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Essenden Country Club wedding photographers couple shot

Another lovely Google review from an Essendon Country Club wedding day

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London Wedding Photographers, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

Thank you so much Zoe and Marina for your lovely google review, after your fabulous Essendon Country Club wedding. Working on your storybook album this week 🙂

Review and full text below:

“Thank you so much to David and Joanna for capturing our special day. One of the main reasons we chose to go with David and Joanna was their ability and talent to capture the moment and use the lighting in a way we saw no one else do. Believe me we carried out our research and Big Day Weddings was our first choice. We had a great time getting to know them both and David kept us laughing all the way through the day. We highly recommend Big Day Weddings to capture your special day in the most uniquely beautiful way.”

By David Green

Couple dance and laugh at Connaught Rooms wedding reception

The grandest of days for a Grand Connaught Rooms wedding in central London

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

To say we love what we do, and the variety of what we photograph in a wedding day would be an understatement. This dramatic and culturally fascinating Grand Connaught Rooms wedding in central London was a prime example. For  start this was the second wedding in just a few months that we have photographed the happy couple at! First was a civil ceremony for close friends and family at Chelsea Old Town Hall, which was fab. This particular big day though was a traditional Persian affair honouring both sides of the families heritage and values.

Bride gets ready at Connaught Rooms London wedding prep

Groom gets ready in mirror for Connaught Rooms London wedding day

We are proud of the fact that we can shoot in a variety of styles and approaches. This particular central London wedding we would describe as traditional mixed with documentary. It was not about quirky or breaking the mould, we do plenty of those a year, it was about giving the couple and their family what THEY wanted. For a Persian ceremony the wedding table know as “Sofreh Aghd” is central and very important, so instead of bridal prep we spent the beginning of the day photographing this and the Grand Hall of the Connaught Rooms in great detail.

Bride and groom walk through London park after Connaught Rooms wedding

Very convenient for the Connaught Rooms on Great Queen Street is the fact that the Kingsway Hall Hotel is next door and this is where the couple got ready separately for their special day. For a Persian wedding the prep photos are about the finished result and not the process itself as would be normal for reportage coverage.

Bride and groom on stairs at London Connaught Rooms wedding day

So although much of the events are quite controlled and “staged”, for experienced documentary photographers like ourselves there is plenty of unscripted emotion and action from bride groom and guests to keep us very busy for the entire eleven hours!

Persian wedding ceremony exchange of rings Connaught Rooms London

We estimated about three hundred and fifty guests, so a fairly large affair but something the Grand Connaught Rooms is designed for. It’s history dates from about 1774 and it has hosted a great many large and prestigious events in its time.

Persian wedding kiss London Connaught Rooms ceremony

Once all the day guests were assembled around the wedding table and the string quartet began to play bride and dad made their grand entrance and the wedding ceremony began in earnest.

Bride and groom laughing in London Park near Grand Connaught Rooms

After that out came the drinks and canapés for the guests, and for me (David) a very large amount of formal photographs around the”Sofreh Aghd”. This was a traditional affair though and this was the brief. So many people had travelled form far and wide to attend it was important for the family to document that. I know a lot of photographers who would have palpitations at the thought, but I had a good time with the guests and that shows in the final result.

Bride groom and wedding car outside the Grand Connaught Rooms London

Typical for England it was on and off a pretty rainy day, so although much of the action took place indoors we had a twenty five minute time slot to get some shots nearby in a local park. I went with the couple in their lovely vintage car but we spent twenty minutes of our time in traffic! I made that five minutes in the park really count though 🙂 During this time Joanna busied herself capturing the action in and around the drinks reception.

Tossing the bouquet at Connaught Rooms wedding reception

The wedding breakfast at this De Vere owned and run location was a particular grand and lavish affair. And what followed were some more Persian traditions after speeches and first dance. I particularly enjoyed the wedding cake celebration, also known as the Persian knife dance.

First dance atGrand Connaught Rooms wedding image 2

This involves various guests dancing with the cake knife in front of the couple and accepting money (a kind of bribe if you like) in order to give the knife back so the couple can actually cut their cake. Most amusing as nobody gave them the knife for quite some time. Then we had a famous Persian singer make a surprise guest appearance, and lots of very exuberant dancing late late into the night.

String quartet plays at Connaught Rooms wedding reception

Image wise I’ve put a couple of personal favourites in here, the couple stealing a kiss while they practised their wedding dance, and the groom on the phone in the park telling the car driver “get us back quick!” while myself and the bride share a little joke.

A grand day all round at The Grand Connaught Rooms.

By David Green

Wedding couple kiss by chandelier at Stoke Place Hotel

Stoke Place Hotel Wedding Photography with Kym and Jamie

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

We knew Kym and Jamie’s wedding at Stoke Place Hotel in Buckinghamshire would be a lovely affair, because we knew what great people they were! An engagement shoot a few months beforehand at Alexandra Palace in north London had meant a chance at getting to know them better, and also putting them at ease as far as photography was concerned.

Wedding dress hanging at Stoke Place HotelThis was always going to to be a full on and exciting day starting early with two sets of preparations, as the couple were having a traditional Chinese tea ceremony first. Kym had a special outfit for this, and then changed into her wedding dress for the rest of the proceedings and the civil ceremony.

Traditional Chinese wedding dressed bride and groom Stoke Place

As soon as I arrived and saw Mark from Mighty Fine Entertainment setting up mood lighting around the ceremony room in typically dedicated fashion,  I knew that Kym and Jamie had not only chosen a great wedding venue, but experienced and highly regarded suppliers to add to one of the biggest days of their lives.

Bridal shower at Stoke Place wedding

Stoke Place is a gem of a wedding venue for Buckinghamshire. A country house hotel set in twenty six acres of grounds it was originally built in 1690. So there is tons of history and period detail throughout the venue. It feels so private and secluded yet it’s only 15 minutes from London’s Heathrow airport!

Groomsmen on bicycles at Stoke Place Hotel wedding morning

Bride make up at Stoke Place Hotel wedding image

As a professional wedding photographer with experience of venues far and wide I can see that the management has thought carefully about adapting it’s various spaces to make for a varied versatile and ultimately very special wedding day.

Bridesmaids talk and laugh by Stoke place Hotel chandeliers

This was indeed a day full of love laughter and unforgettable moments, and I feel we did a great job of capturing them as well as creating a few of our own. I loved suggesting to Kym some shots in the roll top bath in her room just after she had put her wedding dress on. I loved even more that she took that all in her stride as though it was the most natural request she’s heard all day long! Jamie was just as open minded and relaxed, it was no problem for him or his groomsmen to ride bikes or juggle apples on this particular wedding day.

Groom waits for bride in Barn ceremony room Stokes Place

Disclaimer: every couple and every wedding day is different: we will never force you to juggle apples or get in a roll top bath on your special day! Honest! It’s an interesting point, because some photographic coverage is very much documentary, but for these guys it was a little bit of everything. The most important thing for us is to give you the coverage you value and that suits your personalities.

Bride and father arrive for Stoke Place wedding ceremony

The ceremony itself was held in the Barn Room with bubbles and confetti straight after outside at the Lakeside exit. Being a typical English day of weather we had both sunshine and rain, and we did what we could outside until the heavens opened. No problem though, that just meant it was time for some chandelier and drawing room shots inside Stoke Place itself.

Stoke Place Hotel wedding ceremony

While guests enjoyed drinks and canapés the venue was able to transform the Barn into an impressive space for the wedding breakfast and speeches. I particularly enjoyed the groomsmen’s mass impression of Jamie’s dancing technique, and later on his brother performing a song on guitar for the newly weds.

Confetti and bubbles at Stoke Place wedding day

After the meal came time for serious partying in the Lakeside which Mark from Mighty Fine had transformed  into a DJ and dancing space. Needless to say the love laughter partying and dancing went well on into the night!

Wedding party fun pose at Stoke Place Hotel

A special mention too for the excellent Toast Master Patrick Collins find him here Patrick Collins, and we also enjoyed working alongside Tracey the videographer from The Little Picture Studio. Mighty Fine Entertainment are here: Mighty Fine Entertainment

Wedding couple by lake at Stoke Place Hotel

Bride waters bouquet in bath at Stokes Place wedding

By David Green

Wedding couple laughing on balcony Stoke place Hotel

Groomsmen dance at Stokes Place Hotel wedding reception

First dance at Stoke Place wedding reception photo

Bride groom and guitarist at Stoke Place wedding reception

Not long after their Stoke Place Hotel wedding day Kym and Jamie wrote this lovely review on Google:

Where do we start? Thank you so so much! You’ve captured our day beautifully! Going through the photos have helped us re-live it all over again! Every single photo is shot to perfection, great angles and extremely clear with great colour! We loved all the special effects and filters you’ve put on too, especially the one with Kym “showering” herself! 🙂 You have captured all the special moments, especially the ones that went very quickly – such as our dip towards the end of the first dance (as we couldn’t hold that position for long! 🙂

We absolutely loved working with you both, you’ve made us feel at ease behind the camera, right from the moment we did our engagement shoot. It really helped us relax during the day. David you have a great way with making people laugh and have fun! We had many comments from our guests on what “cool” and “fun” photographers we had at our wedding. It was great to see everyone else was having a great time with us too.

Thank you again! We’ve already recommended you on to a couple that are looking for great photographers at their wedding!”

Stoke Place Hotel on a wedding day

Barn wedding ceremony room at Stokes Place Hotel

Bride in Chinese wedding dress by tree Stoke Place

And finally here’s a couple of the most popular and hard working wedding professionals out there, DJ Mark Van Den Berg of Mighty Fine Entertainment, and Patrick Collins Toastmaster.

Wedding DJ Mark Van Den Berg imagePatricj Collins toast master photo

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Bride and groom walking to their London Eye Wedding ceremony

London Eye wedding photography, the real behind the scenes stories

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London venues and events, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

We thought it would be interesting to occasionally blog about the stories behind some of our recent images. To be honest we don’t write blog posts about every wedding we do, because after shooting and meticilously editing the weddings, travelling and aiming to occasionally have a family life too, there’s not a lot of time left! So we see this as a good way to do a mini post. There are thirty out of forty weddings from this year we haven’t and won’t write about for those reasons. Google won’t love us as much for less frequent updates, but we like to think our couples appreciate the extra attention their wedding’s gets before and afterwards.

So the photo above is from earlier this year, and one of our favourites, a lovely wedding held on the London Eye. You can see the original post here: London Eye Wedding Photographers Time Out Recommended 

It’s a documentary image shot by myself David. We had been caught in traffic in a huge stretch limo hired by the couple with rather a lot of champagne flowing. People were pretty merry by the time we arrived, no bad thing on a wedding day! My intention had been to shoot the wedding party from various angles as they made their way to the Eye, but because we were running late these guys shot ahead. Not a problem though because I had in my imagination a similar idea of perspective to capture the couple from at some point. I took three shots and liked this one the best, mainly because of the bride and groom’s position in relation to the wheel, and by this time the wedding party had also spontaneously began to link arms.

I converted to black and white because I felt that emphasised their linking arms shape and that of the wheel and clouds. The couple naturally got all three version in original colour and black and white. I’m glad I declined the champagne in the limo myself though, otherwise who knows what this shot would have been like!

By David Green

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Bride in a barn at her South Farm wedding photo

South Farm Wedding Photographers, and what a venue!

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London venues and events, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Lorna and Andy booked us as their South Farm wedding photographers almost two years before their big day, so we had plenty of time to get to know them a little better and plan our approach. Sometimes I feel that couples when they find us on an internet search think that we only specialise in Central London as we feature it heavily, but actually although we naturally love the capital, a great deal of our work is also around the home counties too. Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Essex are counties we are frequently photographing in and there aren’t many venues that we don’t have previous experience with.

Bride in bridal suite at South Farm wedding

What we love about South Farm is the fact that they have really understood the value of having a variety of locations for the elements of a wedding day. They have a dedicated bridal suite and rooms for the groomsmen, and a fantastic main house, but that’s just the beginning. There are beautiful and various crafted gardens, authentic attractions like their vintage painted Romany and Showman’s caravans, and separate spaces for ceremony, reception and dancing.  The old Tudor barn is particularly great to host the evenings’ celebrations. While there are outside and inside spaces for the ceremony depending on preference and the weather of course. There are also areas incorporated from the working farm itself, and for bride and groom they can meet the baby piglets too, more on that later…

Bride and father in aisle at South Farm wedding ceremony

Our coverage began with Lorna’s bridal prep in the dedicated suite, and Andy and best man in the groomsmen’s rooms. As usual I (David) flitted between everyone and everything, good exercise! October allowed the couple to plan for a halloween theme too, so it was fun to see all the pumpkins lining the aisle as I made my way through room after room documenting all the time and effort the couple had put into their preparations. That’s one of the main jobs of a wedding photographer to take a permanent quality record of those important little and big touches, as well as all those magic people moments too.

Bride and groom by caravan at their South Farm wedding

Particularly moving for me was seeing Lorna’s father push through the discomfort of some mobility issues to  join her half way down the aisle and lead her to Andy. Priceless forever moments.

South Farm Royston Cambridgeshire photo

A lovely heart felt ceremony was followed by confetti and a drinks reception with plenty of entertainment provided by remarkable magician Lee  Smith. He personally showed me a couple tricks later in the day and I was quite literally astounded – highly recommended.

Couple hold hands at South Farm wedding in sunlit doorway

We used this time to take the couple around the venue for some shots just of themselves. I particularly enjoyed the farm part, and I will always remember this particular South Farm wedding day for the “accident” one of the little piglets had on Lorna’s wedding dress! I was tempted to include a photo of that but… Anyhow a wet wipe and Lorna’s good humoured approach made sure that wasn’t a big issue for the rest of the day.

Couple laugh in doorway South Farm wedding

We do a great variety of weddings in many different venues, but one thing that really struck me was how well South Farm has catered for a couple’s big day, from facilitates and locations, to the great attitude of the staff. I’m personally really looking forward to returning there soon. Next time I would like to see one of my good friends in the wedding business Martin Family of Special Occasion Videos working along side us as he has many times, and I know he is very experienced at South Farm.

Bride and groom head to head in South Farm wedding summer house

The evening itself was rounded off with the wedding breakfast in the Tudor Barn, and dancing and boogying in the beautifully restored Horse Barn complete with impressive partial glass floors.

A lovely memorable day all round for everyone concerned.

By David Green

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