Yorkshire Wedding Photographer at The Hallmark Hotel – This weekend’s wedding was a cracker (aren’t they all!) Claire and Richard’s big day finally rolled around and with the weather shining it was obvious to me that we were in for a very special time. I’d caught up with the bride and groom a few weeks ago to plan through their schedule and do what we call an ‘E-Session’ to practice for the real thing and I knew by their chemistry that they would photograph beautifully when W-Day came around – I wasn’t wrong!
Hannah and I arrived with the groomsmen around 9.30am and with 6 groomsmen plus a groom – we would usually consider this to be a fairly big group of lads to get ready but Richard had everything under control and was very organised so we dove straight in to photographing details such as rings, cuff-links, after shave bottle, button hole flowers etc All the while, the banter that brings us closer to the boys had began to flow and we knew we were starting to get into the wolf pack!
Once the boys were dressed in their finest, we created a set of cool portraits using the lovely, diffused window light in Rich’s front room and then we headed out onto the street for some badass group shots – this is where things got VERY cool! So I’d noticed some nice shapes and lines down the street when Hannah and I parked up – there was a row of garages that had some interesting symmetry that I wanted to explore. We warmed the guys up with a little ‘reservoir Dogs’ style walking – always makes great black and white shots – and made for the garages.
The sky had some cool clouds so I began crafting some signature style ‘lit’ group shots when I turned around and noticed a young lady walking past us. She looked very cool and I noticed she had a guitar case slung over her shoulders. My brain cells started to fire and I immediately asked her who she was and where she was going with said guitar! She was heading into Hull to busk – well, it was all I needed to know and before you knew it – we’d persuaded her to give us a song – here’s a little video of the performance!
It was really a magical happening – she sang one of her own songs, a song of love and I could see it was really resonating with our groom who was about to marry the love of his life, Claire. I’ll never forget that 10 minutes – it was so unique!
We said our goodbyes to Rich and the boys knowing that the next time we saw him he would be just moments away from being a married man! We left the village of Sutton and made our way over to The Hallmark Hotel just on the banks of th River Humber at North Ferriby – one of the East Riding’s most popular wedding venues and headed straight to her suite where Amy from Fons Vitae was creating the finishing touches to Claire’s wedding make – up . Even in her PJs Claire looked stunning, but when I saw her dress hanging, I knew she was going to look absolutely gorgeous.
Claire had chosen her dress from Deborah Moore Bridal and had brought in one of their consultants, Lucy, to help her dress. I thought this was a really nice touch for Deborah Moore to offer this service. When wedding dresses have corset laces at the back – it can be quite intimidating for the Mother of the Bride or the chief bridesmaid to take on the task of making the laces look ‘showroom perfect’ – I couldn’t count on my fingers and toes the amount of times I have done this job on wedding mornings! Lucy’s skills and cool calmness was so much appreciated and she made sure Claire’s dress fitted perfectly!
The bridesmaids were an absolute joy to meet and photograph – they had obviously ‘read the manual’ as the help and support they gave Claire was truly that of legends! I photographed each bridesmaid individually – they all resonated beauty in their own special way. Flowers by Sarah Nicholson at The Floral Lounge looked lovely. We were into the final approach before the wedding ceremony and Claire began to dress, put on her jewellery and go through all the little rituals that make brides so lovely. Once ready, I had her all to myself for a few minutes of styled images before we brought Dean, her dad in to see her. His reaction was timeless as he opened his eyes to look upon his daughter in her wedding dress – the images say it all.
Richard waited patiently for his bride as she made her way down to the Merlot Suite – which looked amazing with venue styling throughout the day by Liz Ewing at Style my Venue. Richard is unashamedly proud of his connection with his emotions – you’ve never a met a man more comfortable confessing his absolute certainty about the flood of tears he expected when he would set eyes on his future wife as she made her way down the aisle towards him. On cue, Claire walked towards him – Rich was in a glass case of emotion – he loves this girl SOOOOOOOO much!
The East Riding Registrars conducted a lovely ceremony, rings were exchanged and bish, bash, bosh – job done – one very happy married couple! We headed out to the gardens which overlook the River Humber and our magnificent bridge, to capture the formal group shots whilst guests enjoyed cocktails on the lawn. We had some time ahead of schedule so we took a walk through the fields down past the gardens and gave Claire and Rich some time together whilst I captured these intimate moments for them.
Speeches were given before the wedding breakfast and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Hannah and I capture speeches with 3 cameras with 3 different focal length lenses so were really able to show a broad range of looks and emotions that are so natural when we play them back as a movie – priceless. You can check out our portfolio of speeches photography at this link
Coffee was served upstairs after the wedding breakfast so we took that opportunity to go for another walk with Claire and Rich and created some lovely shots using the interior features of the Hallmark Hotel. Once we’d finished, evening guests were starting to arrive and it was time to party!
Claire and Rich had decided to go all out with their entertainment for their evening ‘do’ They had a DJ, a band, a casino and a photo booth – it was like a carnival – very cool indeed. The energy in the room was awesome, we’d made a lot of friends at this wedding and we felt very much like guests.
Once the cake (beautifully done by our pal Cakes by Leni) had been cut and Rich had lit the floor up with his first dance moves – we left the happy couple to party the night away. 12 hours, 4137 frames later we’d had an awesome time and left their wedding with big grins on our face. This Hallmark Hotel wedding was spectacular and we can’t wait to catch up with Rich and Claire when they get back from the USA honeymoon in a few weeks time.
If you’re getting married at The Hallmark or anywhere else for that matter and you’ve enjoyed reading about Insight’s approach to capturing weddings, why not find out how we could fit into your special day – fill out our enquiry form and we’ll send you more details. We also curate a very busy Facebook page featuring our wedding photography here – make sure you ‘like’ the page to receive regular updates.
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