The Samling Wedding - Adam and Ellie

Adam and Ellie’s Luxury Lake District Wedding at The Samling

I’m not too sure where to start with this wedding. It had everything you might want in a wedding, a luxury Lake District venue with top end food, stunning views over the glorious Lake Windermere, a team of amazing suppliers and dozens of awesome guests.

The Samling has to be one of the best venues I’ve had the pleasure of shooting a wedding at in the North West of England. It is situated perfectly overlooking the stunning Lake Windermere. When decorated with beautiful floristry by the incredible Flower Design this venue simply blossoms. There are so many little areas to discover for portraits and the main dining room is open and bright with views out towards the lake.

Wedding at The Samling

Adam and Ellie are down to earth, lovely humans and their luxury wedding at The Samling was a pleasure to photograph. I arrived in the morning to a common Lake District shower. The rain very politely subsided once the ceremony had begun however, leaving nothing but clear skies and sunshine. The entire wedding day ran super smoothly with the newlyweds and all of their guests enjoying every second. The food was beyond compare and I know it was a very important part of the day for Adam and Ellie. Guests were kept entertained throughout the day with the mystifying Chris Hurst, reading minds and leaving people amazed! My day with the gorgeous Bride and Groom ended with an outdoor first dance, overlooking Lake Windermere as the sun faded beyond the horizon.

Hoghton Tower Wedding - Jordan and Hayley

Jordan and Hayley’s Hoghton Tower Wedding

Jordan and Hayley got married at one of Lancashire’s finest historical wedding venues, Hoghton Tower. These two are a simply lovely couple who knew exactly what they wanted from their wedding. It was a day packed with happy smiling faces and plenty of laughter.

Their Hoghton Tower wedding was a collection of fantastic North West suppliers. It was a pleasure, as always to have the legend Adam Wing filming the day. The extra lovely and equally talented Sonara Parker was on Make-Up duties and the brilliant Stems Floral Design took care of the floristry. Entertaining the guests was the wizard Mark Waddington and the amazing Sold To The Sky wedding band!

This was such a great wedding to be part of and I couldn’t be happier for Jordan and Hayley. They picked such an incredible venue for their wedding day and a crazy-good team to go with it!

Singleton Lodge Wedding - Chris and Shelley

Chris and Shelley’s Wedding at Singleton Lodge

I’m very lucky in the fact that I get to see so many awesome people get married and celebrate with their favourite people in the world. Chris and Shelley’s Singleton Lodge Wedding was an absolute pleasure to capture. It was a day filled with so much laughter and happiness.

Singleton Lodge is one of my favourite local venues, situated only a few miles from my home in Poulton-le-Fylde. It is a beautifully intimate wedding venue set in its own stunning grounds. Chris and Shelley certainly picked a venue to reflect the feel of their wedding day. They were surrounded on the day by such fun, friendly and warm people and I was honoured to be a part of it.

From the morning when Chris and Groomsmen were getting ready to meeting up with Shelley and her Bridesmaids I knew I was in for a good day. The weather started off a little wet but that didn’t dampen the spirit of the day. We were lucky though as the rain soon subsided and made way for the newlyweds to spend some time outdoors, taking in the grounds, with their guests. Drinks flowed and ice cream was consumed as the day turned to night and the party continued.

An overall fantastic wedding at Singleton Lodge with a simply lovely couple. Congrats guys, here’s to your future lives together.

Hull Portrait Shoot - Rob and Steph

Portrait Shoot in Hull

I shot Rob and Steph’s wedding back in 2017 and they contacted me a year later to do a portrait shoot in Hull. Their wedding was in Lancashire but as they are now living over in Hull (Robs neck-of-the-woods) they wanted some photos around the iconic Humber Bridge.

I drove over to meet them at their house and from there we drove to the Humber Bridge. We spent a couple of hours exploring the banks of the Humber River to find some cool spots to make some portraits for them.

Rob and Steph’s Hull portrait shoot was brilliant in so many ways. Not only did we create some awesome photos for them but it was so lovely to see them both again.

Weddings - Best of 2018

Best of 2018 Weddings

So 2018…where did you vanish to so rapidly?! I say it every year, and it is soooo clichéd but time seems to fly faster every single year! If I could buy time I would be a very very poor man…or very rich depending on how you look at it I guess.

Weddings are still such a huge part of my life and my love for documenting them is now so much stronger than it was for my very first one back in 2008! Yes 2018 saw me celebrate 10 years since photographing my very first wedding, and how things have changed. Before that first wedding, back in 2008, I dreaded the thought of weddings becoming the main focus of my business. Fast forward 10 years and I genuinely couldn’t be happier. They have certainly changed a lot in those 10 years but definitely for the better! They have certainly changed me and how I approach my art. Weddings are awesome, they are filled with happy, loved up (and more often than not very drunk) people. What’s not to love?!

This year has seen me visit some of my favourite wedding venues and discover many new ones. I have met some incredibly wonderful people and captured some timeless and precious memories for them. This job (if we can call it that) has a tendency to be very solitary at times however being around such fascinating characters and lovely people week in week out makes those long stints behind our monitors worth the while.

I am lucky enough to have some awesome weddings lined up for this year and I cannot wait for them. The thought of creating many more memories for people excites me. My main aim for this year is to continue to master the art of work-life balance. I love working from home where I can nip downstairs for half an hour, if I choose, to be the crazy idiot of a Dad I really am. My family is everything to me and I honestly can’t wrap my head around just how I’ve lucked out with them!

This is a wedding blog post, featuring some of my fave images from 2018, so I wont touch too much on my other work. I am still (slowly) growing the family side of my business and have a very exciting new venture on the horizon with some brilliantly talented individuals which is due to launch very soon.

2019 all I ask of you is to keep my family healthy and happy and provide me with shit loads more amazing moments to document.

Newborn Family Photography - The Hewitts

Newborn Family Photography in Lancashire

I love creating memories for families. Time flies so ridiculously fast when you have children and life can be that chaotic that you don’t always stop and appreciate everything. Spending an hour capturing families together is so precious and creates moments they will, hopefully, treasure forever.

Jen and Steve invited me round to capture some newborn family photos of the new addition to their lovely family. I was lucky enough to do a shoot with them a few years earlier when Alexis was born. Now she’s the big sister to the adorable little Hallie.

It was so lovely to meet Hallie and capture some photos of her in such an early stage of her life. It was also very cool to see what a lovely little girl Alexis has become and capture some cool memories of her laughing and playing at home.

Family photography doesn’t have to be boring and uncool. I capture these moments for no one other than the family. In my opinion it is so important to take as many family photos as you possibly can as life passes so very quickly and before you know it the little humans have grown into full sized humans.

Big love to this wonderful family and thank you again for inviting me in to your home to create memories for you.

Ribby Hall Village Winter Wedding - Ste and Mel

Ste and Mel’s Winter Wedding at Ribby Hall Village

Ste and Mel were married on a fresh winters day at Ribby Hall Village in Lancashire. Their Military themed wedding was loaded with laughter and and packed with moments to remember.

It was an action packed day at Ribby Hall starting with Ste and his Groomsmen getting themselves looking ready for action. Mel and the girls were thoroughly enjoying the pampering (and shots) and after just a few minutes with them all I knew we were in for a good day!

Dancing, drinking, swords and a reindeer. These are just the tip of the iceberg for this brilliant winter wedding at Ribby Hall Village.

Great catching up with the awesome Darren Robinson Magician on the day, who kept the guests entertained throughout the day.