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The Grand Hotel Tynemouth Wedding Photographer

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Katie and Simon had their bloody awesome wedding at The Grand Hotel in Tynemouth and it was a blast. Feast your cheeky little eye balls on their sneak peeks here!

Inglewood Manor Wedding Photographer

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I first met Becky and Chris via a Skype call after shooting a family members wedding, Becky and Chris saw the photos and got in touch. The first thing that struck me about them both was how much they didn’t take things too seriously and were up for a good laugh. I knew I was on for a good one and I was.

Here’s Becky and Chris’s Story in their own words:

We met at main stage Avicii, Creamfields 2013 what a place to meet your husband! Chris took me to Jamie’s Italian in Liverpool where I chose spaghetti bolognese as a first date meal and tripped up the stairs! I had a code text with my mum incase he wasn’t nice as I couldn’t remember much from that night so my mum was on hand waiting for a text saying ‘the pasta is nice’ We had a ball and many more funny date stories in between. Chris proposed in panoramic 34 during afternoon tea but I wasn’t looking so the first I heard was “Come on is it a yeah or no Beck people are looking now”

Becky on Chris - “He makes me laugh all the time and behaves like a grumpy old man at the age of 34 .”


Chris about Becky - “I love how we laugh at everything and life is just one big joke when we’re together no need to take it too seriously.”

Inglewood Manor

Becky and Chris chose Inglewood Manor as they loved the country estate feel, gorgeous gardens and incredible rooms where guests could stay. Being able to have their ceremony outside in November (although you wouldn’t have thought it the weather was glorious) was a major plus and really made the day all the more special too them as they love going on adventures together and being outside.

Inglewood manor is a beautiful Edwardian Manor house in the heart of Cheshire countryside. A grade two listed building, it had many original Edwardian features and loads of character, rich mahogany wooden panelled rooms, and beautiful gardens bursting with different species of flowers, trees and wild life surrounding the house. The result of this being tons of beautiful back drops for photographs both inside and outside.

The house was built in 1909, but is actually dated as dated 1915. The house was built for F. H. Fox, a Liverpudlian millionaire (Whoop! Go on son! I love it when people from Liverpool are millionaires!) who made his fortune in marine insurance. Fishy. The outside of the house is made of stone and wooden panelling and has a Tudor look to it.

 Getting Ready

Becky got ready with her mum and bridesmaids at Inglewood Manor while the Chris and his groomsmen mucked about down stairs, eagerly waiting for the chairs to arrive. Upstairs with the bridesmaids it was business as usual, Becky being her usual hilarious animated self. It was lovely to see Becky being so exctied to finally marry her Chris.

Becky wore an Essence of Australia dress from Bridal Haven in Tarporley (shop now closed, but the staff there were amazing!) and Valentino shoes, and looked bloody awesome. I’m sure you’ll will agree. The shoes didn’t last very long as they were ditched shortly after the ceremony when we had to go on adventures for portraits.

An Outdoor Ceremony at Inglewood Manor

Becky and Chris chose to have an outdoor ceremony at Inglewood Manor. On a gloriously sunny day in November, it can happen! They put some blankets out for guests that they thought might get a bit chilly and thoughtfully labelled the reserved seats at the front with little tags with peoples names on so that people knew where to sit (and which blanket was for them!)

Under current British Law when getting married outdoors at Inglewood Manor you do need to be facing towards the house so that the registrar can marry you from the shelter of the structure of Inglewood Manor.

Becky was walked down the aisle by her Dad looking so excited that she might burst and was greeted by an equally emotional Chris, there was a ceremony brimming with tears and laughter in equal measure and these two lovelies just looking totally besotted with each other through out. After the ceremony Becky and Chris pegged it back down the aisle grinning from ear to ear to be promptly greeted by Inglewood Manor staff who were waiting with Champagne ready for the celebrations to begin.

Flowers

Becky’s flowers were by Lisa G from Flowers of Distinction in Huyton (Lisa G was fabulous and showed Becky and Chris what the flowers would look like and had the best ideas as Becky and Chris didn’t want the bridal bouquet to be plain.)

Couples Portraits

After a cheeky swig out of Chris’s hip flask we took a quick little walk over the the tree lined path at the back of the house to get a few outdoor portraits and Becky and Chris together in the beautiful Autumnal light before heading back to the Bridal Suite at Inglewood Manor, where Becky and Chris had an idea to have a few photos of them just chilling out and having a drink together. So we did just that!

Wedding Breakfast and Speeches at Inglewood Manor

By the time we’d finished the photos, the party was in full swing, with Becky’s family and friends having a right old laugh before being ushered into the dining room at Inglewood Manor for a delicious 3 course meal followed by some hilarious and heartfelt speeches.

Becky and Chris were surprised at their table with a photograph of their beloved dog dressed in a full suit with a bow tie and a top hat, sneakily curated by Becky’s Dad (apparently it was a total nightmare to get on!)

The Wedding Cake

Their beloved pooch Barney also made an appearance on the top of the wedding cake. Becky and Chris were particularly impressed with the level of detail in shading of the fur of their beloved pooch. The talented team at The Devonshire Bakery in Frodsham took Becky and Chris’s photos and ideas and turned them into this fabulous creation!

All of Becky and Chris’s wedding stationary was made by The Complete Invitation Company.

The Party!

After the speeches were done and the cake was cut Becky and Chris and their friends and family went roaring straight into the party! Becky and Chris had a DJ and Saxophone player working the floor together to keep it jam packed and everyone with their dancing shoes on.

Henry Aspden played the saxophone all evening and the dj played Becky and Chris’s favourite songs, they found them on Jonny Ross music who also have open days so you can hear them play.

Advice From Becky and Chris for Future Couples on their Wedding Day

“Don’t take it all too seriously, ensure you laugh all day and spend the day doing everything you want to do.”

A Shout Out to Becky and Chris’s Awesome Wedding Suppliers!

The Dress was an Essence of Australia dress from Bridal Haven.

Wedding Stationary by The Complete Invitation Company

Flowers by Lisa G from Flowers of Distinction

Cake The Devonshire Bakery in Frodsham

Acoustic Guitar by Ste Hadley

Saxophone by Henry Aspden

DJ found on http://www.jonnyrossmusic.com/

Make up was done by Nicola Fraser

Albert Hall Manchester Wedding

When I first met Fran and Ben in a chic little bar in Manchester’s Northern Quarter I knew I was on for a good wedding, not only had they chosen one of my favourite (and one of the coolest) venues in Manchester to host their wedding, but Fran is also an event planner so I knew everything was going to be spot on, from having their own unforgettable hash tag in lights #TEAMCRUSE to having water and hang over packs ready for guests on the way out Fran had thought of everything in advance meaning Ben and Fran and all of their friends and family could just relax into the day, knowing that everything was sorted and it was spectacular perfect.

Thanks to my awesome second shooter Marni V Photography for being a general legend through the day and every day.

The Albert Hall

 The Albert Hall was an old Methodist central hall built in 1908 and is now used mainly as a music venue and a pretty epic one at that. A grade 2 listed building with a lot of the buildings old period features, including beautiful old tiled walls, a horse shoe gallery, magnificent 19th Century Organ towering over the room in centre stage, it really is something to behold. The huge beautiful stained glass windows either side of the building let in oddles of natural light during the day time and then when the sun goes down and the party gets started you have The Albert Hall’s professional concert lighting to give your party that extra edge.

Getting Ready

Fran and Ben both got ready with their bridesmaids, groomsmen family and friends at the Principal Hotel in Manchester. I love this hotel, the huge sash windows make way for loads of natural light and the rooms are nice and HUGE meaning there’s loads of space for you and your mates to have a nice chilled wedding morning together. The Principal hotel isn’t really very far from the Albert Hall so the boys walked while the girls jumped in a traditional Manchester black cab.

The Ceremony

Fran and her bridal party made their way across the main hall floor while their friends and family looked on from the stalls and cheered, before making it up onto the stage to get married! The Albert Hall lighting techs even added a little bit of smoke, to give the huge room the hazy atmospheric effect you can see in the photos.

  Albert Schloss

One great little perk they have at the Albert Hall Manchester is Albert Schloss, the huge, beautiful bar and restaurant down stairs, calling itself Manchester’s first bohemian bier it does have a strangely warm and cosy vibe for somewhere so huge! While the staff at the Albert Hall got stuck into getting the room ready for dinner and speeches, Fran and Ben’s Wedding guests were able to go and grab a drink at their own reserved part on the bar

This little break in the day gave us the perfect opportunity to grab some friends and family portraits and a few quick couple shots before dinner.

Speeches

Once the room was turned around we were all ushered back up into the Albert Hall for speeches and some epic scran. Fran and Ben took a few moments to watch their guests enter from the stalls, seeing them finding their wedding favours on their tables. It was Fran’s idea to let everyone have a chance to be the Bride and Groom, a veil for the girls and a cheeky glasses and nose mask for the boys. Poor Ben! Lol.

The Party

After the speeches we took another little breather from the hustle and bustle of the wedding outside to grab a few more portraits in the street outside The Albert Hall Manchester, before re-entering to have the party start with the awesome The Herringbone Cocktail Club had people up and dancing straight away and right up until Fran and Ben’s last dance at midnight, sealed off with golden confetti canons and Fran and Ben making it up onto the stage for and end of night bow. An absolute belter of a wedding!

Suppliers

A shout out to Fran and Ben’s Awesome hand picked wedding suppliers who did an awesome job!

Venue - https://www.alberthallmanchester.com/

Hotel - https://www.phcompany.com/principal/manchester-hotel/

Dress - Knutsford Wedding Gallery 

Shoes - Office

Bridesmaids - Needle and Thread 

Band - The Herringbone Cocktail Club 

Love letters - The Word is Love 

Florist - Frog

Suits - Ted Baker

If you were a supplier that worked at this wedding and your name is not listed here, please get in touch, I’ll be more than happy to link to your site!

Like what you see? Getting married? Need a photographer? Get in touch!

Goldstone Hall in Market Drayton

Up on the blog today we’ve got Lucy and Nick’s gorgeous autumnal wedding at Goldstone Hall, Market Drayton where they had a intimate outdoor ceremony (despite a tiny bit of rain) amongst their closest family and friends and surrounded by the most beautiful wild flowers both inside Goldstone Hall and out! I’ll let Lucy and Nick take it from here. If you’d like to see the full day from start to finish click on the link below to watch Lucy and Nick’s nifty little Wedding Photo Trailer!

Lucy and nick’s Story

 A mutual friend (James - Lucy's friend from uni and Nick's friend from school) invited us both to an outdoor film screening in Summer 2013. It wasn't intended to be a set up but we hit if off! As we met at a film screening we (unimaginatively!) arranged to go to the cinema for our first date. We saw Only God Forgives not quite realising it was full of gory violence, definitely not a first date film but at least it gave us something to talk about!

 We got engaged in our flat in London, the first place we've ever lived together! It was super low key but perfect for us, Luce was wearing her pyjamas while I got down on one knee! She immediately burst into tears (and then said yes thankfully!)

Goldstone hall wedding venue

 We got married at Goldstone Hall, Market Drayton, one of the most beautiful venues we've ever seen. Lucy wanted to get married in an old house and have the reception at the same venue, Nick wanted a marquee reception and so Goldstone was ideal! We visited on a rainy autumn day and even then the gardens and house looked so beautiful that we knew it was right for us! Goldstone couldn't have been better throughout our build up, they even managed to somehow give our guests a choice of food on the day!

FLOWERS

The biggest superstar supplier of the day was our florist, Nicola (Brown Sugar Blooms). We wanted relaxed, colourful flowers that didn't look too neat or tidy and she absolutely blew us away! She turned something that was just inside our heads into the most perfect arrangement and made for a stunning marquee! And Lucy adored her bouquet!

 Wedding SUIT

Nick's suit supplier, Beggars Run, were also awesome, making the whole process super easy, enjoyable and producing a great looking suit!

The Dress

Lucy’s beautiful wedding dress was by Maggie Sottero Designs

Wedding cake

 Nick's Mum made our cake and decorated it with flowers to match Brown Sugar Blooms, it looked and tasted amazing! She then went one step beyond and made all our bunting too!

Photographer

 Of course Katie Dervin - who did the best job! Getting our photos through after the wedding was like reliving the whole day again!

The BAND

 Our band were The Vivas and they were brilliant! They played an amazing set that got everyone dancing, so much in fact that the speakers began to shake as everyone jumped up and down! They really made the evening a great party!

Advice for future couples on their wedding day

 The day will go really quick, so make sure to try and stay in the moment and don't worry too much about what's coming next, it'll all work out just fine! And make sure you make time for each other, it's easy to get lost in making sure everyone else is having a good time!

OUTDOOR WEDDING GAME IDEAS

Outdoor weddings can be fun, but they are even better with some games to play. Here are some of the top outdoor wedding games to keep your guests occupied. FYI a lot of these games can be played indoors too, maybe not the fire one.

Signs

Having games to play is great, but if people don’t know where they are, if they are in fact part of the wedding or even in some cases what the rules are it can money into the wind. Sometime you need to lead the horse to the water. You know the kind of horses that will be coming to your wedding and the kind of games you will be playing so if a sign or two or a little bit of info about how to play will help, chalk boards are a great re usable way to point people in the right direction.

Hula Hooping!

Hula hoops are like super bloody cheap, like I just googled one and you can get one for £2.50 online (probably cheaper from an actual real life shop) and you can get a glow in the dark one here for £13.99! I might get one of those actually… https://www.glowsticks.co.uk

I’m not here to sell you hula hoops, but what I am saying is watching friends hula hooping is fun, beating your friends at hula hooping is even better, hula hooping is a laugh. You can even do that skippy thing that you used to do at school where you swing it round your leg and hop over it… If you want to. Anyway basically I’m really good at hula hooping and this is why hula hooping is number one, if you want me to put my camera down for a few minutes and beat your friends at a hula hooping competition… IT IS ON.

Limbo

Limbo is loads of fun and you quite literally just need a stick. I very generously donated a bamboo garden stick to my friends wedding this summer to use as a limbo stick and it went down a storm. If you aren’t going to have a special “Limbo Time”

1. Why the hell not?

2. Maybe get something to hold your limbo stick up for people so it doesn’t just look like a stick on the floor and less than 3 people can have a bash.

Cards

A couple of packs of cards knocking around the place can’t hurt, unless people start throwing them at each other. It can help the kids play snap and maybe give other guests that fancy a game a chance to show off their best shuffles. Everyone knows a card game. A pack of cards on each table will not break the bank and give everyone, young, old, introvert, extrovert a chance to have a bit of fun with some people they might not have otherwise spoken to.

Connect 4

It’s a golden oldie, you will no doubt have seen it at a wedding before but it wouldn’t be a proper blog with out good old giant connect 4! Plus you give your photographer a chance to take arty through the hole photos like this, we love that kind of shit.

Bouncy Castle

Who doesn’t like bouncing around like an idiot?! Just make sure you don’t bounce on straight after dinner * puke emoji *

GIANT JENGA

Giant Jenga works a treat at keeping small and larger guests occupied, but if your budget wont stretch to hiring out a giant garden game set, why not just put a few normal sized ones out of tables instead? You can even force your guests to write messages to you both in sharpie pen on the side of the blocks in thats your thing. It might keep them away from the bar for a few minutes.

HOOK A DUCK

This is a fun carnival type game for kids and can also be used to help guests win prizes if you put a number on the bottom of the duck and have a prize for each one, or maybe just write insults or cryptic fortunes, it’s your party! Write whatever you like on the bottom of the ducks.

WATER GUNS

Depending on how brave you are and how hot your wedding your day is, arming your guests with water guns could be a really fun or really fun-stupid idea. Maybe have some towels to hand.

FIRE!!!

Ok, you got me a fire isn’t a game, but they are fun to build and keep going. People like burning stuff. They will keep your guests warm and together when night falls and can be a good old place to crack out a guitar and have a sing song or just sit up into the sweet hours of the night catching up with your mates. They certainly add a bit of extra atmosphere to any outdoor wedding and if one of your guests breaks a chair that you hired from the chair hire company, you can quite easily burn the evidence.

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