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Bride's veil blows in wind at Hanbury Manor wedding Hertfordshire

Hanbury Manor Wedding Photographers

By Barnet Wedding Photographers, London venues and events, Wedding Venues2 Comments

It is always a pleasure as a Hanbury Manor wedding photographer to return to one of Hertfordshire’s best wedding venues.

Wedding couple in big deckchair at Hanbury Manor

It’s a large well maintained and pretty venue, with great grounds and excellent staff to match.

Wedding couple laugh in gardens of Hanbury Manor

When Yui and Mark booked us last year I was excited to hear of their plans and wise choice of venue.

Bride getting makeup for Hanbury Manor wedding day

Before the big day itself we had a great chance to get to know each other a little better with a lovely engagement shoot on central London’s Southbank, and then on to the Tower Bridge and Butlers Wharf areas.

Groom gets ready in mirror for Hanbury Manor wedding

The wedding day itself started with us capturing Yui and her bridesmaids preparations, and also friends and staff as they set up the ceremony and receptions rooms too. Mark and his best man arrived shortly after to check everything was going to plan and of course to meet and greet friends and family.

Wedding ceremony at Hanbury Manor wide shot

I particularly appreciated the fantastic floral arrangements of blossom trees used for both the ceremony and wedding breakfast, and the lanterns and origami birds on the place settings.

Wedding recessional at Hanbury Manor photo

One of the wonderful benefits of a wedding day at Hanbury Manor is the chance to use their magnificent Poles Hall as a venue for the wedding ceremony. This former chapel is very grand and even has it’s own minstrels gallery! It looked truly beautiful decked out in the bride and groom’s choice of blossoms. The manor itself is a grade II listed building which is mainly Victorian, but the history of dwellings on the site starts all the way back in the sixteeneth century.

Confetti throw at Hanbury Manor wedding day

After a lovely ceremony and then confetti throw in the courtyard of Hanbury we did some family photos and the usual reportage of the drinks reception, before zooming off on a golf buggy to create some couple shots around the grounds of the manor, which is also has a very popular golf course.

Bride and groom in daffodils at Hanbury Manor Wedding

We were back in good time for the couple’s grand entrance for their wedding breakfast in the Thundridge Suite. After speeches and cutting of the cake it was time for Yui and Mark’s first dance, and as a photographer I always appreciate a good confetti cannon explosion right in the middle of one!

Wedding couple walking in Hanbury Manor walled garden

I stayed to capture some good old boogeying on down, as well as the tossing of the bouquet and Yui’s wedding garter.

Hole in the wall wedding at Hanbury Manor

All in all a fantastic day for these two lovebirds and their Hanbury Manor wedding photographers.

Confetti cannon explodes during Hambury Manor wedding first dance

By David Green

Poles Hall Hanbury Manor ready for wedding ceremony photo

Here’s a peek at the couples pre wedding shoot: London Engagement shoot at Southbank and Tower Bridge again

Here’s a little September 2018 update, we’ve just received this fantastic and detailed review from Yui and Mark on google Plus with a blog post about it here:

Another 5 star review for David and Joanna – thank you!!!

And here is the screen grab and text:

September google review for Big Day Weddings photographers

From Google Reviews:

“Big Day Weddings was hands down one of the best choices we made when it came to suppliers for our wedding. We’d done a lot of research and searched high and low – both online and offline – for photographers whose work we liked and that we knew we would feel comfortable working with. It was quite by accident that we discovered David and Joanna, and oh boy did they fit the bill! We actually came across them via a highly complimentary online review from a couple whose wedding they’d shot, and who had also used the videographers that we ended up using. We decided to contact Big Day Weddings as we thought it would be a nice idea to have a team of photographers and videographers who’d worked together before. They’d also gotten great feedback from previous clients, their prices were reasonable and they offered a range of affordable packages that fit what we were looking for. Our decision was cemented the moment we got on the phone and spoke to David. He’s genuinely friendly and approachable and put us at ease immediately. He listened to our preferences, offered suggestions, and, as the big day approached, was happy to run through the programme to make sure everything would go smoothly. On our wedding day, both David and Joanna were absolutely wonderful, dealing with our guests, the venue staff, bridal party nerves, and everything in between, like complete pros. As for the wedding photos, they turned out BRILLIANTLY, and turnaround time was pretty quick. We were so impressed with the many beautiful images of us, our families, the guests, the venue, and all the key moments. In addition, David and Joanna had managed to capture many other little things that made up the day such as decor features, wedding memorabilia, and other details that so many people miss. As photographers, they are are highly skilled, talented, and experienced, but what sets them apart has to be their personalities and people skills….they are so amiable, funny, and fantastic to work with! Nervous in front of the camera, or not sure what to do? Have a difficult guest or two who hates having their picture taken? Then you NEED someone like David to shoot your wedding! He really knows what to say and do at the right moment, and how to bring out the best in people so that you will get the best shots possible. The shots they captured will serve as wonderful reminders of one of the best days of our lives. Big Day Weddings is the BEST: David and Joanna are absolute gems….a fab team, and truly one of a kind. Really chuffed to have worked with them….they have our highest recommendation!”

Chinese engagement shoot in London by boat

Chinese Engagement shoot in Central London, Tower Bridge and Southbank

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Over the past few years years we have photographed a tremendous amount of weddings and engagement shoots in central London and beyond. One of our most frequent enquiries is from couples whose actual home is China but would like a particularly London flavour to their engagement memories. Hong Kong or mainland China may be the ultimate destination for their wedding day, but they are very happy to fly over to the capital for a few days to meet us and have their shoot. Right now it is so popular in certain inner London destinations that it’s not unusual for us to encounter three or four similar shoots going on at the same time and that is just on a week day!

London wedding carousel image

Now sometimes the Chinese couples that we work with are also getting married here in London, as was the case with this recent shoot:  Engagement Shoot at London’s Alexandra Palace in Muswell Hill and it may be that they are also living and working in the capital, either way I’ve managed to learn a few Chinese words and phrases along the way.

London engagement shoot with Chinese wedding couple

 

It’s not strictly necessary though because although Mandarin and Cantonese are notoriously difficult languages to learn and master, the lovely Chinese engagement couples that we deal with have generally fantastic English language skills. Better than some of the natives!

London Eye Wedding Photographers image

Where do we go? Well it’s often the busiest but most iconic tourist spots like Tower Bridge, the Southbank, Westminster, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and so on. Here’s a good example of the kind of shoot we would do by the Thames: London Southbank Engagement Shoot You need to be experienced both with crowd management in these situations, and skilful with camera and lighting technique. The last thing any self respecting engagement couple want is a bunch of images that look like snap shots, probably like the majority of other folk with their cameras and phones out on the day. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with snap shots, but there is if you have paid a professional to create your images.

Wedding laughter on London Tower Bridge image

There is a very popular misconception often from photographers outside of London, or those with less experience, that having famous and iconic backdrops behind a couple does all the work for you. Let us say with hand on heart that this is very far from the reality of the situation. You have to work hard with technique, pose and storytelling to create something that is truly memorable and meaningful. This perfectly sums up in our opinion any great wedding photography. As I like to quote and paraphrase England’s most famous photographer David Bailey: “Most people take photos. I make photos.”

Wedding couple by Big Ben London photo

Tower Bridge Wedding front page

The Chinese engagement photos here are from a large range that we did with Natalie and Max from Hong Kong. As Natalie was a flight attendant for Cathay Pacific we don’t think she had a problem scheduling her flights to fit in with the couple’s engagement shoot plans! Needless to say we had a great time, and that as always is reflected in the final images. It doesn’t matter how skilled your London wedding photographer is, they must have great people skills too.

Engagement shoot at London's Butlers Wharf image

Chinese engagement shoot at London by southbank

Take a look at the range of serious and fun shots we have across our three galleries here: Wedding Galleries

wedding couple under finger London southbank

Wedding couple pose at St Katherines Dock

Locations for the shoot included Tower Bridge and Butlers Wharf, Southbank and Big Ben.

As there is a carousel image included here in the post you can see more about this and the history of these fairground attractions here: London Wedding Carousels, we love them!

By David Green

wedding couple with London love sign photo

Rock My Wedding rates Big Day Weddings as “fabulous” and “striking” and “contemporary natural and fashion inspired”

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesNo Comments

Read all about it, read all about it! The famous cry of the newspaper seller of old has been replace by a well placed tweet, a facebook update and a blog post on a website. It’s an ever changing world and that’s no bad thing. In our ten years of London and destination wedding photography we’ve seen a massive change in the industry, and that’s been in a very positive direction in our opinion. Everyone has had to raise their game continuously or be left behind. Not just in camera and lighting craft, but also the way you promote your wedding business. It used to be you paid your money and put an advert in Yellow Pages, and worked on word of mouth and perhaps networked a little or a lot. Then it became essential you got yourself a website, bowed down to King Google, learned social media, tweeted, blogged, updated everything and the like while still finding time to photograph your weddings and meet new couples! But you know what? That new knowledge, change and fresh horizons has been really exciting and part of the joy of being well known London wedding photographers. Plus we got to indulge in our love of people as well as capturing incredible days in couple’s and their friends and families lives.

Rock my wedding Big Day weddings reviewAs part of this change in the industry was the rise of the dedicated wedding blog, not run by photographers, but by people with an interest in all things wedding, and/or entrepreneurs who realised this was a commercially viable area to blog and advertise services in. Now in the UK the most powerful and popular of these seems to be at the time of writing, Rock My Wedding or RMW as it is sometimes referred to, and rightly so. It has high standards, is innovative, and always on the cutting edge of current and high quality wedding photographers and all other related suppliers in the industry.

We were therefore delighted to be reviewed by them (we’ve put a screen grab of their article above) and to receive their seal of approval. The link to the article is here if  you fancy reading it in situ: RMW rates Big Day Weddings

To quote the first line: “The fabulous images captured by Big Day Weddings just exude the love and laughter of a wedding day in a contemporary natural and fashion inspired style.”

The included images in the article are from these related weddings and posts: Smithfield Wedding Photographer

London Southbank Engagement Shoot

Islington Town Hall Wedding

Ultimate London engagement shoot graphic

Clerkenwell wedding dress in the wind

Smithfield wedding photographers

London Eye Wedding Photographers image

 

By David Green

London wedding carousel image

London Wedding Carousels, we love them!

By London Wedding Photographer, Wedding VenuesOne Comment

Apart from travelling fairs there are only a handful of London wedding carousels in the capital. What does that mean? Well it means merry-go-round’s that are near enough to a wedding venue that they could be incorporated into London wedding photos. Does anyone care? Yes me, David! Originally I grew up in a seaside town with a fair at the end of the pier, the sights smell and sound of it became a large part of my childhood. All those gloss covered horses and carriages moving round and round and up and down at speed fascinated me. It was like a dizzy little world I could be a part of for a while. There was a time in England when these brightly coloured and loud distractions were a common sight, not just in seaside resorts but villages and cities too. These days you would be hard pressed to find one anywhere but a travelling fair.

London_Zoo_carousel

Joanna and I as London wedding photographers have been fortunate enough to photograph couples on their wedding day on these fantastic fairground attractions. There are two main carousels that we are aware of in the capital. Perhaps the most well known certainly with tourists is the one on the Southbank near the London Eye. Recently we photographed couple Natalie and Max there having a great time riding on it, after starting with them at Tower Bridge. As you can see from a couple of their wedding images they certainly weren’t shy! Generally speaking when staff on rides such as these see it is two people in love, on one of the biggest day of their lives, they are pretty welcoming and flexible with allowing you to photograph. Well that is as long as your photographers are as charming and persuasive as apparently we are!

Photos London Zoo weddings

The other much ridden merry-go-round is the one at London Zoo. As veterans of London Zoo wedding ceremonies and receptions, it is definitely on the photographic “to do” list that the newly weds have a ride on the Zoo’s Carousel, as part of their time in one of the capital’s most famous and iconic destination venues. As long as you don’t get motion sickness everything should be ok! We’ve included a photo too of the mini carousel in the small children’s play area, because we found it quite funny when adults ride it looking like giants. As it’s an easily moveable one though so it doesn’t strictly qualify as a London wedding carousel.

Merry-go-round_photo_at_London_Southbank

You have to look hard these days to find permanent carousels (if you didn’t know originating from the French word: carrousel). On our travels in France though, photographing destination weddings,  we often encounter them in towns and villages where they are still big tradition for children and adults alike. In a rapidly changing world its nice to see a little bit of tradition that lasts, and even better when we get to photograph that tradition in action.

To read about the history of carousels you can visit wikipedia for an article here: Wikipedia Carousel  

There’s one of our related posts about all things wedding wise at London Zoo and it’s carousel here: London Zoo Wedding Photographers

By David Green