December wedding

I LOVE photographing weddings in December. There’s Christmas magic in the air, people are excited, there are twinkling Christmas trees with carefully wrapped presents scattered beneath them, stockings hanging up on fire places, cups of mulled wine and there are fairy lights EVERYWHERE. Note: Wedding photographers bloody love fairy lights! AND people are ready to PARTY!!!

The Victoria Hotel

Chelsey and Darren chose the Victoria Hotel in Oldham as their ceremony venue, the hotel has a beautiful Victorian ceremony room and 92 rooms for guests to stay at the night before and evening of the wedding. Chelsey and her bridesmaids had their hair and make up done and got ready together in Chelsey and Darren’s room while having a good laugh together, sipping champagne and keeping any wedding nerves at bay with some good old fashioned larking about.

Santa on a bauble in a Christmas tree with fairy lights

3 gypsey grass bouquets sit on a wintery windowsill.

Silhouette of bride getting her make up done.

Bride has the finishing touches done to her lipstick on a December morning.

Bride smiling having her make up done on the morning of her wedding day.

Bridesmaids laughing together in hotel room.

Shoes and flowers sit in December window light.

Bride smiles as she is helped into her wedding dress.

Portrait of bride as her bridesmaids do up her wedding dress.

Bride looks at herself in the mirror as the finishing touches are done to her wedding outfit.

Close up of the back of the brides dress.

Close up of the bottom of the brides dress in winter light.

The Ceremony

Chelsey and Darren exchanged their wedding vows in front of their closest family and friends in the beautiful victorian ceremony room at the Victoria hotel, before making there way out to the hotel foyer and bar to enjoy and few drinks together and have a good catch up.

Old lady smiles and poses for a photo with her grandson.

The groom stands at the end of the aisle waiting for his bride.

Bride looks back at her father laughing.

Bride and Groom sign the wedding register laughing.

Bride and Groom face wedding guests as husband and wife.

Father and brother of the bride have a good laugh together.

Wedding guests sit nice and cosy at a winter wedding

The Wedding Bus

When organising a wedding it’s always a good idea to consider transport for guests, even more so in the winter months when the weather is usually much colder. Chelsey and Darren thought about this when organising their day in December, they wanted their guests to be able to relax after the ceremony and have a drink and liked the idea of everyone travelling to the reception venue together so booked a Red London Bus so that everyone could relax and stay together, there’s something quite nice about keeping the wedding guests together in this way and it means that the festive atmosphere of the wedding continues without being interrupted by having to wait for an Uber or getting stuck in traffic, the celebration and conversations continue on the bus and as you can see from the top window the party was already in full swing.

Bride and groom lead guests off the bus.

Bride and groom laugh as they walk to the venue with guests.

Wedding guests laughing and pulling tongues at the camera.

Winter Wedding Portraits

If you are planning a winter wedding one of the things to consider is what time the sun sets on the day you are getting married. Chelsey and Darren got married on the 7th of December and chose to have their ceremony at 1pm meaning that they had plenty of time to get married, have some drinks, jump on a bus, get their group shots, munch some canapes and get some couple shots before the sun set at 3.51pm.

If you are planning a winter wedding and have booked a later ceremony it can sometimes be an idea to have some photographs such as your group photographs and couple shots before the ceremony if you love the natural light light look and your aren’t too superstitious about seeing one and other before hand. Otherwise your photographer should be able to do some shots for you using flash, it’s a good idea to have a chat with your photographer if you are planning a later ceremony to see what photographs will be possible after sun set.

Chelsey and Darren didn’t want to spend ages on photos as they were itching to get inside and join their friends and family for the party so we had a nice relaxed portrait session where they had a little wander and mess about looking magnificent as I’m sure you will agree they both do.

Later on when the sun had gone down we also took a few portraits inside The Old Grammar School as Chelsey and Darren loved the venue and wanted some of the atmosphere of the venue captured in their wedding portraits.

Bride and groom walking together smiling.

Bride and groom look at one another outside The Old Grammar School.

Bride and Groom laughing with trees behind them on a winters day.

Groom kisses bride on the head during outdoor portraits at a December wedding in Manchester.

Bride and groom smiling with wintery sky and bare branches behind them.

Bride and Groom mess around outside The Old Grammar School Middleton on a winters day.

Bride and groom walking away, the bride is wearing a hand painted biker jacket.

Bride and groom laughing in a natural candid moment together.

The Old Grammar School Middleton

Chelsey and Darren were both really excited to have their wedding reception at The Old Grammar School in Middleton as they fell in love with the building when they first went to see it. The Old Grammar School was built in 1412 and is a Grade 2 listed building. The School has tons of character was the perfect setting for a beautiful winter wedding with the tons of fairy lights and large roaring open fire as soon as Chelsey and Darren walked through the door and saw how beautiful the venue looked they were both moved to tears.

Table set with red roses, candles and Christmas baubles.

Red roses and evergreen foliage as a table decoration with fairy lights behind.

Bride cries at how beautiful the room looks.

Table number is glass casing and wrapped in fairy lights.

YOUR MY WIFE NOW! Sign at winter wedding Manchester.

Ping Pong

I love a good game at a wedding. It’s nice to have something to keep your guests busy and although I see a lot of lawn games and fun things to do and Summer and Spring time weddings, Winter Weddings deserve some fun too! I have to admit this was the first time I’ve seen a Ping Pong table at a wedding before and it was a massive hit with the guests, even the ones who couldn’t actually hot anything!

Bride and groom have a cuddle in The Old Grammar School next to some fairy lights.

Indoor portrait of bride and groom at their winter wedding in Manchester as they share a cuddle and a laugh.

Wedding Breakfast and Speeches

While the guests were busy trying to find the lost ping pong ball under some furniture we sneaked off to get some portraits upstairs in The Old Grammar School. Before Chelsey and Darren headed back down stairs to get enjoy their wedding breakfast and speeches. There was a lot of laughter and a few sneaky peeps at the football before one more portrait of Chelsey and Darren in front of the epic amount of fairy lights before I bid them farewell and set off into the wintery night and the party rumbled on.