Spring Wedding Fairs Season in Full Flow.

Whether you call them wedding fairs, fayres, showcases or exhibitions  it has been an extremely busy Spring season so far for us with a wide range of places we have attended and with some still to happen.

Wedding fairs are a great way of checking out venues to see if they fit everything that you'd like for your big day. It is also a great way to meet up with suppliers and get some fantastic ideas.

Additionally, as suppliers it is an easy way for us to see if there are any changes to the venue since we were last there and to store that information for the future. It is also the perfect time to meet up with any couples who may already have booked us for their weddings for a venue visit.

What you See Is What You Get.

Here at Angelic Photo we like to keep it nice and simple at the wedding fairs. In general we don't like to bombard you with lots of albums that blur into one therefore we only take a few. It is done like this because we want you to see what a full day working with us produces and hopefully let those photos do the talking. Obviously, if you wanted to see work from your venue then we are more than happy to send links over for our online galleries if we have photographed there previously.

We prefer to talk to couples about the whole package they would get with us. Yes awesome photos are an absolute necessity but you are likely to be spending more time with your photographer on your wedding day than you are your partner. This means making sure you "click" with them is almost as important as it all helps towards capturing those awesome shots.

Our packages are also nice and simple. Angelic Photo has no hidden costs such as copyright or second shooter as these are already in the price. We explain everything when we chat to you and in our leaflets as we believe you should be fully aware of what we include when you book. We also carry the same ethos over to our Themed Photobooths with an overall price that is fully explained before you book. Don't forget we also do a joint booking discount to make it even more worthwhile.

Ready to showcase
Angelic Photo's Wedding Fair Stand

 


Wedding Preparation - What Can You Expect?

Most of us have been to a wedding as a guest at some point but what actually happens before we turn and watch the bride walking towards the person she is declaring her love for and pledging the rest of her life to? What happens behind the scenes and what are the things to look out for during the wedding preparation?

Bride getting ready
The Bridesmaids help with lacing the bride's dress as a flower girl watches on.

Mrs Angelic has been a photographer at many different weddings over the years and although each wedding is as unique as each bride and groom most English weddings follow a general "order" from the preparation through to the party at the end of the evening. She has picked up tips along the way and often uses them to try and keep the stress levels for all involved down to a minimum. So what happens on a tradition-based wedding morning through the eyes of a wedding photographer?

Overview of Wedding Day Preparation
Bride, Bridesmaids, Hair, Make-up, Dresses - all goes into getting ready

Traditionally the bride and groom will spend the evening before the wedding separate from each other as it is believed to be unlucky to see each other before they meet at the ceremony. This comes from the days when a marriage was more of a business arrangement  between the families rather than marrying for love. The worry was that, if the groom saw his bride-to-be before the day he may decide he doesn't like her and call off the wedding! We have done the odd wedding where the couple have thrown caution to the wind but the majority of the time the couple get ready apart from each other. 

Separate Preparation
A young flower girl relaxes before her important day whilst a page boy checks he has the rings.

The Groom

For the Groom his preparation generally includes the best man, any ushers and occasionally the odd page boy (dependent on age normally). There are checks to make such as are the rings and the speech safe? Have the buttonholes been handed out to all who need them and are they all being worn the same way?

Groom Preparation
Cravats and ties being done up, Buttonholes being pinned. All part of the groomsmen's job to help the Groom.

Mr Angelic generally goes to cover the groom's preparation so Mrs Angelic is a bit vague about what happens but she normally describes it, at wedding fairs, as "Full English, Full Pint, XBox".

Groom Preparation
Shoes polished, cuff links inserted, a wee dram of something to calm the nerves?

She knows there is obviously a lot more to it but her forte is the bridal preparations so she will skip merrily past to there......

Wedding Day Balloon
Saying it with a Wedding Day balloon.

The Bride

The Bride's preparation is often bustling with activity with hair being fluffed, make-up being applied, dresses, shoes, underwear, jewellery, perfume plus lots more. Often there are bodies galore with bridesmaids, flower girls, parents, make up and hair artists, photographers (that's us :D ), flowers are dropped off and handed out, sometimes presents are given to the bridesmaids and cars arrive.

Special Moments
Bridesmaids get their first glance of the bride whilst some are getting emotional with gifts being presented by her.

The Photographers (us)

As wedding photographers our aim is to capture the hustle and bustle of the morning's activity whilst using all our guile to maintain calm. We have certainly honed those skills over the years.

Over the course of our time photographing weddings we have zipped, laced and buttoned wedding gowns, sewn a bridesmaid into hers when the zip broke, fetched, carried and summoned people, found lost car keys, encouraged children to join in a photo, chauffeured bride's mums and children to and from the ceremony, unwrapped, untagged and undone many a dress in readiness for its wearer.  At one wedding (maybe two, thinking about it) we've been seen sewing the actual bride's dress back together literally minutes before the service (not necessarily down to cheap dresses, but accidents certainly do happen).

Flower girls
The flower girls are having the final touches added onto their pretty dresses.

We have pinned button holes, fixed button holes, gently guided people out off a room when they were adding to an already highly stressed bride's stress levels, managed to convince a granny that the jewellery that she had suddenly handed to a very surprised and not so keen bride would detract in the photos thus giving the bride a gentle reason to say thanks but no thanks and, on one occasion, even helped the bride when she needed to visit the ladies'!!! We didn't take the cameras in with us though!!!

Emotional Bride
Capturing the emotion of a wedding day in photographs

We believe that a bride will automatically step up a stress gear as she reaches the back of the aisle and prepares to take her first steps toward married life. We will do everything we can to keep our brides as calm as possible so that when she does take that first step she is in a good place ready to say her vows. This is simply the minimum we can do.....oh and capture it all in good photographs.

Bridal Dress and Shoe Detail
Wedding dresses, shoes and rings - all important parts of the day.

Supplier Spotlight - Ashley aka The Trixta - Magician

Mrs Angelic has been on her travels again and recently caught up with Magician Ashley Turner aka The Trixta at the recent Silver Linings wedding fair at home of the Northampton Saints. She has since pounced on him with her top ten questions to find out a little more about him.

  • What is your top tip for couples that you speak to?

When considering hiring a magician always ask to see a promotional video of them in action. A professional magician should always have a video that is professionally shot and edited. If they don't I would always recommend meeting them. Wedding fairs are always a good place to find a magician. My other tip is don't ever underestimate just how valuable entertainment is at weddings. There are a lot of moments during the day when energy levels can drop or there is a lot of waiting around. Entertainment is key during these times.

  • How long have you been doing what you do?

I have been performing magic for around 17 years.

  • What has been your strangest event or encounter at an event?

I was once asked to stick 15 knives through a grooms head. That was fun and could have ended badly. Luckily it didn't. (Wow! - Mrs A)

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

I am very flexible, I take one booking per day so if your wedding times change I don't hold people to the contracted time slot. Plans change, timings change so its important to me that I remain flexible. I am also a drone pilot so you have the opportunity for the ultimate wedding selfie.

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

I hope that everything stays the same. I'm blessed to be able to make a living making people happy surrounded by amazing friends and family. Long may it continue. I am thankful daily for what I have in my life. (This is very much how we feel at Angelic HQ :D :D - Mrs A)

  • How do you make each event unique to each customer?

I really think about my material and trick selection - this can change from show to show. At the end of each show I give the couple my Deck of cards which gave been signed by they guests. Each deck is unique and a one of a kind

  • How did you get started?

My grandad was a magician so it's in the genes. However I travelled to Spain and saw a street magician selling tricks. I was hooked. That magician has no idea what he did for me. However he did over charge me :)

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

As you can probably tell I am doing my dream job. However I also like to cook bbq food and plan on starting a bbq catering business at some point. Keep an eye out for 'The Meat Magician' (Oh Mr Angelic would be extremely happy to see this happen! - Mrs A)

  • How do you ensure the evening goes without a hitch?

Communicate with the couple, allowing plenty of travel time and be prepared to be flexible, this is the wedding industry after all.

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Mrs Angelic always loves to hear why fellow suppliers have gone down the journey they have gone and it sounds like being over-charged by that Spanish street magician certainly did a lot to help so many brides, grooms and their guests get some wonderful entertainment. It has also given us, as wedding photographers, the chance to capture some cracking "action shots" of faces as a trick is concluded so Muchos Gracias (she thinks that is Spanish but she might be in totally the wrong country :D :D :D :D ) to that man.

Thanks to Ashley for taking time out of his magical schedule to give us a little insight. You can find him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't forget to pass on our hellos if you pop over nd see him.


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.

st paul's wedding photography

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.

 

 


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.