Emma & Ian's wedding at Bapchild Church & Hempstead House.

2008 is turning out to be an amazing year! Easy going, fun couples, wedding days full of life and love. And a real run on church weddings – in 2007, less than 25% of our bookings were for church weddings but this year they’ve been much more frequent! The biggest problem we run into churches is…. Vicars! So many of them have arbitrary rules preventing any photography during the ceremony. No ring exchange, no first kiss, no images of the amazing moment when the groom sees his wife to be walking down the isle. To me, the ceremony is THE reason we’re there! It’s the culmination of months of planning, its full of emotion and love.

Despite what these vicars suggest, no – it can’t be mocked up afterwards, and why would we? I just don’t know why they’re so willing to steal a couples precious memories, I don’t know where in the bible it says that photography is a crime. I do know its wrong – its not the vicars day, it’s the couples and discreet photography from 20ft away isn’t putting anybody off!

Anyway, rant mode off(!) – no such problems at Emma & Ian wedding at St Laurence in Bapchild, Kent. Michael ran a beautiful ceremony and we got some great images for them to treasure. The weather forecast turned out to be wrong and the sun shone all day….so we parked the rather gorgeous horse and carriage from The Ostler Carriage Company and wandered into the fields to get some fun stuff of the two of them together.

Then it was off to Hempstead House for the reception where Norman, Emma’s dad, made the funniest gag ever in a fotb speech, unfortunately not one I can use here – suffice to say I’ll never regard Dick Whittington the same again! Here’s a few from a great day!

Zoe & Andrew's E-Shoot

The pre-weds are just rolling in at the moment, so its pretty busy here.....! I really enjoy them, no time constraints, the chance to experiment and usually a well earned drink whilst we run through all the details of the upcoming wedding.

So, it was off for a shoot with Andrew & Zoe yesterday with some nice late afternoon sunshine. This cool couple are getting married at The Old Kent Barn on June 14th - I'm really looking forward to returning to the venue Emma & I chose when we married last year - and Zoe & Andrews is just a week after I shoot Lloyd & Sam's big day there too!

Summer's definitely here.....

Rebecca & Matt's Pre-wedding shoot

Well, saturday may have been a miserable day, weather wise, but undeterred, we met up with Rebecca & Matt for their pre-wed shoot. They're getting married at Chilston Park on June 22nd, so the days looming! We ducked in and out of some awful weather and we didn;t have too much time, but managed to grab some really nice shots - here's a few of my favourites.

Gill - our favourite florist!

Towards the end of last year, I photographed a very nice marquee wedding in Surrey and was literally blown away by the amazing flowers. I met the florist, GillPike, and we really hit it off. She's got exactly the same attitude as us, and is really passionate about her work. She's been a florist all her working life and recently started her own business.

Out of the blue, we got a call from her last week to shoot some images for her upcoming wesbite and it was great to catch up with her.

Gill's great fun, and a fantastic florist. If you haven't sorted the wedding day flowers yet, we really do recommend that you contact her on gillpikeflorist@hotmail.co.uk - we'll post her website here as soon as it's live.

Lora & James' wedding

Well, summer's truly here and as James (my second shooter, not the groom!) said on saturday - this was our first real summer wedding of the year, a beautiful English country church followed by a marquee reception - in beautiful sunshine!

James and Lora looked fantastic, Lora's dress was from Pronuptia and it was great to have a bride who wore her hair down! The bridal party were a blast and James' brother Simon, his best man, performed one of the most amusing speeches I've heard in a while.

Great day, great couple - here's a few to see you through until the couple return from their five week honeymoon in South America.

Sam & Lloyd's E-Shoot

We met up with Sam & Lloyd on a very warm bank holiday Sunday for their pre wedding shoot on Margate seafront - with an 'urban' theme in mind.... Their wedding is looming on Saturday 7th June at The Old Kent Barn and I'm getting really excited as its the first time I'll have been back since my own wedding there last September! This sexy couple have a really individual style and were keen to shoot something out of the ordinary - so we visited parts of Margate not on the tourist trail (unless NCP carparks and dark alleys are your thing!)