St Paul's Wedding - Bright Lights, Big City

For a Midlands based wedding photographer getting the chance to shoot a wedding at some of the bigger Southern venues such as St Paul's Cathedral is a rare request so imagine our happiness when we met a young lady at the wedding fair at Nottingham Castle organised by Perfect Weddings who told us that she was planning a St Paul's wedding with the reception taking place at the RAF Club. Mrs Angelic's first words were "we want to do your wedding!"

Naomi and Michael popped over to see us a little later and subsequently booked us for their big day with an engagement shoot included. A year ago we met up at the RAF Club to do the engagement photos in and around Green Park, Buckingham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral itself and last week saw us back in London to photograph the big day itself.

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Naomi and Michael had booked the 3/4 day package - from preparation shots to first dance - and also included one of our Vintage Photo Booths to finish the evening off and with all our kit in tow we travelled down to the RAF Club on Friday 14th October in readiness for the wedding itself on the Saturday.

Being a member of the RAF , Michael had arranged for a very smartly dressed Sword Party to be in attendance and a lot of fun was had getting ready - especially when the best man (Michael's brother) managed to get himself stuck in a lift for 40 minutes prior to the wedding. Thankfully Naomi was only made aware of this after he had been released!

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The guests who had been staying at the Club were transported over to St Paul's via one of London's traditional modes of transport - a big, red double decker bus with Mr Angelic on board to capture the guests and their arrival at the Cathedral - whilst Mrs Angelic was transported over with the bridesmaids via London's other traditional mode of transport - a black cab. The double decker bus remained parked up outside the cathedral until it was needed to transport all the guests back to the reception and it was a magnet for tourists and school children who crowded around and on it to get their souvenir shots.

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As photographers at St Paul's we had some very tight restrictions about what we could and couldn't do which meant that Mrs Angelic wasn't able to get her usual shots from the front however Mr Angelic did manage to get some through the ornate woodwork at the back of the OBE Chapel and it was then off outside to get those all important group shots.

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Upon exiting the Cathedral we were greeted by a mass of waiting tourists who had congregated to see the bride and groom emerge and a big round of applause greeted the newlyweds as they walked through their sword arch, being stopped at the end of the arch for their kiss which generated another display of encouragement from the waiting tourists.

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It was initally rather daunting for Mrs Angelic as she then took up her role as "loud-mouthed, bossy boots" to get the big group shot done on the steps at the front of St Paul's as there were hundreds of people about all, seemingly. with cameras pointing in her direction as she prepared the guests for their shot but they were all very obliging and moved out of the way when asked.

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Naomi and Michael were extremely obliging when asked if they would like to have photos done on the Millenium Bridge and were rewarded by an impromptu "wedding march" by the buskers as we passed by and many well wishers passing on their congratulations.

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Back at the RAF Club we were, once again greeted by the sword party and a wedding breakfast room decorated with  games as table placements. From Cluedo to Scattegories all of the games were playable by the people around the table with the exception of Monopoly but we were already on Picadilly so we were living that particular game.

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The speeches were a lot of fun - especially the ribbing that Chris, the best man got for his lift escapades. His speech definitely had a lot of ups and downs!!

Our day finally finished with the arrival of Craig to run the booth, bringing the Angelic Munchkins down with him for us to head on down to Devon for our half term holiday.

Many thanks to Naomi and Michael for inviting us to capture their big day. Congratulations to you both and may your futures be happy, healthy and prosperous.

 

 


Supplier Spotlight - Jason from Jason Barker Roadshow

As part of our new blog Mrs Angelic has started quizzing some of our supplier friends to find out a little bit more about them and what they do to create our "Supplier Spotlight".

Her first victim - she means volunteer!!! - is Jason from Jason Barker Roadshow who we had the pleasure of working with recently at the wedding of Charlotte and Alex. It was a choice made easily as he is celebrating his 4o-something birthday today as she is posing her questions......

  • How and when did you get started?

I was 13. My dad run Raunds Town Football Club and the Dj did not turn up so I did the disco as I was always helping the djs

  • What has been your strangest event?

I did a wedding and the bride and groom got into a big fight with each other. She threw her wedding ring, the police were called and took them away so I left my kit and went back the next day to collect to see them all searching for the ring. (They had made up btw - Mrs A.)

  • How do you stand out from the crowd? In other words - why book you?

We are very passionate about making people happy, going that extra mile, listening to every need and keeping up to date with music and new equipment.

  • What equipment do you use?

Only the best : RCF Evox 8&12 speakers, DB Sigmas 15&18 speakers, Martin Rush wizards lights, ADJ focus spot 3s, 4 moving heads, S&H booth, black or white Pioneer DDJ SX2

  • What do you see yourself doing in ten years time?

I'd still be doing the job I love but with a bit of help from my son.

  • How do you make each event unique for each client?

They have choices of setups and extras effect to make their wedding unique and online planning music requests

  • What would be your top tips to couples?

Book a venue with the bar in the same room as the disco. Watch the drink prices - too expensive and people won't buy any and enjoy themselves. Don't book a cheap DJ as it is one of the most important parts of a wedding and try to avoid booking via another DJ - try and book directly as you may not be getting the quality you are paying for.

  • If you couldn't DJ what would be your dream job?

Stay At Home Dad.

  • How do ensure the evening goes without a hitch?

I have all my kit PAT tested, I always have a back up laptop and speakers and I have playlists ready in a file so I know I have all the bride's music.

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Many thanks to Jason for answering these questions (even if he did think they were hard) on his birthday (he assures us he hasn't had a tipple) and we will let him head off to bed as he has to get up at silly o'clock in the morning. :D

If you would like to know more about his services then pop on over to his website or find him here on Facebook - don;t forget to tell him we sent you :D ;)

 


Wedding Madness Continues!

Traditionally July, August and September is classed as wedding season with those three months often being the busiest for marriages. More recently though, with July and August no longer guaranteeing the dry weather October has started to tag itself onto the madness. The weather has been consistently dryer albeit a little chillier and more couples are looking to tie the knot during the tenth month.

For us here at Angelic and Booths HQ it is a manically busy month. This weekend alone has seen us at two weddings  both with photo booths, two wedding fairs and a standalone Vintage Photobooth (which is still out working as we type).

Friday saw Mr and Mrs Angelic at Shearsby Bath in Bruntingthorpe for the wedding of Gemma & Tom. They had booked us on our most popular package which covers both bridal and groom preparation up to the first dance and also had one of our vintage booths as part of the evening entertainment. The civil ceremony took place in the Old Spa Room with its tree of wishes in the corner - a lovely idea that Mrs Angelic may just steal when we get settled into our new home (one day!) and we then shot the formal shots in the gardens just outside the fountain marquee. There may not have been many guests but they certainly kept us on our toes. We were extremely honoured to have been included on the table plan for the wedding breakfast and that placed us perfectly for the speeches. An early cake cutting (cake was being served with teas and coffees) left us with just the first dance to do as a formality and we then had a great time with the photobooth to end the day.

Saturday had us travelling to Market Harborough where Mrs Angelic met up with Charlotte and her supporting cast at Wainwrights as hair and make up was completed and Mr Angelic headed over to take Ellie, our caravan photobooth, to the reception venue at The Big Barn, Ashley where he met up with our groom, Alex. We then completed preparation shots back at Charlotte's parents' house before we made our way over to one of the most ornate Anglican churches we have been in for a while. Listening to the choir as they sang their hearts out beautifully for their first performance it was a joy to photograph at St Mary The Virgin church. The day was full of laughter, madness and a lot of love and again we were treated to food in the barn with another early cake cutting. Finishing off the evening Ellie proved extremely popular yet again and was continually busy.

Sunday saw Mr Angelic taking Ellie to Boughton House as part of Silver Linings wedding fairs and Craig took our vintage booth to Dunchurch Park as part of My Fair Weddings fairs and we have already had phone calls enquiring about availability or bookings and Strictly Come Dancing hasn't even started yet!!!

Lauren is still out at her big event at Keythorpe Manor for Kiran & Kulwinder so we can't really say much but we do understand that the booth is being well used.

To all of our brides and grooms this weekend we wish you huge congratulations and many years of happiness, health and love to come....

Now if you can hear snoring coming loudly from the corner it might just be Mrs Angelic (if Baby Angelic lets her!).


Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

Many months ago the ever so lovely Mr Angelic designed a new website for our wedding photography business and we were going to be very good and put lots of blog posts on to let everyone know what we have been up to.

As you can see by our very clean and empty blog life got a little bit crazy and it didn't quite happen so Mrs Angelic has decided that we need to be much better at this social lark so here we go.....our first post of our brand spanking new blog.

So what has been occurring? In the words from The Sound Of Music - Let's start at the very beginning.....of 2016.

2016 has been a year of growth for the Angelics - in every way possible.

As some of you may know we also own and run our quirky photo booth company - Booths Dot Co - with our distinct looking vintage photobooths and Ellie our caravan photobooth. This has kept us extremely busy with booths going, literally, across the country to some rather amazing venues and events. We will eventually set up a blog over on that site as well but one step at a time..... :D We have some fantastic ideas for the future growth of this side of the business and you can keep up to date about our newest builds as they happen by liking our Facebook page.

We have taken on two people to work alongside us with both the booths and the wedding photography partly because of how busy we have become but also partly because as well as our business growing our family has also grown and we now have a nearly 8 month old Little Angelic to keep the older Little Angelics on the run. Lauren has taken over some of the mantle of the photography from Mrs Angelic and has been doing a cracking job as we hit our busiest year ever for weddings whilst Craig has become an extremely able and well-liked booth attendant.

Angelic Photography itself has gone from strength to strength with us travelling the Midlands and further afield to some stunning venues including the beautiful Hothorpe Hall & The Woodlands, Swancar Farm Country House, Hellidon Lakes and The Tythe Barn, Launton to name but a few. We are always extremely grateful to be invited to capture one of the most important days of a couple's life and are very lucky that we go to some fabulous venues such as these.

We have worked with many wonderful suppliers and Mrs Angelic aims to try and do some blogging about these over the course of time as they certainly deserve recognition. Keep an eye open for her "Quality Questions" that she will be starting very soon.

Corporate-wise we have worked with some brilliant companies over the last year - from having the fantastic opportunity to work at the ITV Gala to our "Santa Shoot" with Howdens Joinery Company - and this side also continues to go from strength to strength as we work alongside some very good event planners.

And the future?

Well immediately Mrs Angelic is EXTREMELY excited to be working at the wonderfully regal St Paul's Cathedral this month before we leave a seriously busy Summer season and hit an almost as busy Christmas season.