Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the Best of Bury St Edmunds annual birthday party at the Ickworth Hotel.

Ickworth Hotel is just outside Bury St Edmunds in the lovely village of Horringer. Recently they underwent a change in management and the new team there are doing a fantastic job! All the guests at the birthday bash were treated to amazing canapés and champaign on their arrival.

For those planning a wedding, the Ickworth Hotel is a great place to start – it’s attached to the grand Ickworth House, which makes a stunning backdrop to your wedding photography. The staff, as I’ve already mentioned, are always happy to go out of their way to make sure that everything is perfect for your intimate wedding.

While last Wednesday had nothing to do with weddings, you know me, I love talking about my wedding photography!

Aside from a chance to meet up with other members of the Best of Bury St Edmunds (BOB) group and enjoy a few glasses of bubbly in lovely surroundings – it was also a chance for Miriam Howell, the owner of BOB and Michele Bailey to hand over awards to two local businesses. I was on hand to take some images of the evening.

The main award was for ‘Retailer of the year 2009′, which was awarded to Lily Daly of Lilyo.

Here are Miriam and Michele presenting Lily with her award – also pictured is Abby Hunt of St Nicholas Hospice Care

Lilyo is a shop on St Johns street in Bury St Edmunds which sells, amongst other gorgeous things, hand crafted pearl jewellery.

Congratulations to all those who were presented with awards!

Thank you again to all the staff at Ickworth Hotel.

If you are thinking of having a wedding at the Ickworth Hotel, then I’d love to chat with you about my amazing wedding photography!

Here is an excellent article from the “weddingsbyzoelingard“‘ blog.

Over the last few weeks as I’ve been thinking about 2008 and going over each of our weddings with a fine tooth comb, I’ve been considering the traditional timings of group and portrait photography at weddings. Most couples tend to make time for these kind of photos during their drinks reception but there are a number of reasons why this doesn’t work perfectly and so I’ve been wondering whether shooting the bride and groom prior to the ceremony (as is frequently done in the US and elsewhere) is actually a better alternative.

Very often group and portrait photography is the first thing to overrun at weddings and although keeping to time might sound simple, invariably it is not. Following the ceremony, couples are excited to see their guests and reluctant to leave the party just as it’s getting started whilst guests begin to disperse themselves across the venue.  Ensuring ushers get the right people in the right place at the right time can be a tricky exercise (especially when they don’t know who’s who) and asking a friend to bellow out the names of those needed for each shot is functional but can give your wedding a school-trip meets boot camp feel.

Shooting images before the ceremony not only means you bypass all of these problems but you also gain some significant benefits:

•    You’re photographed looking your absolute best, sans smudged eyeliner and crumpled buttonholes.
•    You get to spend the entire of your drinks reception chatting to your guests and soaking up the atmosphere rather than watching from afar as all the champagne gets guzzled.
•    Your drinks reception will be more relaxed and enjoyable as you’ll be free from the worry that you need to get those all-important shots before dinner is served.
•    You’ll get better photographs. Not only can you dedicate longer to getting some really creative images, without the pressure of time you’ll be more relaxed so look better and happier in the shots.
•    Your drinks reception needn’t be hours long in order to accommodate a long photo session; you reduce the risk of bored guests and a flat atmosphere.
•    You get the chance to start celebrations early, spending some quality time with your closest friends and family before the ceremony.

The major drawback to scheduling photography prior to the ceremony is that the first time you see each other won’t be as the bride walks down the aisle. However, this needn’t mean loosing the magic of seeing each other for the first time and does in fact have its own advantages. Seeing each other prior to the ceremony means you get the chance to talk to each other, calming your nerves and giving you the chance to really soak up the ‘we’re getting married feeling’ without being distracted by the wedding planning or ceremony proceedings.

Meeting each other before the ceremony needn’t be a negative thing either – you can make it into a really special moment, perhaps meet somewhere really special or get the chance for 5 minutes alone.

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Good advice there.

I’ve have shot a number of weddings where the classic images were shot before the ceremony. Obviously it’s not everyones cup of tea, but if you are worried about the timing of your wedding day, it’s something to consider when discussing your plans with your wedding photographer.

It’s always at the forefront of my mind, that the bride and groom should be as relaxed as possible on their big day. Please give me a call or drop me a line if you have any questions about hiring a suffolk photographer.

It seems that not that long ago, a wedding photographer having a blog on his or hers website was something unusual, novel and interesting.

Then they exploded, along with Facebook accounts, Digg it buttons and the twittering of tweets. It seemed that everwhere you looked there was yet another wedding photographer who had a blog with one or two posts, a few pictures, and masses of buttons begging you to ‘follow me on <insert social networking of choice here>’.

It was very rare that these blogs actually had anything useful on them for a Bride and Groom to read. Mostly it was just another medium to post pictures on. Us photographers love that – something to post our pictures on – but we can also miss the point sometimes. If you are reading this blog post, you are, hopefully – for the sake of my business – a bride to be, or a lucky man who has had the woman of his dreams say yes to his proposal. Either way you are taking your first steps into a world that you most likely haven’t been part of before – PLANNING FOR YOUR WEDDING.

I’m sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you there!

You love your partner, you want to spend the rest of your life with them and for others to share in your love and happiness on your special day. For you your wedding is about this love and sense of occasion, and so it should be, but you are going to be dealing with businesses to make your special day a day to remember, and they are, well, they are businesses.

I’m hoping that by reading this blog you’ll get a better idea about what to look for when choosing, not only a wedding photographer, but also one of the many specialist suppliers who will help make your dreams become a reality on your wedding day.

Obviously the focus will be on photography, but along the way there will be plenty of hints and tips on how to make the planning of your wedding go as smoothly as possible which will allow you to enjoy the lead up to your big day rather than it be like work (ugh!).

Of course I’m still going to show you pictures, I mean after all, I am a photographer!

You’ll find plenty more examples of my images on my brand spanking new suffolk wedding photography site