Monday 20 July 2015

Recollecting John and Laura's Wedding in Devon - 18th July 2015

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a fellow Bournemouth based photographer asking if I would be interested in working with them on a wedding down in Devon.

Of course, I jumped at the opportunity and after meeting with the photographer, Karl Osborne from Osborne Photography, I was really exited about it but a little nervous about working with a new photographer as I'd have to try and adopt their style of shooting. 

As the Sun was starting to set on the Friday evening before the big day, my Dad and I packed our bags and headed out on the road towards Devon! I'd never ventured out to this part of the country and I have to say it is really beautiful! We were lucky enough to see a beautiful doe on the side of the road, it was so unexpected I didn't even have time to get a picture!

Waking up in the morning, we were greeted to a beautiful view. It filled me confidence that it was going to be a wonderful day!


Arriving at the venue, I was taken aback to see how beautiful it was. I set off to accomplish my first task which was meeting the groom and best man, both of whom were great to work with, and we managed to create some wonderful creative shots of them preparing for the big day!

After grabbing a few pictures of the groom, John meeting and greeting guests, Karl arrived from photographing the Bride and we set up in the room where the ceremony was going to take place. The room was elegantly decorated from the bows on the backs of the chairs to the name tags on each of the chairs, creating a very personal experience for the guests. On the left hand side of the room were 5 windows from which this beautiful light was pouring through, illuminating the room really setting the tone for the day!

We wandered outside as the bride was arriving and snapped a few pictures of her bridesmaids stepping out of the car, a Rolls Royce and waited for the Bride to step out. As she stepped out, everyone around could see beauty radiating from her, she smiled an angelic smile, linking arms with her father and walked down the path to her destiny, with John waiting for her at the end of the aisle.

Her bridesmaids walked into the room and everyone started smiling as they knew she was close, as Laura glided into the room you could hear gasps and see all the women in the room start tearing up and grabbing tissues, as she passed them and walked down the aisle.   

The ceremony was exquisite, they greeted each other with a graceful little kiss before proceeding with the ceremony. After stating they were there to marry each other, John read an excerpt from a passage he had memorised. During the reading everyone started tearing up! After the reading, came the ring exchange and then finally the first kiss as husband and wife, you could really feel the chemistry between the two, it really was a beautiful moment to be witness to.

Next came the group pictures, this is where my role as the second photographer was really important as I had to capture the close up details or achieving a different perspective than Karl; I used my 70-200mm lens for these shots, focusing on the bride and groom and blurring everyone else out, as it was their special day after all! 
To finish the group pictures we created one special shot for the bride and groom, the best-man, the bridesmaids and the best-man's fiance, we placed ourselves at the edge of the garden and had the group all run towards us for some fun shots.

After everyone was exhausted from running down the gardens a few times, everyone headed inside for some drinks and light refreshments whilst Karl and I took a walk down to the river to scout for locations on which to take the bride and groom for some private shots of them alone together. There were so many beautiful locations we couldn't decide on which to use first! 
We fetched John and Laura and started to take them on a walk, we reached our third location when all of a sudden it started to drizzle! A feeling of dread spread between Karl and myself as we knew we wouldn't be able to take them down to the river, Instead of heading to the river we took a diversion beneath some trees and followed the path back up to the manor house. 

All hope was not yet lost and we managed to capture some final shots of both of them with some beautiful flowers in the foreground and and sharing an unexpected but magical kiss which luckily we both captured before heading indoors to the warm dry breakfast room where a hot meal was waiting for them! 

While the guests were eating, Karl and I started to set up the photobooth; throughout the whole day I had been learning little things that would help me to improve the way I maintained my photography business but I think this was one of the most important lessons I learnt from the spending the day with Karl. As we set up the booth, i was amazed to how much attention to detail he brings to a wedding day, he really understands the needs of his clients and you can really see that from the way he sets up the booth with a printer to create a small collage of photobooth pictures for his clients, this little bonus was the cherry on top of the tasty vanilla frosting covered cake! 

Before the photobooth was officially opened there was important occasion of the cake cutting and John and Laura's first dance as husband and wife; both elements of the evening were elegant. Firstly the cake was created out of smaller cupcakes, an assortment of yellow, blue and white cupcakes, as the couple held the knife to cut into one, I just had to admire all of the small details that had gone into the big day and how everyone had come together to celebrate the union of this beautiful couple!

As band began to play, John stretched out his hand to Laura and drew her close to him, I was focused so closely on them that everything else was blurred out, I couldn't even tell you which song was playing but I can tell you it was a beautiful rendition, whatever it was! They swayed from side to side and as they looked deep into each others eyes, sparks flew! It was truly magical! More and more couples started to join them on the dance floor and you could really feel the love that night. 

As the song ended the music transitioned into a faster song, at which point Karl and I headed back to officially open the photobooth! Here is a test shot from the booth to test out that everything was working, I was really impressed with the lighting from the booth, I love the highlights on the side of my face and then just the hint of flash on the front to light up my face to illuminate the details. 

Photo taken by Osborne Photography

Btw I know the date is wrong, but thats why we do test shots!

To sum up, I had an amazing time at the wedding, working with Karl and John and Laura was a wonderful experience and I learnt so much from working with them, I can't wait to start going through all of my pictures to choose my favourites and to start editing them!

To see more of my most recent work you can check out My Facebook Page


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