With a wedding on Easter Sunday this Easter holiday, we were free to do a pre wedding shoot on the Saturday with Kerry & James. Both of which were no stranger to Katy and myself as they are good friends of my sister and Kerry was bridesmaid at her wedding only last August. Kerry runs the local magazine Bishopston Matters which provides lots of useful information and community support for the Bishopston, Ashley Down, Horfield and St Andrews areas of Bristol. As a result the wedding will be very much a local affair with lots of help from the people she speaks with on a daily basis in the community such as the cafe hut in St Andrews Park that will be helping to supply some wooden chairs for the reception. We like this very much

As we knew Kerry and James already we thought it would be ok to bring our little Ludo along for the shoot to so he got to have a lovely stroll in the park while we snapped away at the lovely couple. A perfect afternoon in the park i must say. A little cold but cant really complain, we all had a great time and got some excellent pics aswell.

The shoot started by a special memorial for Kerry’s father which is a small tree in the corner of the park and we then progressed towards the cafe hut in the middle of the park where a nice warm cup of tea was very welcome. This gave us a chance to capture something a little different as we sat down at the table in the park and took five minutes to relax over tea and warm up again before exploring some more. It wasn’t the busiest the park has ever been which wasn’t a bad thing as it enabled Kerry & James to relax a bit more after they told me they weren’t massively keen on having their photo taken. And while there are very few that are comfortable, people get used to it very quickly and i think are surprised at how easy it is, especially when they see the finished images. Making use of the gateways in the park was particularly nice i thought and once we had walked all the way around we took a quick look at the church where they will be getting married in only a few weeks time! Here we took some individual poses and really showed off Kerry’s smile and James’s Blue Steel pose!

Really looking forward to the wedding now, especially seeing Kerry arrive on her horse Meg which will be quite spectacular. No doubt we will have some shots from the big day to share with you soon. In the meantime, enjoy some of the pre wedding photographs below, all the best – Sam.

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Well aware that the Sunday the fayre had fallen on was in fact Mothers’ Day we were not deterred to get up early and offer our photography and films to newly engaged couples. And as expected, the fayre wasn’t flooded with couples but there was a good turn out and we got to spend a decent amount of time with the visitors because of this which was really nice and gave the fayre a really calm atmosphere. Probably helped by the soothing notes of Marie France Riboulet who was providing the musical backdrop on her harp! We got to meet and chat to lots of other local suppliers such as Wayne from Kens Cars, Chris from Iced Magic, Karl from Aston Hue Photography and Bristol’s best Toastmasters – Babara Maggs and James Macleod. Take a look at our record of the day in photos!

Thanks to Ellie Nutall from the Holiday Inn at Filton for putting on the fayre – for those of you considering the venue make sure you speak to her, she is a very approachable and helpful young lady who will take care of your wedding day! We look forward to the next fayre Ellie!

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Keeping up with technology in our profession is really hard work it has to be said. The rate at which new gadgets, formats and solutions are thrown at us is beguiling to say the least. But it’s important to stay aware of what’s going on so that we can deliver the best for our customers. One thing that has been on our minds is how we can deliver the highest quality end product.

All of our films have always been filmed in High Definition even when a lot of companies were still filming in SD we wanted to make sure that we were capturing weddings in the highest quality so that when the time came then we could deliver the highest quality still. That time has come. We now have the ability to deliver our wedding films in their original HD format to you on Blu Ray discs. Previously we have been able to only provide wedding films in Standard Definition on DVD. Now the resolution in HD on Blu Ray is significantly higher with more pixels taken advantage of and a much clearer image.

To celebrate this new technology we have also updated all of our wedding film menus. So whether your wedding film is on DVD or Blu Ray you will now be able to have our new elegant and ornate menus which can be seen in the video demo at the bottom of this page here. The films remain the same but the picture quality is much higher and Blu Ray also has the added bonus of the Pop-Up menu which doesn’t feature on DVD. The Pop-Up menu can be called upon at any time during playback of content on your Blu Ray and a menu will slide into view while the film continues to play. From this menu you can access the main menu, special features and scene selection pages without having to exit the film and return to the main menu which is kind of cool we think.

If you have already had your wedding filmed by us and received a DVD then we can still offer to convert your film to Blu Ray for you as your wedding film is mastered and archived in HD as mentioned above. So get in touch and let us know if you want your wedding film upgraded to the new menus and onto Blu Ray.

And there’s more good news too! We have also invested in new DVD technology that allows us to double the amount of content on your DVD! So for those extra long wedding films  we can now put onto one disc. Dual Layer DVDs hold 8.54GB of data as opposed to DVD which holds just 4.7GB so a significant difference. Although this is nothing next to a Blu Ray which will hold a whopping 25GB of data.

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A wedding with a medieval twist! What a great way to start a blog entry, hopefully you want to hear more - I can hear you asking already…were there Castles? Jesters? Horses? Beer? Coats of arms? Yes!! To all of the above and more!

The Knight and Princess in question – the lovely Aimee and Martin, whose day was threatened by torrid rain but thankfully it remained clear and for the most part – dry. Berkley Castle was the venue in Gloucestershire, boasting its own church on the estate and the ceremony took place in one of the oldest churches we have ever filmed in and whose vicar was as warm and friendly with our team as he was with the bride and groom themselves.

Never before have our photographers and videographers been in the situation where they had birds of prey swooping down over their heads but thanks to a fantastic display by Jonathan Marshall and Experience Falconry they got to practice their skills of shooting til the last second then ducking down for dear life (we were told that if a bird hits you in the face at 100mph its likely to hurt the poor bird!) The horses bowing their heads to the bride and groom as they arrived in their car was a once in a lifetime moment captured on film by our operators as a memory forever.

Guests were treated to tours of the castle accompanied by horrific tales of red hot pokers and dungeons and thrilling accounts of heroic battles and forbidden love, fascinating the young and old alike. The guests then enjoyed speeches in the banqueting hall with the family crests of both Aimee and Martin hanging majestically overhead, a truly magnificent scene.

The full gallery will be up soon but for now have a look at some of the days photography below for an exclusive first look!

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Tim works as a woodsman at Tortworth so it was a special place for them to choose to celebrate their wedding day at. Take a look at some of the photos from the day and also a sneak peak at the wedding film too.

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This was something of a special wedding for us as we had connections with the bride and groom through our own friends and school days. And revisiting Thornbury where we all went to the very popular Castle School, was a real blast from the past and a pleasure. In fact St.Mary’s church which is a stone’s throw from the school was in fact a memorable location for a film that I made with Stu’s older brother, Rob, many moons ago while we were at Castle Sixth Form Centre. If Rob is wondering whether that film still exists – yes it does and I am open to bribes Anyway, it was great to see old friends and friendly faces and the day was just fantastic.

The venue, Eastwood Park, was a first for us and a nice one at that – a great old building with huge grounds full of variety and opportunity for photography. We used the stone stairs at the back of the house for most of the formal shots and also used the stunning Gloucestershire countryside as background for some of the others. There was some time to head off with Allie and Stu for shots of them alone walking through the woods as the sunshine powered through the leaves then it was time for speeches. After a lot of tears and laughter we headed outside again to grab a few more photos in the evening sunset. One particular corner of the gardens offered beautiful purple flowers in bloom and this is where we were able to capture some of the most intimate and creative images which you can get a sneak peek at below – Let us know what you think!

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The big marquee was the main exhibition space this time round and with more exhibitors than any of the previous fayres the choice on offer to couples was just fantastic whether you wanted photobooths, chocoalte fountains (mmmmm), unusual chair covers or a band – everything was there. Meanwhile Four Pillars were able to use their rooms upstairs to show off the wedding facilities that they can offer for your big day.

As part of The Wedding Works we were all kept together in a separate room – presumably due to our noisy reputation that now precedes us?! But this meant that we had a great focus on what the Wedding Works has to offer couples which is a collection of fine wedding suppliers who regularly work together and provide excellent service – well we would say though wouldn’t we

While the sun beat down on the beautiful location the fayre had a great turnout and the many attractions made it even more worthwhile for couples on this incredible day. Performing live were The Man From Funkle (great name) and then inside the fayre was some live sax, yes that’s saxophone, alongside the beautiful vocal tones of Angelico and then throughout the day were performances by Rock Your Diva! who will instruct you on your favourite dance moves for your hen party, birthday party and other events. So lots to see!

We were also making a promotional video on behalf of Love Actually Weddings which is available to view at the top of the page and if you didn’t manage to make it then hit play and see what you missed!

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