So, after a busy couple of months I'm back to blogging!
I've made it my new year resolution to blog more often this year, but seem to have failed already!

So here I am, with a beautiful post Christmas wedding. The wedding of Gemma and Steve in Kent.

I met up with Steve at Brandshatch Place Hotel where he was getting ready with his best man and ushers.

Steve seemed quite relaxed, if a little nervous as we 'mocked' getting ready because it was too early to actually get ready. As I was about to finish and leave to get to Gemma's hotel, Steve received his wedding gift from his bride - a beautiful pair of Mulberry cufflinks and wallet! I 'heart' Mulberry and drop hints to my husband every birthday and Christmas to have a new Mulberry bag - sadly it falls on deaf ears!

So, I finished with the guys and headed to the bride's hotel, which was also the reception venue, to meet Gemma and her 7 bridesmaids all getting ready and drinking champagne! Lovely!!

Here I photographed all the little details. I love photographing the small details of the day, details that you spend a lot of time and money on!! 

Once the bride's hair and make up was finished it was time to get dressed! Gemma looked absolutely beautiful in her gorgeous gown and Louboutin shoes.

After spending an hour or so with the girls I headed to the church in West Malling to capture the arrival of guests, photograph the guys and arrival of the bride and bridesmaids in a mahoosive Hummer!
Fortunately the rain (just about) held off. It was grey and damp with light rain during the guests arrival however it held off during the important bits of the day which was brilliant!!

It was a beautiful service, quite emotional at points especially when a poem was read out which was written especially for the bride by her groom!  

After the ceremony and a few group photographs it was onto the hotel for drinks, mingling, dinner, speeches and dancing!!

Here are (a few) of my favourite shots from the day.

Answers on a postcard for the shot below...

Congratulations to you both. Thank you for allowing me to capture your day for you!!

...A few weeks ago I had the priviledge of photographing Kerri-Anne and Robin's wedding at the beautfiul Cooling Castle Barn, one of the most popular wedding venue's in Kent!

The wedding day was a bit like 'Don't Tell the Bride' except the bride and the groom didn't have a clue about their day, except for what they were wearing and their first dance choice.
The day was full of surprises, from the flowers arriving in the morning to the menu which was revealed in the morning, which made it all very exciting.

The biggest surprise of all was the bride's father's speech. In the 13 years that I have been a photographer, I have witnessed lots of lovely speeches full of emotion but I have never witnessed a more brilliant and emotional speech than this one. I was chatting to Paul in the morning and he told me what he had planned and why. It was because he knew that the emotion may get the better of him so he decided to don a 'Sinatra'-esque trilby and sing his own lyrics to a Sinatra song! It was brilliant and lovely capturing the surprise on the bride and groom's faces.

After a day full of surprises for the bride and groom, arranged by Kerri-Anne's mum and sister, the bride and groom had their own little surprise for the first dance which included a dance routine - practised shortly before during the sunset photographs that we took.

All too quickly, as always, it was time for my day to come to an end and I left leaving the excellent band - thetzars.com - entertaining the guests.

One of my favourite moments from every wedding that I do is the first time that the brides father see's his daughter for the first time on her wedding day!

The boys...

Boys again...

Bride's arrival...

Blue sky overhead...

Romantic....

Beautiful bride....

A big hug after the first dance...

Following on from my previous post showing the gorgeous photograph of the conservatory at London's Syon Park, finally, here is my post showing some photographs from Katie and Brendon's wedding last month.

I loved this wedding!! Katie and Brendon were fantastic to work with, their guests were all lovely, lovely videographer - Dan from From the Hip who was great to work with - fabulous venue and no rain!! I didn't want to leave and could quite easily have stayed longer despite the fact that I was already well past my contracted time.

We started with the preparations at the Waldorf Astoria hotel within the grounds on Syon Park.
Just look at Katie's shoes...

Katie looked gorgeous in her beautiful bridal gown, the way it flowed from the back reminded me of the soft waterfall pictures that you sometimes see - where the waterfall looks like cotton wool. Obviously the dress wasn't cotton wool, but it flowed beautifully!
Brendon looked very smart - despite the mad rush to get ready after his shopping trip to Westfield just a couple of hours earlier - to buy his shirt, tie and bridesmaids gifts!!! Nothing like leaving it to the last minute!! Still, with a little bit of encouragement from me, Brendon was ready in plenty of time to get to the church!

The ceremony went smoothly, it was a mad rush afterwards as there was another wedding waiting to get into the church as our wedding was coming out. I don't know why churches allow this to happen, it's not fair on the couples getting married plus it can be confusing for the guests.

We got back to the beautiful Syon House where we started taking the bride and groom portraits straight away. I love this venue! It's in my top 5 favourite wedding venues.
Once all the guests were back to the venue we did the requested groups, candid shots and detail shots in the stunning conservatory.
Katie and Brendon led their guests across from the house to the conservatory where they all tucked into what was a delicious meal!! It's always a treat when I get served a meal, and I honestly appreciate it because I'm usually starving! This was one of the best meals I've had - I can still taste it as I write this, yummy!!

Anyway, enough dribbling. Speeches were next on the agenda, the best man embarrasing Brendon with childhood tales - which involved a kitchen fire, don't ask!! Their poor mum!

Speeches over, it was time to cut their black and white cake, which smelt delicious. During this time, guests mingled, relaxed and generally enjoyed themselves before the dancing started with the fabulous Micheal Buble act. Talking to him before he started I found out he came from Essex so it was strange to hear him speak in an American accent during his set!!

The dreaded first dance went well and got everyone in the mood and onto the dancefloor.
Finally, it was time to leave but I couldn't leave without doing some final portraits with the cloudy night sky over, which is, in my opinion the best venue in London.

Leading the way to the stunning conservatory...

Gorgeous wedding flowers by Louise at http://www.thecrackedpot.co.uk/ - such a great name!!

Different corsages, with a touch of bling, again by Louise.

Dancing princess...

Micheal Buble....

Congratulations and thank you for looking after us, we had such a great time working with you!!

Now onto the album design....