Chester Zoo ♥ Denise and Chris

I mentioned in my blog entry yesterday, that every wedding is special. Sometimes, what makes it particularly special is the location and today's wedding was in a very different location... Chester Zoo!

We have in fact photographed many weddings at Chester Zoo and it certainly is different. Try walking around a very busy zoo in a wedding dress and you'll understand.

Denise and Chris are a lovely couple and make full use of the facilities the zoo had to offer even being photographed with some of the animals. The Orang-utans seemed to be particularly fascinated with Denise and her dress, pressing themselves against the glass to get as close to her as they could.

As the day at Chester Zoo can be quite long (the wedding breakfast is always after the zoo shuts), Denise and Chris thoughtfully provided afternoon tea for the adults and loads of sweets for the kiddies. Well, these two 'kiddy' photographers certainly enjoyed that I can tell you!

Here are some photographs from this great wedding.

More photographs from Chester Zoo and other venues can be found both in this blog and on our main wedding website at www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Peckforton Castle ♥ Jane and Chris

Every wedding is something special. They are all different as every bride and groom (lets be honest, mainly the bride, as they do most of the work!) put their own personal stamp on it.. something that says "this is OUR wedding".

When the wedding is at the sumptuous Peckforton Castle in Tarporley, Cheshire you just KNOW you are in for something very special.

Jane and Chris' wedding had everything. A civil wedding in the Great Hall, a blessing in the chapel and decent weather! Wonderful opportunities for a photographer and we took advantage of them to the full and we produced some wonderful photographs.


Here are a small sample of the many hundreds Jane and Chris have received.

More photographs from Peckforton Castle and other venues can be found both in this blog and on our main wedding website at www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Park Royal ♥ Constantina and Andreas

A little different as this was an Engagement Party rather than a wedding and what a party! Over 200 guests were at the Park Royal Hotel in Warrington and they certainly knew how to enjoy themselves!

Constantina and Andreas are a stunning couple. Not only very attractive but lovely lovely people too.

We wish them all the very best for the future and here are a few of the hundreds of photographs we took of the people and events at the party. This small sample are mainly of the happy couple themselves.

Statham Lodge ♥ Julie and Gavin

Julie and Gavin had warned us that we might not be allowed to take many photographs during the service in St Anne''s Church in Sale, Cheshire. This would have been a great pity as the ceremony is obviously such an important part of a wedding and therefore really should be photographed.

Part of the problem I feel is inconsiderate photographers who either use flash (absolutely not necessary) or move around during the service which is extremely distracting (not necessary for us as there are two of us of course). Unfortunately, behaviour like this cvauses problems for other couples and photographers.

As it happened though, after a chat with the lovely vicar, we were told we could do what we liked. Of course, we just carried on in our own quiet, unobtrusive way and managed to get some beautiful shots of the ceremony without causing ANY disruption.

The reception was at Statham Lodge in Lymm. We love this hotel as it has great locations for photography and especially the extensive gardens and gorgeous gazebo.

Here are a few of the hundreds of photographs taken on this lovely day.

More photographs from Statham Lodge in Lymm and other venues can be found both in this blog and on our main wedding website at www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Heaton House Farm ♥ Amy and Scott

A fantastic couple at a fantastic venue. Put the two together and you have a wedding truly made in heaven and a photographer's dream come true.

Amy is a stunning lady and looked unbelievable in her very sexy greyish coloured wedding dress. Scott is a professional footballer and so is a very fit man and looked extremely good in his suit. The venue is purpose built for weddings and so has absolutely everything you can imagine you would want for your wedding from elegant and spacious rooms to grounds to die for. Lake, trees, views for miles.. simply stunning!

Here are a few photographs from Amy and Scott's wonderful day.

More photographs from Heaton House Farm and other venues can be found both in this blog and on our main wedding website at www.barrieneilweddings.co.uk

Busy doing nothing

A chat with the mother-in-law a few minutes ago has prompted this post.

She asked where we were off to today for work and we mentioned we were not out on assignment anywhere. She responded with "Oh right, so you're not working today".

I pointed out that we were in the middle of editing some 10,000 photos from recent assignments which takes an enormous amount of time and energy and is in fact, extremely hard work.

I'm sure that people must think it is so easy being a photographer.. "you just turn up at a wedding for a few hours and your job is done". I wish it were so easy.

Using weddings as a good example, we spend hours in advance meeting the clients, planning the schedule for the day, planning the locations for the photos both if it is nice and weather and what we would do if is bad. Then there is the wedding day itself which usually starts very early travelling to the bride's home or wherever she is getting ready.

After the day ends for us, we travel home and start organising all the photographs and making sure we have taken security backups. My wedding day rarely ends before midnight.

After that, the editing of the photographs themselves, which usually number over 1000, can take 4 or 5 man days so that we give our clients the very best photographs produced with as much creativity as possible.

So next time you think it must be 'easy' to be a photographer, do please bear a thought for just how much work really does go into it