Hull Wedding Photographer at The Hallmark Hotel – Saturday’s wedding was a beauty. Hannah and I had the pleasure of spending the day with Rebecca and Stuart as they celebrated their marriage at The Hallmark Hotel – a very popular venue on the banks of the River Humber with spectacular views reaching out to North Lincolnshire – it’s a contemporary venue and one that’s very much suited to discerning couples.
Our story started early in the morning as we arrived to meet up with Stuart and his boys to help them get ready. Stu had 4 adult groomsmen and 5 pageboys – including the infamous ‘Dribble Monster’ so we had of ties to tie, flowers to attach and pocket squares to pocket! The boys were all in good form and I suspect a couple of them were still riding the wave of their ‘early night’ at The Hastings Pub the night before (in by 11 right Stu?).
Stu and Rebecca’s living room was lovely and bright with white walls and floor so the pictures looked fab as the boys styled and titivated. Once the crew were ready, we headed out to find some interesting backgrounds to shoot against and found ourselves down the alleyway behind Stu’s house where we found some cool walls and textures to play with. Dribble Monster did some flying weeing which was a trick we had never seen before – absolutely hilarious – just one word of advice with this young man – DON”T STEAL HIS DODO!
We said our goodbyes to Stu and his crew and made our way a couple of miles across Hull to hook up with our gorgeous Bride – Rebecca. Bex was finishing up in hair and make up when we arrived so after photographing all of her beautiful details including her gown by Deborah Moore Bridal and exquisite flowers by Hollyhocks of Princes Avenue we photographed all 8 of her bridesmaids/flowergirls who looked absolutely radiant. As a photographer – my raw materials are the people I shoot plus the light they are in for me to capture – when the light is great and the bridesmaids are gorgeous – my job is a breeze – I had both in abundance!
Bex looked absolutely beautiful once she finished dressing – her fishtail dress complemented her natural elegance just perfectly. I spent a few minutes creating some bridal images upstairs before bringing her down to show her off to the rest of her crew – they were blown away when she turned the corner and entered the room!
We left Bex and her girls to gather themselves as we travelled across town to Holy Trinity Church in Hull – one of my very favourite churches and officially the UK’s biggest parish church (it looks like a minster but doesn’t have that designation). The weather was perfect as guests arrived with full bright sun and a light breeze keeping things nice and cool.
The boys made a hilarious entry to the church as the organist played them in to the theme tune from ‘Rocky’ – this made for some cracking photos! The organist at the church is a total legend and can often be heard practicing with such classics ‘Rocky’ and the Star Wars title music!
Rebecca arrived in her lush Rolls Royce Phantom and made her way through the church yard to take those first steps to being a married women! It seemed like an age for all 8 bridesmaids to travel down the aisle before finally Stuart was able to feast his eyes on his big prize as Bex’s Dad proudly walked his daughter to meet him.
Revd Matt is probably the most laid back, modern vicar you’ve ever met and he gave a really fitting shine to the ceremony. He was very accommodating with me as a photographer and I was even able to rig a remote camera in the pulpit to capture a different angle – this gives the impression of there being 3 photographers – now that’s value for money!
So the deal was done and we had a new Mr and Mrs Carter! Once the register was signed, we cracked on and shot the first part of the formal groups inside the church. I got these done in record time as the clock was ticking and I knew we had a very thirsty bunch gagging to get to the bar – you must never hamper a thirsty man!
On to the venue and with the beer flowing, we headed out in to the gardens of The Hallmark Hotel to complete the bigger formal groups. I did these shooting from an aerial position and got the usual banter thrown at me as rowdy groomsmen professed me to be incarnation of Louie Spence – never heard that one before – OBVS!
The Merlot Suite of the The Hallmark Hotel looked fab, Bex had chosen what many may consider clashing colours to style her room but it worked so well in cerise and orange – full points to our bride! All of her styling choices looked great and with over 100 guests in the room it was nice and cosy.
Speeches were a hoot – the room was full of very close friends and I have to say this was one of the closest set of people I had come across – the banter flew around the room like bombs raining down in an air raid – the best man was even bombed by one of the guests calling him in the middle of his speech just to throw him off balance!
Once the wedding breakfast was over, Stuart and Rebecca went for a hard earned break from the hustle and bustle as we created some lovely couples portraits around the grounds of the hotel. As we returned from our shoot, evening guests were arriving and it wasn’t long before the party was in full swing with Ray from http://www.raisethedj.com/ providing his usual excellent service, Yorkshire Party Booth doing the honours with the Photo Booth and Casino Knights keeping the gamblers happy!
These guys were total party animals and the dance floor was rammed from the start of the party although the girls were very much in charge with a monopoly on the music requests – all very cool R&B floor fillers! The night ended for us at about 10.30 after we had photographed an epic display of fireworks and left the revellers crammed back on the dance floor.
The Hallmark Hotel was a fantastic setting for Stu and Bex’s big day and we created just short of 5,000 images for us to trawl through as we put their story together. If you want to see other stories from this venue check out this blog https://www.insightphotographers.co.uk/insight-blog/hallmark-hotel-claire-and-richard/ We’ll have to wait a few weeks as they are heading off to Dubai and Thailand on their honeymoon – not jealous…..
If you enjoyed this story and are getting married yourself, why not see how Insight can fit into your plans? You can check our availability and packages by requesting a brochure at the following link https://www.insightphotographers.co.uk/request-a-wedding-photography-brochure/. We also have an extensive collection of galleries from other weddings on our Facebook page.
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