Many times we are asked for wedding supplier recommendations, from florists to vintage cars in the course of our meetings with couples planning their big day. Less often we are asked about reception and ceremony venues. These are often the first stage of a bride and groom’s search, and certainly the main area that gets booked to decide the final wedding date.
No doubt there is an almost bewildering amount of choice for wedding venues in the London and home counties area, and many of them are exceptional. However when we are asked about Hertfordshire it is always without hesitation among others that we recommend Fanhams Hall in Ware.
This grand place has it all from beautiful and incedibly varied gardens, to the main manor house itself, which is a tasteful mixture of old and new. In fact we have regularly produced fantastic wedding imagery from venues that have less than ten percent of the options that Fanhams has!
Having said that the venue does not make the photographer, and sadly we have seen plenty of very average wedding photos coming out of other’s Fanhams Hall wedding days. So if you are in the market for a London or Hertfordshire based wedding photographer for this lovely venue, then please make sure you ask to see the images from an entire wedding there, and not just the usual signature images from the gardens with Fanhams in the background!
When we met Hannah and Mat we were excited to hear of their choice of reception venue, and even more excited to hear that they had been at one of our previous Fanhams Hall wedding days and had seen the images we had produced.
We started the day with Hannah’s wedding preparations at her parents home in Chingford and then on to her local catholic church, Our Lady of Grace and St Teresa of Avila.
After the ceremony and confetti throwing we all made our way to Fanhams for the drinks reception. While Joanna concentrated on reportage photography of the guests and the wedding breakfast room and details, I took the newly weds around the grounds of the hall.
Now I have shot in every kind of weather condition at Fanhams, some of them all in the same day! In the blog post title we have wrote “sunny Hertfordshire” and this day was a very bright one indeed. What this meant in wedding photography terms was that I looked for areas of good light that avoided hot and unflattering direct sunlight. The sun is always your friend on a wedding day, as long as you know how to photographically turn it to your advantage. It can add side light and back light, and definitely liven up your backgrounds too.
After some family and friends shots it was time for the wedding breakfast and speeches in the grand hall. The couple had a beautiful wedding cake to cut and music and dance courtesy of live band Secret Show Band.
Once I’d taken a bunch of dancing shots and said my goodbyes, it was time to ride off into the Hertfordshire sunset and say goodbye to Fanhams Hall itself, until next time…
Here’s another blog post about Fanhams wedding days: Fanhams Hall Wedding Photographer
By David Green
This particular fine days photo coverage started with David documenting Noor and her bridesmaids getting ready at her parents house. While Joanna began with groom David at St George’s Cathedral in Southwark which they had chosen to host their wedding ceremony.
The church was finished in 1848 and was considered the most important catholic cathedral in England in it’s day. Unfortunately it was bombed in the second word war and had to be extensively rebuilt though it retained it’s beauty.
After the ceremony the wedding party headed to the Southbank and the Oxo Tower for the couples lavish reception and wedding breakfast.
We shot much in a documentary style capturing the laughter and emotions of the day, but also had fifteen minutes alone outside with the couple too to get some extra shots. Fifteen minutes isn’t long (David timed it!) but we are used to getting what is needed quickly in whatever time scale we are allowed.
Back at the reception we finished with speeches, cake cutting and first dance.
