...From 9th-12th February Level 11 Photography will be at the Bluewater Wedding Week which will take place at the brand new events venue Glow at Bluewater.

The Wedding Fair at Bluewater promises to be a fabulous day out and the ultimate destination for inspiration for all of you who are planning your wedding.
With over 150 fantastic wedding professional exhibiting at the show you are guaranteed to find something that you are looking for!

We will be launching some new albums at the show and we will also be offering some amazing special offers which will only be available during the Wedding Week.

Level 11 will be located in the lower hall, stand B46 so come along and see us!!

www.weddingfairatbluewater.com,

OMG....I really need to play 'catch up' on this blog!!

There is so much to blog, I just haven't had the time to do it in between shooting weddings, portraits, editing, processing, album design, being a mummy and wife....and sleeping!

So, here's a little quickie until I get the chance to blog properly over the Christmas period.

Suhayla and Damien were married on Saturday. After a church ceremony the reception was held at Dorton House in Sevenoaks.
Dorton House is the Royal London Society for Blind people http://www.rlsb.org.uk/ . A beautiful Grade 2 listed building where all profits from your event go back to the RSLB.

Here are just a couple of shots that jumped out at me whilst editing...

 I'll be blogging again soon but in the meantime....Happy Christmas!

...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...

...A couple of weeks ago I met up with Carly and James who's wedding I am shooting in November.

We stayed local for their pre-wedding shoot, which was great as we used an old, derelict mansion house - we weren't supposed too but it was empty, we thought, until we were told we were trespassing! Ooops!
So, we walked around, stopping at a couple of spots and here are a few of the results.

Looking forward to their wedding!!

...here are a few quirky details from the recent wedding of Louise and Chris at Cooling Castle Barn, Rochester.

'Splendid' was the word of the day! A fab day was had however the bride and groom wish to remain private so I will only show you the following few details which made me laugh...except for the cheese-cake, which didn't make me laugh because it was just a very nice three tiered cake of cheese but I thought it made a nice change from the traditional wedding cakes.

The Royal Wedding of the decade is on Friday 29th April, Prince William will marry Kate Middleton.

We LOVE a good wedding here at Level 11 so we have a special offer to celebrate the Royal nuptials.
Book your own wedding with Level 11 (UK) and receive a complimentary personalised guest book for your wedding guests to sign.
There are still limited dates left for 2011 so get in quick and receive your free gift.

Also, not forgetting the little Princes and Princesses....we are offering a half price portrait session so you can have beautiful and professional memorabilia of your own Royal Family. 

Portrait bookings must be made by April 30th 2011.
For more information and to book contact Claire on 0845 0711178 or claire@level11.co.uk

A quick update about what's been going on.

Spring has finally sprung after a grim winter and it's been lovely seeing the daffodills and tulips in full bloom.
The extra daylight is lovely too for portrait sessions.
I love photographing children in the daffodills so I couldn't resist taking my little girl out to the park...she loved running through the daffodills and investigating them...

Things have been so busy lately and I am working hard to catch up with everything, surviving on less sleep than I usually like whilst running around after a 16mth old during the day.

Anyway, the wedding season has started with the first wedding at Tower Bridge, London. It was such a fantastic day, an intimate ceremony in the Bridgemasters Suite followed by some photographs in the roof of Tower Bridge. Unfortunately the bride and groom wish to keep their wedding photographs private so I can't share them so although you can't see their photographs, you'll just have to take my word for it that they're fantastic!!
Here are a couple of shots taken of the wedding venue, which I think is one of London's best landmarks!

The shot below is taken on the roof of Tower Bridge and what you see is graffitti....yes, graffitti - at the very top pointy bit of Tower Bridge. Apparently, it has been done by various ex-staff members.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of this years weddings starting in a few weeks and working with all of my couples. I've had lots of enquiries from our recommended venues, and taken a few recent bookings, and it sounds as though there are some fantastic weddings being planned. Before the weddings I always do a pre-wedding shoot which is a nice way of getting to know each other before the big day.

The next wedding for me is the Royal Wedding, Prince William to Kate Middleton. No, I'm not photographing it (unfortunately) however I can't stop thinking about who might have priviledge of shooting the best gig in town!! Will it be Mario Testino, he shot their official engagement photographs.
I wonder what Kate will wear, will she wear a traditional wedding dress from a dress designer such as Jenny Packham or Caroline Castigliano or perhaps she will wear a Vera Wang design. Personally, I think she will wear a slim fitting diamond/crystal encrusted dress with a fishtail skirt with a cathedral length veil (of course). How brilliant, I'm ridiculously excited about it and can't wait to have our tiara party with my little girl dressed up as a little princess.

After the Royal Wedding I have the priviledge of being a guest for the day at my friend, David's, wedding. David sometimes helps me on my weddings. I'm really looking forward to it, I will leave the 'work' camera at home and will use my little point and shoot camera. I can't wait. It'll be my little girl's first wedding, she's got her little outfit sorted and I've got my outfit sorted, can't wait to wear my hat!

At some point soon I will also be adding a new portrait gallery to the website showing all my recent maternity photography, baby and children's portraits plus new wedding photographs. I'm not very 'techy' so it might take a little longer than I'd ideally like but I will do it.

So, the next few weeks are busy, busy, busy for me....just the way I like it!!!

Enjoy the Royal Wedding!!

Claire

On Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing Dawn & Sam's wedding.
After a pretty (literally) mad week of heavy snowfall around the country, worse in Kent of course, I was a little worried whether the wedding would be going ahead. I had been watching the weather forecast all week and saw on the news that some couples had to cancel their weddings so I called Dawn a couple of days before to get an update. Fortunately everything was going to plan.

Brief rundown...
I arrived at the cottage where Dawn was getting ready and decided to take a walk outside to grab a few shots. I didn't realise how deep the snow was...it was halfway up my leg, around 15inches!!
Preparation shots done...started to make my way to the church to meet Sam but got stuck on the icey hill outside the cottage. My car was sliding all over the place and couldn't get up the hill!! Bride's brother arrives to take Dawn and her dad to the church, panic sets in that I won't be able to get there so decided that if the car wouldn't move then I'd leave it there and go with the bride!
Fortunately the lovely farmer who owned the cottage came to the rescue with his tractor and towed me to the main road!
Met up with the brides car en route to the church and we both made it to the church 40 minutes late!!! Being towed and being late for a wedding are both firsts for me in 12 years photographing weddings....and not to be repeated!!

The wedding was lovely. After the church service, Mr. & Mrs. F enjoyed mince pies and mulled wine with their guests before making their way to Cooling Castle Barn where they entered a real Winter Wonderland. The barn looked fantastic with the beautifully decorated Christmas trees and reindeer lights and the snow just set it off.

Last weekend I met up with Dawn & Sam for their pre-wedding shoot which we did in beautiful Greenwich Park.

I love this time of the year, especially when it's sunny. The colours of the trees and the leaves on the ground, the beautiful sunlight, crunching leaves as you walk, being cold but wrapped up in a chunky cardigan or a jumper!! Lovely!
Dawn & Sam are getting married in December so the trees will be bare by then as we enter the winter season. 

Here are a few of my faves...

As promised here are a few of my favourites from Glenn & Tania's wedding which took place in Surrey last Saturday.

The day started off with Tania and her family getting ready in their 'hired mansion' which was actually converted flats but was brilliant as it meant that lots of Tania's family, who had flew in from Indonesia, were able to stay together.
Tania had scheduled to be ready earlier than planned so that we had the time to take photographs of her and her family/bridesmaids before we all left for the ceremony. This was fantastic as it meant we captured the shots that we would have had to get later in the day....and I'm glad we did as the traffic nightmare meant we didn't have a lot of time once back at the reception venue.

Tania looked stunning in her one shouldered gown. She admitted to me that she's not keen on lots of make up but I think she looked gorgeous, her make up and her wedding dress really suited her.

Once at the registry office Glenn looked surprisingly calm as he waited for his bride. Cue the music and in walked each of the three bridesmaids followed by the beautiful bride.
Vows and rings exchanged and the new Mr. & Mrs. Murphy walked out onto the terrace and into a flurry of confetti!!

Once back at the reception venue, which was very Hogwarts-esque, I took the bride and groom portraits, a few groups and then it was dinner time which was a delicious buffett.
After dinner followed the speeches, particularly funny speech from Glenn's brother and best man, Sean or a.k.a 'the tortured one' who shared funny childhood memories.

The first dance kicked off the dancing and as I walked off to my car I could see and hear the party in full swing.

Here are (just a few) of my favourites from the day...

One of my favourite moments of a wedding is when the bride's father see's his daughter for the first time...
....and this is why I like it.

Just in case your wondering, the tables were named after Tottenham Hotspur football players.... 

Congratulations guys...thanks for looking after me and all the best for your 2nd wedding in Jakarta.