In February I strolled down the drive to Eleanor & Stephen’s beautiful sunny February wedding at Thrumpton Hall. Georgina Stokes was helping me out on this one.

Eleanor & Stephen had gone to town on Thrumpton’s literary heritage, and there was a subtle Great Expectations/Miss Haversham vibe (though mercifully this time there was no jilting at the altar). There was, however, perhaps the most richly decorated wedding breakfast room I’ve seen yet. Moss, antlers, owls, candles, ivy, skulls – all courtesy of Eleanor’s trigger happy father, and Michele Gledhill (as far as I’m aware, Michele isn’t as trigger happy..).

You need to have a reasonably clipped guest list to make use of the dining room at Thrumpton for your wedding breakfast, but if you are having a small-ish gathering it it takes some beating in terms of uber-swoon. (I forget the exact numbers, but 50-ish I think..?)

Next, it was the first of many trips to London this year, and not to your typical wedding venue. I love a bit of brutalism; Preston Bus Station / pre-Urban Splash Park Hill… I even spent a recent birthday trip in the concrete gallery at the Barbican, happy as a pig in the proverbial (do one of the Barbican architecture tours and ask nicely if you can see it – it’s hidden precariously around the inner skin of the auditorium and is a concrete revelation..). In short, it was a treat to photograph a wedding at the Royal Festival Hall, part of that gloriously brazen South Bank estate, like a great rude concrete gesture to genteel north London.

Rain was hammering down all morning, and yet, en route to the venue from Charlotte’s sister’s pad (amazingly, just off Bride Street…) the sun came out in full force and shone for the rest of a glorious day. My school friend Viv was at this wedding, which was a small-world boon. Good to catch up and reminisce about jamming in music rooms at school. Ah…Guns n’ Roses…

Jade Alana helped out second shooting on this one, and Michele Gledhill once again did the flowers. I had the pleasure the other weekend of hand delivering Saif & Charlotte their photos down in Brixton. Congratulations guys, see you soon. Check out more of Charlotte & Saif’s wedding here.

Next up, I got to shoot at a venue which was new to me, and that I can’t quite believe I haven’t been to before; Langar Hall. What a place. There’s a picture of David Bowie and regular visitor Paul Smith looking ‘merry’ in the bar. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me. They, and bride & groom Victoria & Richard clearly have taste. It’s got real character like Thrumpton, and is one of those houses that is still first and foremost a family home. An extraordinarily privileged one, but homely nonetheless. As with Lynn & Paula at Thrumpton, nothing was too much trouble for Avishek & his team at Langar. We’re blessed with these little gems really; I’m still waiting for my first wedding at Tim & Teri-Lee’s similarly breathtaking Langley Priory (Langley Priory brides “Hi!” *waving*).

Langar is an extraordinary looking house; it’s got the best render this side of the Channel. On a sunny day (did I mention all my weddings have been blessed with sun this year..?!) you could well be in Tuscany.

I had Joe Stenson with me at Langar, second shooting and generally being an enormous help. Also, this was a hat trick for working with Michele this year; she did the flowers again and did an amazing job as always. You can see more of Victoria & Richard’s wedding here.

My latest wedding was down in London again, and this time another atypical venue; Battersea Arts Centre. The BAC is an incredible venue. The closest I can liken it to is a Budapest ‘ruin bar’. This isn’t an arts centre in the Wellcome Gallery vein – all polished and shiny and floating walls. This is an old town hall that’s been dragged back into use by the local community. It’s got that Remains of the Day vibe, replete with plaster as flaky as Calke Abbey, and all the more interesting for it. It’s dangerous, 1980′s New York to civilised Tokyo.

A photographic dream that is next in the edit queue so for now, you’ll have to make do with this teaser. Jade Alana was second shooting again. Alison & Ian, have a fantastic Indian honeymoon and see you when you return.

This week, i’m at Swancar for the first of a few times this year.

Until the next update, keep proposing and keep booking me…

‘Where’s Me Jumper’ by the Sultans of Ping F.C. The lead singer is now a Lecturer in the History of European Political Thought, which only pleases me more.

I occasionally have these brilliant first dance ideas, though it could be argued I should stick to the photography…

(This is what comes from editing to 6 Music…)

Us & the photo booth had a brilliant #WEWAD at Nottingham Conference Centre yesterday; that show just seems to get better every time. Thanks to Abbi & Lydia & the wider Save the Date lot for putting on a great shindig, it was much fun and busy as ever. They even had craft workshops this year, along with Speakers Corner & the catwalks.

Vintagebooth.me was of course in full operation on the stand, and as usual a neat queue formed at its curtained door. Great to see it so popular now – and the bookings came in too, which is also nice(!)

We were delighted to be in the ‘Vintage Corner’, sandwiched between the stunningly talented and ever lovely Karen from Darby & Joan and Lisa from Paperknots. You should definitely check out both of their work if you haven’t already, for it is amazing. You think you’ve gone and done a pretty stand and then you see Karen’s… (Thank you for the latte btw…!)

Also in our little corner was the amazing Rock My Boutique pop-up shop from those trendsetters and general beauty-bringers Charlotte, Adam & Lauren behind Rock My Wedding.

As well as meeting what seemed to be hundreds of lovely wedding couples, it’s also fab to catch up with all of our industry friends – Michele Gledhill made the catwalk look magical, with flowers and lanterns galore, thusly…

Over the other side of the catwalk from us we were able to wave occasionally at Natalie from Yummy Little Cakes; you should have seen the cake she had covered in tiny yellow buttercups. Laura & co from the Lace Market Bridal Boutique and Kula Tsurdiu when she wasn’t making their models look pretty pre-catwalk shows. As you can imagine if you’ve ever walked past their window displays in the Lace Market, their stand looked incredible with all it’s lace loveliness. (And if you think their window displays are cool – you need to go upstairs and see the tailoring studios upstairs; vast and exactly what I guess the whole of the Lace Market was like before it all became apartments & ad agencies. The Great British Sewing Bee would die for it as a location).

Also over the other side were Rich & Jen from The Wedding Tree, with a load of new lines you’d be remiss not to have nose at. And on the way to the free tea & coffee (alas not for Jo/Joe public…) was the lovely Nicola from Eve Lily and incredibly – an enormous Scaletrix track for hire from The Racing Room.

It was lovely to meet a whole load of new people, as well as old friends Carmen from Carmen Weddings, Val from Benessamy who was also doing a talk in Speakers Corner  and then as an unexpected bonus Marcus Holdsworth dropped by at the end too. Didn’t get a chance to say hello to Catherine from BlushOn (Catherine did Lucy’s makeup for her wedding to Danny at Swancar Farm).

Most importantly of all – there were all the lovely couples and their bridesmaids, Mums, Dads and kids who came and cooed over the albums & threw themselves at the photo booth. Particularly lovely to see familiar faces; couples who have already booked and others who now have dates. And of course we’re very much looking forward to seeing those who booked the booth today again at their weddings.

Favourite photo from the booth today? This cuteness right here:

Other things that were learned…

1. If you go into the booth with Charlotte from Rock My Wedding you will be comprehensively out-posed..

2. After 3:30? Aforementioned industry friends take over the booth…

With Kula…

Carmen & Kula…

Laura, Michele & Carmen

With Carmen…

Rich, one half of The Wedding Tree…

And finally, Laura again (nice lace you’re rocking there Laura. Who’d have thought eh?)…

If I didn’t get a chance to chat to you yesterday my apologies – the post-catwalk times were particularly hectic. Do though fill out the form below and I can check your date/send you prices/invite you over to the studio for a cuppa.
If it’s the booth on its own you’re interested in, then head over to www.vintagebooth.me

It’ll be immense, because the #WEWAD events always are. There is a whole load of stuff going on; aside from the main event – my stand and vintagebooth.me – you’ve got Catwalk shows, Craft demos, Live music, etc. Plus, of course, tons of brilliant suppliers. If you haven’t been to a Save the Date WEWAD before, you ought to. There is a lot of talent in our region, and most of it will be there, all in one place.

In even better news, I have 6 group tickets to give away. That gets 4 of you in – and saves you 16 whole pounds. That could get you as many as 6 crepes at Aubrey’s, with change. Can you imagine.

All I ask is you bulk me out by following my twitter and liking my FB page. Then drop me an email and I’ll sort you out.

I only have 6, so be quick.

Here’s a blog post on the Vintagebooth.me site, showing the booth in situ. Enjoy!

The eagle-eyed among you may have seen another feature in the Guardian’s Weekend magazine this last Saturday. Here’s the article online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/08/homes-warm-welcome-passivhaus

With that in mind, a little singsong for the MPs going through the lobbies tomorrow..

Courtesy of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Same Love, ft. Mary Lambert. www.macklemore.com

To take our minds off it all, here’s a picture of a wintery bouquet from last month – a wedding at Temple in London which will pop up on the site in due course.

Flower handywork by David Beckham-Doyle. Or – you could feast your eyes on Nick Wooster and my Groomstyle Pinterest board.

http://pinterest.com/garlandweddings/groomstyle/

From bare ankles to cravats, bow-ties to tie-pins, highwaited trousers to shorts and – naturally – everything Nick Wooster. You should really check it out. If you’re a groom, or, if you just like looking at pictures of men who got a bit dressy.

You can follow me & my other boards on Pinterest here: www.pinterest.com/GarlandWeddings.