I met up with them last weekend to talk over the details of the wedding and to cover their engagement shoot, which is a great chance to get couples used to having their picture taken before the big day, whilst giving them some great pictures along the way.  The weather was against us with rain and wind, but we managed to find a few spots around the town to give us some cover.

Really can’t wait for this wedding, it’s going to be amazing.

Anyway, I’m off point. Linda makes beautiful dresses, she’s a lovely person, and will create you something as individual as you and your wedding are. Talk to her, tell her what your dream dress is, and there’s a damn good chance she’ll make it even better than you’d imagined. I’ve been trying to photograph a wedding with her work since September last year when I photographed this image below.  Pretty dresses and beautiful brides make my job easy.

Linda’s been after a fancy new picture of herself for her own website for a while, and after a push from a couple of magazines that want to feature her and her dresses, I tweeted her and said, you grab me some lunch and I’ll shoot your pictures.  After some tasty New York deli sandwiches (that’s attention to detail right there; she’d read my blog on my trip to NYC), cups of tea and lots of talking, we got down to business and had 2 minutes to get the shot before Linda had to go to pick up the kids from school. Here’s the final result:

So if you need a beautifully designed, truly original and bespoke wedding dress that will fit you better than anything you’ll pick up off-the-peg, then give Linda a call.  You won’t regret it.

Last Tuesday we ran our first One-Day Wedding workshop at Woodlands Hotel in Leeds

It was an ace day, filling 8 eager minds with details on how 3B Media approach our wedding photography

Mr Barber kicked the day off with a classroom session on the importance of the pre-wedding shoot

Then Phil & Barnaby split delegates into two groups to show delegates how we shoot 2 pre-wed couples, before letting them take turns shooting.

We wanted to use real couples, rather than models, to show the love and also to show how we make real people feel comfortable in front of our cameras.

This couple Jo & Phil are friends of Clare’s who’d recently married and weren’t happy with their wedding photographers work, so jumped at the chance to dress up again & party with us.

Laura & Jamie were a former couple of Phil’s & were well up for playing dress up again.

We showed our delegates the kind of details we look for.

It was drizzling when we started, so showed them how to handle England’s ever changeable weather

A few compositional ideas

And how to communicate with a couple to get them relaxed

A bit of back light flare technique

We’d been supplied a beautiful bouquet, buttonhole & table flowers by our favourite florist in the business, Fiona of Firenza Floral Design

Here’s our 2nd time delegate Natasha photographing our mock wedding breakfast table setup

After lunch the girls donned their frocks & although we like to shoot naturally and unstaged, our makeup artist did a few staged makeup shots.

Laura, looking beautiful.

It’s little wonder why the girls wanted to dress up again when they had stunning dresses like these!

A detail of Phil’s button hole

I like this moment of Jo on the steps.

A kooky compositional bridal detail from Phil.

We really couldn’t complain about the sunlight…

…or the model behaviour we got out of our couples

Jamie even pimped his outfit a with fun footwear

We really hoped we did Jo & Phil proud with a new set of wedding images

They put in so much to help us get what we needed & were very natural in front of the lenses; despite the fact that there were 5 photographers at a time coming at them!

We showed delegates how we like to shoot solo portraits…

…and a bit about depth of field

Personally I like this one of them looking at another delegate

Another moment

And possibly, in my opinion, the most weddingy snap of the day, on the Woodlands steps.

After reading the 3B Feedback Questionnaire it appeared that all our delegates were super pleased with the day and content. We feel we struck the perfect balance to introduce the class to how we approach wedding photography, and how we get the most out of photographing real, non-model couples. We’re excited to do another workshop early in 2011. In the meantime we’re preparing for our Exposing Flash Workshop on November 9th this year! If you’re interested, download the brochure by clicking here.

So thank you again to our couples, Jo & Phil and Laura & Jamie, Fiona from Firenza for the flowers, our makeup artist & to all our delegates for making the 3B One-Day Wedding Workshop such a great success!

First off, Linton Church.

I see this a lot, although the only thing missing in this picture, is an iPhone with a YouTube demonstration of how to tie a cravat.

Engraved wedding rings

Shoes, flowers and dried rose petal confetti.

This is why you have so many bridesmaids!  A beautiful dress, but with a lot of buttons.

Richard’s Mum’s school choir was on hand to help with the singing during the ceremony.

A perfect demonstration on how to throw confetti.  They chose this picture to have made into one of my thank-you cards to deliver to all the guests.

After the ceremony we had a quick chance to get in some formal family group shots.

And then we headed to Linton green, where the drinks started to flow, whilst I took Lucy & Richard off for a few minutes to get some relaxed portraits.

I don’t think you could paint a nicer scene than this . . .

A drop more plonk for the happy couple.

Arriving at The Devonshire Arms, with the guests arriving in a matching vintage bus.

A quick couple of pictures in the bus and time to chill-out for a few moments before the evening reception.

Lot’s of effort on Lucy’s part went into making the room look this good.

Canapés and drinks served outside whilst being entertained by the jazz guitarist.

Father of the Bride, making final changes to his speech.

After the speeches, we caught the last few minutes of sunlight in the fields behind the Devonshire Arms.

First dance was a pretty smooth affair as they’d actually practised some moves!

A lovely and wonderful day and with so many details to capture it was tough narrowing down the selection for the blog, but hopefully that’s given you a taster of their day.

Kim grew up in Yorkshire and Pete is a Scot, so what better for the flowers than Yorkshire roses and Scottish Thistles?

Pete proposed over a game of scrabble, so we got theses tiles for me to shoot on the day.

Even clip-on bow ties still need a little help.

Pete in full family tartan.

Final touch-ups to make-up.  Gotta love window light.

Kim’s dad, practising their walk down the aisle . . .

. . . and Pete waiting for it to happen.

After a few family group shots and this amazing confetti throwing, I took them off for a quick portrait session . . .

Shoes off, wellies on.  My kind of people.

You’ll find out in a bit . . .

Good, good speeches from everyone.  This is Pete saying the obligatory “On behalf of my wife and I . . . “

Check out Pete hiding in shame.

Yup, that’s what was in the envelopes.  It’s funny how the groom never know where on earth best-men dig up these photos from.

A really enjoyable day, and a really bunch of happy people, which always makes for great photos.

The course is on 14th September 2010 and is just £225  per delegate including lunch and refreshments.  There are a few places left, but get in quick to reserve your place.  Call Lou on 0113 238 1011 or email info@3bmedia.co.uk.  Alternately you can book on the website here http://www.3bmedia.co.uk/index.php/workshops/weddings and you’ll find the full information on the course and a downloadable course brochure.

If you’re eager to get into the world of creative professional wedding photography then get involved in 3B Media’s inspiring workshop.

I was lucky enough to be working alongside fellow 3B Media partner Barnaby Aldrick, who was there on photographic duties for the day, and that makes a huge difference.  If you’re thinking about getting a wedding video commissioned alongside your photographer, then it makes sense that they will be able to work with, and not against each other for the duration of the day.  So if this is something you have in mind for your big day and you like the style of video you see here, who better to reach out to than 3B Media to record and document your entire day?  Get in touch with us at info@3bmedia.co.uk to talk to us about covering your wedding through both photography and film.

PS. Look out for the throwing the bouquet moment . . .

If you’ve already booked your wedding with me either this year or next, don’t worry as all my new products will be available to you, most of them through my online shop.

Introducing . . . Folio Albums

It’s been a tough job finding the right album supplier and with the huge range available to us professional photographers getting to sample them all is even harder.  I’ve been using a Japanese company up until now and although they had excellent products, the search has been on to find a company that produces albums of the finest quality, whilst not charging a small fortune, which in turn keeps them affordable to you.

Folio Albums are a British based company and have been using a select group of photographers including myself in some of the research and development to ensure that their albums come up to scratch.  My sample albums are on their way and I can’t wait . . . All wrapped up in the finest leathers, the fine art pages lay completely flat when opened.  Here are a couple of sneaky pictures from the website, and as soon as mine land on the door step, I’ll be taking some of my own snaps for the blog.

If you’re a current or previous client, and you would like to chat about turning your wedding photography into one of these beautiful books, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

If you were at the wedding and would like to see the full gallery, where you can download pictures and order prints, you can do so at my secure online shop: www.robbooker.co.uk/shop.  You will need a password which you can get from Natasha or myself.

Malmaison is all in the detail (and the good selection of reds)

This decorations on this cake were handmade by Natasha!

Here the girls were getting ready in one suite, whilst I nipped into the master depot suite to snap a few details there.

Unknown to Natasha & Alastair, the staff at Malmaison were busy adding a few special touches to the room including these petals on the bed.

Here’s the bridesmaids flowers . . .

. . . and Natasha’s

Check out the DVDs being used to prop up the mirror, I’m not sure these are wedding night material.

Here the guys are checking out the best-man’s speech

The man himself putting the final details to his suit.

I took them downstairs onto the streets of Leeds to get a few relaxed portraits.

Check out these 3 shots of Alastair waiting for the moment he sees Natasha for the first time that day.

After the ceremony, I took them out for a quick portrait session outside the hotel.

I love group shots when they’re not too staged and you can see these guys like to have fun with each other.

These were shot around the side of the hotel down by the River Aire.

Nibbly bite-sized food is always a winner.

These mini-burgers rule.

After food and a few drinks, we went for another cheeky portrait session in the restaurant and bar.

This is Malmaison’s stairway of mirrors (It took a while to work out how to avoid seeing me in them)

Onto speeches where Al’s dad kicked off precedings …

And then the best man

Really like this informal way they did the speeches with everyone in the round.

The day was perfect and taking a bride and groom through Bristol market straight after the ceremony on a busy Saturday was a great experience.  Check out a few of my favourite pictures from the day here and feel free to leave a comment at the end if you like what you see.

Friends and family can see the full gallery at www.robbooker.co.uk/shop.  Please ask Jo and Theo for the password or get in touch with me.

This is the lovely Fiona from Beehive Brides Make-up, in the middle of finishing Jo’s curlers.  I love it when brides embrace the morning preparation shots and are happy to have it all recorded.

I arrived at The Royal Marriott where Theo and his family where all getting ready.  This is Solomon, Theo’s son beating his Dad off the mark.

I think he has a few more years before perfecting his tie-knotting skills.

Gotta love shirts with details like this, subtle and cool.  Plus check out Solomon’s socks below which were purchased to match.

Here’s Sol again waiting in the hotel foyer, holding tightly a box containing the wedding rings.

Nice relaxed portraits of the boys are what we all like before the ceremony.

I think Solomon was eager to get to the ceremony (or relinquish responsibility of the rings!).  Here I was running in front of him firing off loads of shots.  A bit blind, but caught this one where all the gents are looking good and Theo’s looking at his son.  Winner.

I then headed back to Jo, to catch the last minute Bridal preps and a few of her family.

This is the amazing Camilla who had flown all the way from Italy to be here for the wedding.  She spent ages checking herself in the mirror before finally giving up with this “I think it’ll do” shrug.

“Cheese” cake!

Winter sun is in pretty short supply, and just after Jo & Theo had welcomed all their guest to The Rummer Hotel, where the reception was, I grabbed them for the last few minutes of daylight.

I hadn’t realised the huge group of people that had been waiting for us to finish our mini photoshoot, and Jo was smiling at all the attention.

The reception began with the ladies doing some wine tasting, whilst the gents got taken down to the cellar to do some whiskey tasting.

This is one of my favourites from the evening of Theo chatting to the hotel manager.  It reminds me of The Ratpack.

All the guests got given a bottle of olive oil from Theo’s family distillery in Tuscany.  I got handed one and have to say it’s tastier than anything you get from a supermarket in this country.