Harry and Claire's Portmeirion Wedding

Harry and Claire

Harry and Claire are good friends of my Sister in Law, so came to see us about photographing their wedding in Portmeirion.
Portmerion has been one of Mine and Mark's favourite places going back a long time as we used to visit there when we stayed in Abersoch, so we were very excited to be part of their day..

Claire was staying in one of the cottages within the village, and this is the view looking out. Unfortunately it was a rainy day, but it still doesn't dampen down the beauty and surreal vivaciousness of Portmeirion.

 

Claire had a beautiful vintage style lace topped dress, which suited her to perfection. She chose bright vibrant colours for the bridesmaids and Harry's cravat to suit the colour pop of Portmeirion.  It was a relaxed and easy going morning getting ready, even when the hairdresser had to be called back to finish Claire's hair no one was panicking.

I love this shot of the Mother and Father of the Bride, it almost feels a little intrusive, something we have to get over when you are there to capture the intimate moments

A quick snap of the Ushers through the serving hatch in the morning whilst they thought they were hiding from the camera. No one is ever safe!!!

Claire original plan was to walk from the cottage down to Hercules Hall where the wedding ceremony was being held, but due to the rain they got the mini van down part way and then walked part way down with her Bridesmaids and her father. It is really lovely as the village is still open to the public and they all took a lot of delight in watching the wedding party. It is one time in life where people seem to relish in the happiness of a stranger.

Hercules Hall where the ceremony was taking place was a very imposing room, grand and Impressive, It was dark but when the sunlight shone through the Light bathed them in an almost regal glow.

After the ceremony we took Harry and Claire for a Small walk around the Village and there are so many photo opportunities you could have spent all day on the Pictures. I have selected a few of them to post on here, i cant say that these are just my favourites as there are to many of them!

Each direction you look in at Portmeirion there is something amazing in the background, from the sea and mountains, to bright pink pillars and Romanesque buildings. The group pictures take on a new stance as the colours all just work so well together and really brightened up what was a slighlty dull day (due to the weather)

 

It really was a pleasure to be part of the day, not only are Harry and Claire a lovely couple to spend time with but at a place that myself and Mark have always found a lot of Joy in. You can not help but feel good when in Portmeirion. It is as if the bright colours help lift you. I can only see this as a good omen to start your married life here. And if nothing else, what a great place to go back to to celebrate your anniversary's  xxx

I will leave you with the First dance as our final picture of the ever colourful Pormeirion Wedding.

Congratulations Harry and Claire xxx

My Best Friend is getting Married!!

My Best Friend is getting Married!!!

And I could not be happier for her!! Jenny has been a friend of mine since we were about 9 years old and we are photographing her wedding!


Jenny and Julian are getting married in Anglesey at her grandmas local church and then they are having Tee Pees in their friends Field! It is a 3 day event and we are there for the duration.

It is a real family/friends affair with loads of people pitching in to help, either be it ironing table cloths, pitching tents or hanging bunting.

We are taking it in turns to watch Ruffie, photograph the goings on and helping out too! It also happened to be the same weekend as the famous Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate. They just pipped them to the post and got married the day before- that also meant we all got to watch the royal wedding. All the men came in and pretended to laugh at all us girls but i think they secretly wanted to watch it too!!

It is a beautiful spot, and the Tee Pees ( by PapaKata ) just nestle in the landscape. They look fairly small next to the the wind turbines but actually they were huge!!!

As they were not having a venue they had bought in their own caterers who needed their own tent pitching too! They hired in all the ovens and catering facilities which is a whole job in itself! As they were being savvy with their money ( not needlessley wasting it ) they found a lot of things were cheaper to buy then actually hire. Granted they now own enough fairy lights to rival Blackpool!!

On the day of the wedding Jen stayed with her family in some cottages down the road to get ready ( Menai holiday Cottages ) The cottages were lovely, airy and had a hot tub! What better way to spend your last day as a single lady!!


Getting ready for a wedding whilst camping is not my favourite way i have to admit!  Although the showers are great for when camping, i could not quite get rid of the damp camping feeling! nor did i feel that my legs were really properly shaved!!! What can i say i must be more high maintenance that i thought.

One of Jules's many surprise pressies has got her crying!

 

The Church where they got married was Jens Grans family church so it had a lot of sentimentality, and was also the prettiest little church around. We then left the to meet Jules at the Church. I must have looked an absolute delight, as i had the camera bag on, Ruffie in the carrier and a camera! 

The best man and Jules waiting for the gorgeous Jen to arrive!!

Beacause we know the pair of them so well we can capture real emotion in the pictures. They were like giddy school children all day which makes for some very fun pictures like above!
We always try and take the couple off for some pictures after the wedding so we can focus on some really lovely portraits of the bride and groom without guests disturbing us and them. So off we went to the beach by the church for half and hour. We always gind it gives the couples a bit of time to reflect on the fact that they are now married before they get swept up in the rest of the day.

Big into Salsa the pair strike a pose!

The ever romantic Julian needed this moment capturing!

Picking pictures of this wedding for the blog has been a chore in itself as there are so many of them, This is just a smattering of my favourites but it could go on forever.
I often find it quiet hard to photograph a friends wedding as you are torn by wanting to enjoy the day but to keep working and get the best pictures for them, I hope we struck a decent balance for them?! I also hope they had the wedding they dreamed of, i know they put a lot of hard work into it.

The weekend ( long one thanks to William and Kate) was fab, only blighted by my trip to Bangor Hospital for antibiotics due to awful tonsillitis :-(

Julian being the extrovert that he is (only kidding Jules) decided to do a series of surprises for Jenny in the run up to the wedding, some successful some not so much. But Jules being Jules decided to take his own stance on the boudoir photography and that of course had to include us! a few weeks before the wedding Jules comes round with a series of props and eye liner to recreate a homage to a John Paul Gaultier advert for Jenny. Below is a copy of the real add and then our handy work on Jules which involved me using eye liner on Jules's half naked body!! I think we deserved a bloody medal for the work we did!!!

Our Masterpiece!!

 And on that note i am going to end this blog with this wonderful image fresh in your minds! i think we have found ourselves a new market as male boudoir photographers!

Bye for now xxxx