Jackie and Tim got in touch with me using my website contact form to see if I was available to be their Alderley Edge Wedding Photographer for their winter ceremony. My reply lead to Jackie phoning me for an informal chat and within a day or two, the booking was made. Jackie addressed ‘the elephant in the room’ straight away – they’d booked the 21st December, which is the shortest day of the year, and the ceremony time was 4pm, which meant guaranteed darkness outside. So a day without any natural light, a dark venue inside, cold weather, a soaked lawn outside due to recent rain… a less than ideal environment, but we were determined to make this work.
We arranged to meet at The Alderley Edge Hotel together for a walk and talk around the venue, gathering information on the timetable of their day and more importantly, scoping out places where we could capture portraits inside (or outside if the weather was dry), how to pose together, where we could get some decent group pictures in darkness and most importantly working out areas to avoid that may have been unsafe for older guests in the dark and damp. Getting this done at the pre-wedding meeting means that my couples are fully prepared on the day and it saves a lot of time having to explain a setup to them on the day as they will be familiar.
Alderley Edge Hotel Wedding Photographer
The day itself went wonderfully. Jackie looked wonderful in her dress and Tim was bursting full of emotion, fighting back tears during the ceremony. The group photos took place in the car park to accommodate their 65 guests, which was thankfully dry, but boy was it cold! Thanks to these two and their guests who were troopers while myself and Rick got these shots done. It was then back into the warmth to grab some lit portraits, a break for a (beautiful) meal and back onto coverage for their speeches, cake cut and first dance. Surrounded by their wonderful guests, we battled the darkness, the weather and we won! We left the venue with some great photos in the bag and some memories of a great day.
If you are getting married and looking for an Alderley Edge Hotel Wedding Photographer, please don’t hesitate to drop me a message…
