Emma & Charles, St Albans, Herts

Another September wedding. A church service - unfortunately no photography allowed - followed by a reception at the impressively located St Michaels Manor, in late summer light.

Claire & John, Wakehurst Place, West Sussex

A sister site to Cambridge Cottage from the last post, the RHS's Wakehurst Place in West Sussex (a local venue for me) was the setting for Claire and John's wedding last October. A location with sentimental meaning for the couple, unfortunately the October weather didn't help highlight the autumnal kaleidoscope. One of those days that stayed cloudy and cold but it didn't dampen down the reception for those there.

 

  

Clare & Nick, Cambridge Cottage, Kew Gardens

In common with many wedding photography blogs, this format allows the photographer to show more images from individual weddings than a website gallery allows. So following this trend, I'll kick off with this wedding from last September, at a fantastic venue I had not been to before. Cambridge Cottage at Kew Gardens in South West London is in many ways a photographer's dream venue.

Apart from very professional, friendly organisers/staff, the venue itself, although not big, has that key to good wedding photography - light! Granted this wedding day was a nice late summer's day, but the arrangement inside with large Georgian windows, that the bride and groom face during the ceremony, gives a photographer the opportunity to get nice shots. So many venues get this wrong, especially many large hotels that trumpet their features as the 'perfect wedding venue. At many of these the couple end up facing a large wall with horrible down lights above them, casting unflattering shadows on darkened faces. Large open spaces outside here and obviously the gardens themselves help with a relaxed atmosphere at the reception. Clare and Nick wanted no formal group shots at all, apart from a couple portrait. Here are a few shots from that day...