The ceremony was a very initiate affair, as the vicar was good friends with Gill and Carl and had come to the Church especially to marry them. He even broke out his acoustic guitar and did a song mid ceremony which was a first for us, and very touching.

The whole day was very pleasant with people chatting with us all day long about how nice and refreshing it was to see photographers who would just let the day unfold naturally without getting too involved and bossy. We had a really great time and got some lovely photos. Hope you like them.

Carl

The post Wedding at St Mary’s Church Billinge | Gill and Carl appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.

Anyway, Sarah flew all the way over from New Zealand for our photo session (or a family wedding.. I forget which) so it was a great chance to get all the family together spanning four generations and having some great natural photos taken. I felt really touched to have been asked, and had my fingers crossed that the UK weather wouldn’t compare too harshly to that of New Zealand.

We headed out to Taylor Park, one of our favourite local venues for taking photos as there are so many different looking areas and backdrops we can use. We had a slow amble around the park and took a few snaps en route. The weather was sunny with showers on occasion so not too bad overall, and we managed to get some great photos.

Hope you like them.

Carl

The post Family Photoshoot at Taylor Park | The Gaskells appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.

Harry and Elise had a rough start being born prematurely and spending a lot of time in hospital. We arranged the photo session months in advance to give them time to get up and about and I was really pleased that by the time I met them for the session, they were both bright eye’d and eager for photos!

Having never done a photoshoot for twins before, I was a bit apprehensive about taking photos of two babies at once. I wanted to get shots of each baby individually showing their own personality, and of course together highlighting their special shared bond. But by concentrating on one baby too much, would the other get bored or lose interest?

I needn’t have worried of course, when we started the session the babies were more than happy to play with their toys and have photos taken at the same time, and barely spared my a glance. I managed to get all the photos I wanted and then we tried playing around with some different toys and angles for photos to see what we could come up with. I particularly like the ball pool photo I have to say. Hope you like them too.

Carl

The post Twin Baby Photoshoot | Harry and Elise appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.

Katie and Phil had booked the beautiful Statham Lodge Hotel in Lymm for their wedding and we were really pleased to get the chance to shoot a wedding here, as it’s a local venue we hadn’t yet done a wedding at and it is very picturesque. We were also pleased to find out we’d be working with our good friend Barry from Diamond Lights Videography who is great to work with and shoots in a very similar, natural style to us.

On the day itself we were treated to fantastic weather. Blue skies all day and plenty of sunshine, and as a result the wedding was held outside in the gazibo. Both Rachel and I loved the idea of shooting an outdoor wedding, and so by this point we were pretty excited! The day unfolded brilliantly with a relaxed pace, and plenty of natural photos of the bride, groom and guests.

The wedding speeches were great fun to capture. The two best men clearly had a great rapport with all of the guests and there was no shortage of embarrassing stories. We even found ourselves chuckling a few times throughout.

Here are a few snaps from the day, hope you like them.

Carl

The post Wedding at Statham Lodge | Katie and Phil appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.

So, way back in May last year we covered our first Civil Partnership. We were delighted to be asked to cover a civil partnership as it’s our first time shooting one and of course without previous examples to show people, it takes a brave couple to book and ‘take a chance’ as it were.

Warren and Kieran are a lovely couple who were really excited for their big day and had lots of lovely details planned for it (just the kind of thing we can get our teeth into!) including an owl delivery of the rings. The partnership would be taking place at Ullet Road Unitarian Church, which is a brilliant, huge venue in Liverpool. It was only on the final run up to the ceremony that we found out that this would be the first Civil Partnership to take place in a religious establishment in the UK. Brilliant.

The day itself, although a little overcast, was a real joy to photograph. With Owls delivering the rings, a harpist, a VW Beetle and Camper Van and lots of personal touches we were once again really spoiled. The Church backdrop for the photos was perfect for us – very picturesque, and very grand.

We shot off to Sefton Park after the ceremony for a few pictures of Warren and Kieran together. Here are a few to look at.. hope you like them.

Carl

The post Civil Partnership at Ullet Road Unitarian Church | Warren and Kieran appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.

Before we met Clare and Ste again for their pre-wedding meeting, Clare got in touch to let us know she was pregnant and would be showing ‘significantly’ on her wedding day. We were really pleased for them, and of course delighted with the photo opportunities this would offer us

On the big day we had a great time, with both Clare and Ste being very relaxed and taking the day in their stride. We got some great photos at St Mary’s and then shot upto Lancashire Manor for the daytime festivities. Lancashire Manor is a great venue which combines both a more modern look at one side the the venue, with a more traditional look in the Hall itself, so we were of course spoiled for choice.

We managed to get a great group photo and I have to say it was the most daring photo I have taken to date – I’m no stranger to hanging out of windows but on this day I took it to another level and was literally hanging on by a thread!

We stayed up until first dance where Ste stole the show with some.. ‘interesting’ moves indeed.

Hope you like them..

Carl

The post Wedding at Lancashire Manor Hotel | Clare and Ste appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.

So way back in April we had a call out of the blue. Rachel’s friends friend’s parents (!!) were renewing their vows at a venue we know very well: The Thistle Hotel in Haydock. Their photographer had cancelled at the last minute and they needed someone to cover. As we weren’t busy on the date we said we could help out. Little did we know what the event would have in store for us..

As a side note, any wedding professional will tell you that the golden rule of weddings is to plan everything out and be prepared to roll with any changes as and when they happen. Be prepared. It turns out that the event we’d been asked to cover was not, in fact, a renewal of vows and was in fact a surprise wedding. In two days time. Alarm bells started ringing for us, we had little time to prepare and no information to go on. Unfortunately for us, the wedding was also a top secret event: no one but the couple and us knew what was happening. It was so secret in fact that we weren’t able to talk over the phone about it (because the couple had company) and they had no available time to meet up with us to discuss the details. It was, after all, only two days until their wedding!

So it’s fair to say we were a little out of our comfort zone on the day. Not helped by the fact that I had worked with the bride in my previous job and knew some of the guests in attendance. Fortunately we managed to grab a few moment with both the bride and the groom and they basically quickly instructed us that they just wanted very natural photos (our speciality – phew!) and as many reaction shots as possible.

The main event itself went down with a blast, peoples reactions were priceless. We got some great photos of the ‘unveiling’ moment and eventually managed to sneak away with the bride and groom after the service to get some informal snaps of the two of them together.

We might have been under pressure on the day but it was certainly very rewarding when we presented Mark and Jane with their photos who were delighted with them.. and of course it was our pleasure to be a part of the day. Hope you like the photos..

Carl

The post A Surprise Wedding at The Thistle Hotel in Haydock | Mark and Jane appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.

Some of you will have noticed the teasers we’ve been posting on Facebook and here on the blog, and its much much relief that we can finally lift the lid on the new items! There’s a full explanation over on our new Product Page so I won’t rehash it all here but I thought people may be interested to read some of our thinking behind the new line.

So for a little background.. we went off to Focus On Imaging, the photographic trade show, back in early March and specifically went with the intention of finding some new products we could start selling. This was basically because we’d had so many requests from customers and our old ‘CD and print’ package only covered so many bases. There are so many lovely and exciting ways to display your photos now, which not everyone has access to (unless your in the trade) that we thought the time was right to start offering a bit more.

Having said that, the ‘CD and Print’ option still exists within the new line up and hopefully will always remain part of our product line. We still think that you shouldn’t have to pay over the odds for your photos, and we can’t justify (and never have) charging large profit margins on something which requires little extra input from us.

We’ve also introduced a new tier to our packages, with the aim of making great photography more affordable. We don’t think that having professional photos should be something you have to save up lots of money for, it should be something you can buy as many times as you like and spend your extra money on brilliant display solutions for those photos. It’s with this in mind that we now offer our Web Ready Disk Package at the bargain price of just £25.

Finally, we also now offer a ‘Mix n Match’ 3 Shoot Package. You’ll have seen the ‘Bump to Baby’ packages offered by other photographers and this is something similar, without the usual limits. You can mix any three shoots you like together and receive a large discount: the options are endless. You could have a baby portrait session, pet photo session and family portrait.. you could have a puppy training package.. you could have a pet, a child, and a parent. Name your three shoots and we’ll work out the details

Don’t forget to check out our Special Offers page for an exclusive one week only introductory offer on the new products.

So I think that about covers everything.. head over to the Product Page for more information and for some sample photos of our new line!

Hope you like them.

Carl

The post New Products Launched Today! appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.

We arranged our shoot to take place in Sherdley Park, which has a lovely garden area at the top of the park and great, tree lined opened fields for playing around in. The weather was typical for May – sunshine one moment, thunderstorms the next. We decided to brave it and push on with the shoot, and I’m glad we did because the rain held off and we had a great time!

I particularly like the photos of Lottie showing off her cheeky side – she certainly made me laugh! As she wasn’t quite walking on her own yet, I also took the opportunity to get some nice intimate shots of her and her mum Sara together having a little toddle around the park, with her two ducks in tow.

Hope you like the photos!

Carl

The post Baby Photography in Taylor Park | Lottie Returns! appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.

I used mainly window light for this shoot and this shows by some of the nice, large catchlights in Bruno’s eyes which add a little sparkle and bring them out nicely. We also used the windows for some nice intimate portraits of mum, dad and Bruno in a more relaxed, natural way. Who needs a studio eh?

Hope you all like these photos!

The post Baby Photoshoot at home | Bruno appeared first on Wedding Photography St Helens Warrington Wigan.