Every year we try to remember to do a round up of our 2023 highlights...our favourite images, moments and places. We will do that this year...but we also thought we would do something a little bit different too.
All of our couples who book a full day of photography with us get a Keepsake box with prints in...and so we thought it might be nice to share a little highlight from 2023 of the memories that our couples have chosen to have printed. It is always interesting to us to see which images people choose for their albums or to have printed because it is sometimes (in fact almost always) not the ones we would have chosen ourselves.
Simply put when we as photographers are looking at images we have taken we look at lots of things...the composition, the lighting, the moment that was happening, the colours, the little details. But as we know from our own wedding photographs - they aren't always YOUR favourites. If they are your images you might be looking at your smiles, the faces of your loved ones, a hilarious memory or something that makes you feel like you are back at your wedding day.
Interestingly there do seem to be a few trends...you lot LOVED to print confetti and group photos as well as your portraits, but interestingly so many of our couples chose to print their cake cut and signing the register photos. Now to be absolutely honest - mostly just from our own personal memories of our wedding - they aren't the shots we would have thought would get printed! But thats why we love seeing these selections...its important to us to know what is important to you lot!
So here we are...just a little selection of our best of wedding photography 2023 as told by our couples! Here are a few of the images that some of our lovely couples from this year chose to have in print to remember forever and a little bit about the day from us! E&L - Woolas Barn, York
This was a gorgeous April wedding and our first visit to Woolas Barn in York which is SUCH a stunning barn wedding venue! The perfect amount of rustic charm and modern elegance. They had their ceremony at their local church before heading to the barn with all of their friends and family to celebrate with a Ceilidh.
Emma's long sleeved, simple but stunning wedding dress was SO perfect for the day and we had the best time dancing away with them. 10/10 recommend a Ceilidh band if you want to get your guests up on the floor!
You can see more from this wedding on our blog here
L&J - Spicer Manor, Yorkshire
After meeting Lauren & Jack for their pre wedding session which ended up being a whirlwing tour of Liverpools most sentimental spots to their relationship (you can check that blog out HERE) we just knew the wedding day would be full of joy. The weather was warm, the ice cream much enjoyed and their smiles were non stop! This was our first visit to Spicer Manor which fast became one of our favourite venues to photograph so we are very happy to have some return trips coming up next year!
Every moment of this day was so carefully thought out and personalised and we should also give a special mention to the fact that L&J gifted us the loveliest personalised coffee thermos cups that we use all of the time because they are just that lovely!
A&T - Manor House, Huddersfield
Our most local wedding of the year! We met Alice & Tom at the pub just across from our houseboat to chat about their wedding before they booked and the venue itself is all but a 10 minute drive away...which honestly we are still so surprised about because it is such a hidden away gem!
We also got to work with Springwood flowers again who had been the florist for Lauren & Jacks day above! The best bit about working close to home is getting to meet the same suppliers and work with such lovely local teams! Everything about Alice & Toms wedding was just SO elegant. Black tie vibes and gorgeous surroundings, and then when the lights went down the dancefloor absolutely went off! What a party!
We will be kicking off the 2024 season at this very venue so we can't wait to be back in February!
Z&S - Manchester Hall
We love a city wedding - and if you are going to go city wedding Manchester Hall is pretty much the perfect place to do it! Zoe's bouquet may have been one of our favourites of the whole year - seriously just look at those colours - so it is no wonder that the florals featured so heavily in their printed gallery!
This incredible couple also printed every single image out from their gallery and hand made their own wedding album. Not only is this frankly a level of dedication we could only aspire to - but a gorgeous reminder of how important it is to print your memories because that album is future proof. We will admit it - the photos they shared with us of it brought a teeny little tear to our eyes. Ok fine actual big tears!
You can see more from their wedding on our blog here
H&C - Garden wedding, Lincoln
You might recognise this one from our home page because it was the wedding which had the most epic sunset we have ever witnessed! The fact that this wedding happened in the brides parents garden still has us scratching our heads because it was so ridiculously stunning that it could have been mistaken for an actual wedding venue - or some sort of beautiful National Park!
Everything about this day was done DIY from the flowers to all of the beautiful decor and the amount of work that must have gone into this day was astonishing. This was also another wedding with a killer dancefloor thanks to the most exciting Ceilidh dance we have ever seen!
It was also the first wedding that we got to stay over in our campervan which was so exciting!
K&H - The Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield
Sometimes an enquiry comes through and we just know we are in for an absolute treat - so when K&H first emailed and told us they had chosen The Hepworth Gallery as their wedding venue our eyes lit up!
We love it when couples do something just a little bit different. The ultra modern art gallery was such a unique backdrop for the ceremony with their florist Daisy Hoban creating sculpural pieces that framed the couple in a way that they became art themselves. Then a short walk away The Mill provided the warmest, cosiest atmosphere for their speeches and reception.
Not to mention this is a couple who know how to party - their dancefloor was off the chain! From their incredible DJ to the confetti canons and Kerry's hot pink converse, their evening do might have been the one this year that you absolutely had to tear us away from!
H&S - Wyresdale Park, Manchester
Wyresdale park is a wedding venue that you just can't help but fall in love with. The on site accomodation, the ceremony barn, the views, the gorgeous golden light!
With their love of the outdoors this was the perfect place for their wedding day. The day was all about relaxed vibes, spending time with friends and family and we even got to take a trip to the boating lake. Watching them float away on the rowing boat was such a special moment and Sam rowed like an absolute champion given the pressure of having an audience and being filmed while doing it!
This was also one of the weddings this year where we had a chance to bust out our 35mm camera and shoot some film...both the black and white images in this selection were shot on good old fashioned black and white film!
K&J - Gretna Green, Scotland
We finally got to go to the spiritual home of weddings - Gretna Green! It sort of feels like a bit of a right of pasage to photograph a wedding here and what a beautiful day it was! The venue is a stunner with the vintage cart as a backdrop and the famous anvil to say the vows in front of, and we loved being able to share in a little bit of wedding history.
Not only did we get to make this wedding into little road trip up to Scotland in our camper van - we also got to hang out with some of our friends from the narrowboat community as that is how we ended up meeting this lovely couple.
The traditional scottish rain tried to put a little dampner on the day, but with such beautiful surroundings and a break in the rain for portraits it all worked out just beauitfully!
C&M - Colehayes Park, Devon
From being up in Scotland to all the way down to Devon - this wedding wins the "how far will we travel to photograph your wedding" award this year! But when we heard that this amazing couple were bringing their friends and family from all across the world to Devon to celebrate with a 3 day fully vegan party...and they invited us to stay at Colehayes with them...well how could we say no?
C&M had a beautiful "first touch" moment that created some core wedding day memories, followed by a ceremony that was a little bit of a last minute switch up - there was so much rain that the outdoor ceremony had to be moved inside. That didn't stop us their smiles though or from us all from making a dash to the lakeside for portraits just as the sun was going down!
A beautiful day that - since we were staying over with them and were invited to party until 2am - resulted in an equally beautiful hangover for us all the next day too!
C&R - Ruthin Castle, Wales
We could happily do this blog forever but maybe 10 weddings is enough to share for now - so we are wrapping things up with another beautiful vegan wedding that we travelled a little further for. It really is amazing how far we will drive with the promise of good grub and a bit of vegan cake!
This time we got to go to an actual real life castle in Wales to see C&R tie the knot at the stunning Ruthin Castle with a Lord of the Rings vibe...look at that sword! Everything about the day was just so dreamy from the setting to Candice's dress and the sparklers.
Fun fact about this couple - they run an incredible rabbit rescue called fluffy butts which is one of the first things they told us about themselves and how we knew they would be amazing to work with. The link is here and you should absolutely check this out and support them if you can!
We will be sharing more of our favourite bits from 2023 in the coming weeks but if you made it this far thank you so much for reading our blog and taking a peek at what we have been up to this year!
Our next blog we will be sharing our favourite moments from our 35mm film scans and talking about why we loved going back to analogue photography this year so keep an eye out for that.
If you don't already - you can keep up with us on instagram HERE - every little follow, like and share makes our hearts so ful!
Emily & Micah
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