Monday 27 January 2014

Margaret & Nick's winter wedding at East Lodge Hotel, Rowsley, Derbyshire

So I'm always saying that photography is all about light, but what happens when there isn't any?!?

Nick & Mags were married in a cosy ceremony over at the lovely East Lodge Hotel at the end of November at 4.30pm. So in the dark then. Not exactly great for me :)

First up, we absolutely couldn't miss out on the amazing scenery up at the hotel, so, as they were there for the weekend, we arrange a mini portrait photo session the afternoon before the wedding, for something a little bit casual.


On the big day itself we were around to see everybody getting ready, and to capture some lovely details.




After seeing the guys getting ready, I went upstairs to find the girls running riot. OK, not quite, but it was lively!




As usual, Tineke did a superb job with the wedding flowers...





As arranged in advance, I was mostly on 'observe and capture' duties to keep things relaxed, but I did pop up every now and again to arrange a few formal shots here and there.



By the time of the ceremony things were getting very dusky and cosy, so we had to have a good plan in place for photographs afterwards.






After a few family photographs with our flash and floodlights, it was time for the bit I was looking forward to the most - hook a duck in the garden lake!


Due to the loveliness of the hotel, this was quickly renamed 'scoop a swan' :) but the idea was generally the same -  each duck, er, swan, had a name underneath, once you hooked, er, scooped one up, you had to find the person who 'owned' the duck and vice versa. The upshot is, everybody says hello, mingles and chats! Great!




Everybody was soon back inside to get warm.


Check out this amazing cheese cake creation!



We finished the evening with a few shots around the gardens in some challenging conditions for photography. The stats for the shot below if you're interested include: 1/4 second exposure, on a very cold metal tripod, with a floodlight to the left. Oh yes, and -1c. I think this one was shot while I could just still feel my fingers :)


Congratulations Nick & Mags!