My first ever blog!!

This is is …my first EVER blog!!! I almost can’t believe it myself!

I’ve been a photographer for nearly 30 years and I’ve never really gotten into this blogging lark, but I see so many other photographers going it that I figured that I might as well drag myself into the 21st century and see if I could cobble together a few paragraphs that people might want to read.

Kelliemay and Andrew were married last summer - June 2022, with their ceremony taking place at St John’s Baptist Church in Clowne (former home to my photographic studio - the town, not the church) and they had their wedding reception at the Sitwell Arms in Renishaw.

The day started with the bridal prep at the Sitwell Arms. Shots in the room of the bridal party and then onto the salon to get the brides hair and make up sorted.

I do love doing bridal prep as it allows me to photograph and capture the anticipation in the run up to the “I do’s!”

It’s important for me to capture the spirit of the day in these pictures without getting under anyone’s feet. Quite often there can be a dozen or so people in the room and the last thing that I want to do is get in the way!

After finishing finishing up at the “Arms” it was on to the church in a lovely white stretch limo, supplied by a local company.
The vicar at the church is lovely. So down to earth, relaxed and as a photographer I can tell you that’s really important. Some vicars won’t even allow you at the front of the church to photograph the ceremony, but here I had freedom to shoot where I wanted (providing of course that I wasn’t moving around during the ceremony, which is something you should never do as a photographer too much).

Now, during the ceremony I tend to take pictures as the couple say their vows to one another and gaze lovingly into one another’s eyes - it’s normally a pretty run of the mill affair. Nothing out of the ordinary usually happens. Except….this time…it did…!

I was taking pictures of the ceremony as normal, my camera was held up against my face as I focused on the faces of the bride and groom, when all of a sudden a huge roar of laughter broke out amongst the congregation. I lowered my camera to see the bride and groom in fits of laughter as the groom scrambles to pull his trousers up….there’d been a bit of a wardrobe malfunction where the groom’s trousers had ended up around his knees! I saved the blushes of the couple and did get pictures of the reaction on their faces but I stopped short of embarrassing the groom by photographing him with his trousers down. Thankfully the rest of the ceremony went without a hitch!

Post ceremony, I like to take a group shot of the wedding party before everyone starts taking jackets and ties off and getting worse for wear, so I prefer to get it out of the way. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t on our side so we had to take the group shot inside the church. Thankfully, what’s nice about St. John’s is that there is a balcony which looks down onto the main part of the church and so I was able to shoot from above, ensuring that I got everyone in the shot.

The rest of the day, the weather brightened up. The rain clouds stayed in Clowne and by the time we got to Renishaw, the sun was out. I was able to get some great shots of the bride and groom in the interior of the hotel and in the grounds as well as some great party shots later on. Whilst the grounds at the Sitwell Arms aren’t massive, there's enough of an area to get some really nice photographs.

The rest of the day went without incident. No more wardrobe malfunctions, just lots of love and laughter, fun and great photographs.