.

I’m really looking forward to their wedding – I think it will be a lot of fun and a welcome rescue from the January doldrums for their guests. Enjoy the pics. Happy Christmas folks!

21 Dec ’13
Emily & Paul: Gotherington: A Walk Through Fields of Gold

Emily and Paul grew up, met and fell in love in their home village of Gotherington, near Cheltenham. So it was a delight to be asked to photograph them there.

They led me around the networkd of built-up cul-de-sacs and shaded alleyways and was surprised when the path opened out into a stunning field of grass with a lone tree. We’d been having pretty gloomy weather, but the sun shone gloriously, bringing the field to life with golden light. From the field, you could see both their childhood homes…I loved the tour of their lives that they gave me over the course of the shoot, from the village hall where Emily went to Brownies to the duckpond that Paul used to navigate on a car bonnet.

The love between Emily and Paul was super-cute as you can tell from the images. At the end of the shoot, we went back to the spot where they first kissed, round the corner from Emily’s parents home (hiding from her parents!)…in the shade of a rowan tree, her family name 🙂

Here’s to Paul and Emily and their wedding next month!

If you are interested in an engagement photography session, drop Marie a line.

9 Oct ’13
Zoe & Michael: Dursley: A verdant hilltop walk on the edge of the Cotswolds

It’s been a busy year and I need to catch up on blogging! Apologies, I’m starting with my most recent work and introduce you to Zoe and Michael 🙂

I suggest my couples choose a location that is special to them for their pre-wedding shoot if possible. Zoe & Michael live in Dursley and introduced me to some of their favourite places near their home (including the pub afterwards). As a keen runner, Zoe had recced many of them on her runs around the stunning area. One of them was lush green hilltop location with a stunning arcade of trees which was truly glorious as you can see in the last image on this post.

They brought along a bottle of fizz to enjoy in a gorgeous, if windy location at the crest of the hill. Zoe & Michael share lots of giggles (as you can probably tell from the picture of the sheep and the one near the end where he’s making her laugh) and I’m totally looking forward to their wedding next month at a venue that I fell in love with the moment I stepped inside – the amazing Woodchester Mansion.

If you are interested in an engagement photography session, drop Marie a line.

19 Jul ’13
Elaine & Sam: 99 yew trees in a traditional Cotswolds village: Gloucestershire engagement photographer

A quick Christmas Eve post! Say hello to Elaine & Sam, who are childhood sweethearts.

The chose the picturesque village of Painswick for their engagement shoot. It’s a gorgeous Cotswold village built out of traditional Cotswold stone, with a church and village green in the centre. In fact, their annual apple festival was taking place when we were there, complete with apple-bobbing and hay bales for sitting on. You couldn’t get more quintessentially English! We had to wait for the kids to clear out from the churchyard, which is filled with yew trees. 99 in fact, according to local folklore no more ever

Elaine and Sam, I look forward to your wedding at the fabulous Manor on the Lake, which will be my first wedding of 2013!

Happy Christmas and happy new year everyone 🙂

xx

If you are interested in an engagement photography session, drop Marie a line.

24 Dec ’12
Jess & Simon: A walk in a Victorian Cemetary: Bristol engagement photographer

It might sounds strange, but when Jess and Simon asked for their engagement shoot to be in a cemetary, I was totally excited.

That’s because Arnos Vale cemetary is a beautiful Victorian garden cemetary, with acres of forestland and beautiful grave sites, not dissimilar to Highgate. In fact, it’s so beautiful that they have their first wedding taking place at the cemetary this year. I recommend to my couples that they choose a location for their engagement shoot that it special to them and Jess and Simon chose Arnos Vale because they live nearby and often go for walks there with their daughter, Eliza. It is a site that has lots of contrasts as you can see from the shoot – leafy, shaded walks, Victorian gothic architecture, classical memorials and some street art thrown in.

Jess and Simon met at a pub quiz, which we deduced that I may have been at too! Jess makes great (and I mean totally awesome) knitted monsters and Simon develops websites.

Jess claims a frown is her natural photo expression, but I didn’t see it…until I asked Simon to think of a moment that she made him proud and he couldn’t think of anything. She suggested perhaps the moment she gave birth to his baby 🙂 They were great fun to shoot with, even when I started calling Simon by the wrong name pretty consistently for the last ten minutes of the shoot!

I’m totally looking forward to sharing their their literature-themed wedding at the University and Literary Club with you soon!

16 Oct ’12
In between rainstorms: David & Nicky – Hampstead engagement shoot

I’m hugely behind with my blogging, but here’s a gorgeous engagement shoot that I wanted to share with you straight away.

Meet Nicky and David. Nicky is mad about all things blue and can’t decide if she likes tealy turquoise or baby blue more. David loves long bike rides and a good boogie to some funky tunes! They are planning a really fun festival-style wedding which I am totally looking forward to documenting.

My pre-wedding shoots are informal, I just recommend to my couples that they choose a location that is special to them. Keen cyclists, they initially considering bringing a tandem bicycle along, but in the end Nicky and David decided to go for a walk on Hampstead Heath. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans…it turned into one of the wettest weekends ever! The heavens opened and the rain just poured and poured…it seemed impossible that it could rain any more, but it did and by the bucketload. So we had to rethink our plans and luckily for us, David remembered a secret corner of London that he had happened upon some years before.

As David led us into a dark, dank staircase, Nicky and I wondered if we should follow him, but follow him we did and our trust was rewarded as we emerged into a stunning Italianate pergola walkway, overlooking a secret garden. The rain turned out to be a true blessing in disguise, bringing us to this stunning location. To top that off, the sun came out to play and gave us some gorgeous flare – the location was so dreamy, it was hard to believe we were still in London. What do I like most about this photoshoot? All of the images from this shoot make me smile, because their love shines through each and every one.

Nicky & David – you rock! I’m so looking forward to your wedding in Oxfordshire next month.

If you’d like an engagement shoot in Hampstead, somewhere else in London or another location, contact Marie to have a chat!

16 Aug ’12