You have to hand it to the Brits – throw a bit of cold weather at us and (transport issues aside!) we have a great tolerance for ignoring it, especially when photos are involved! We met Millie&Baz for a mini engagement shoot in Regent’s Park, which was rather lovely, even on a very cold Winter’s day. We were pretty lucky with how massive Regent’s Park is – it meant this gorgeous couple could warm up with a brisk walk between locations before removing their coats ready for the next shot! We love a bit of spontaneity too – as we reached the end of the shoot they suddenly started skipping off down the path before launching into a cute dance! Many thanks again to the two of you!

Oh Pinterest, where have you been all my life? This is the most amazing tool to help you gather wedding inspiration. If you are a scatty creative type like us, you can keep all your inspiration together in one place to prevent your head from exploding! If you are not, but know you don’t want the usual fluffy white wedding, wedding magazines aren’t really doing it for you, and you’re not sure where else to look… start with Pinterest! It’s not just a whole bunch of beautiful pictures, they actually link to the web source, so you’ll come across all the top wedding blogs as well as many, many weird and wonderful blogs and websites you never knew existed! Honestly, it’ll open up a whole world of ooos and aaahs! I started with a wedding inspiration board titled Wedding Treasure Trove, and found so many amazing things, I ended up with eight more; Our Home, Scrummy Party Spreads (for you foodies), Penny’s Wardrobe Wishlist, Hair Envy, Tattoo Admiration, Tino&Pip’s Posts, We ♥ Brighton by the Sea and Bits & Bobs!

Wedding Treasure Trove: ”A homage to all things wedding! Wedding inspiration for DIY, handmade, vintage, retro, funky, alternative, quirky or just down right stunning!”

Our Home: ”We are interior design addicts… ultimately we will be designing and building our own forever home, but for the time being we can dream…”

Scrummy Party Spreads: ”Swoon and salivate! Amazing wedding cakes, cupcakes, cake pops, wedding buffet ideas, sweetie tables, you name it, we’ve found it!”

*WARNING* Pinterest is highly addictive and may cause sleep deprivation, lack of attention at work, day dreaming and truly inspired weddings.

We spent Sunday fighting the London traffic so that we could set up a stand at The Alternative Wedding Fair in Piccadilly. Boy was it worth it! Not only did we meet some lovely, enthusiastic and quirky couples, but the venue, the Piccadilly Institute, was unique and rather entrancing – we kept spotting unusual decor at every turn! Check out the naked people looming out of the walls and hanging from the ceiling!

(A good tagline for Martin?!)

It was great to listen to the inspired wedding ideas of our visitors – all of your weddings sounded truly remarkable, and we are utterly envious of anyone who gets to attend! It was definitely the place for someone to find an alternative wedding photographer. In between chats with all the other lovely exhibitors, we managed (with great difficulty of course!) to convince the couples we spoke to that our fabulous giant jar of Smarties might be worth winning, should they correctly guess how many Smarties were actually sitting in it! Well we finally managed to tot up the little blighters and are pleased to announce ***Holly Wild*** as the winner! Congratulations Holly – we’ll be in touch very shortly so that we can get those Smarties to you asap!

Thanks again to Heidi at The Alternative Wedding Fair – we had a lot of fun (in between the crazy traffic) and hope we can be at the next one!

I was really sad to hear that Kodak filed for bankruptcy last week. One of their films, Kodachrome, is quite possibly one of the most beautiful things that ever happened in photography, and opened up the opportunity for millions of people to experience colour photography – it was as revolutionary in the twentieth century as digital has been in the twenty-first! Some of my very favourite photos were shot on Kodachrome, by the likes of William Albert Allard and Sam Abell. Now neither of us has ever shot Kodachrome, but I knew that my parents had, so we spent the day with them recently looking through some old photos. I was amazed when I discovered these photos were actually pretty damn good – go mum and dad!

Vintage Wedding Photography? We both started out photographing with film – in fact the rather lovely Rolleiflex camera you see in our website’s menu was used to take the two photos below! We’ve been asked if we use our film cameras for our business, but as of yet it just hasn’t happened – it’s hard enough to keep track of all the digital cameras dangling from your neck let alone a fifty year old mechanical wonder that may or may not break at any time! Given how fashion is very vintage and retro-orientated at the moment, it’s no surprise that there is also a movement in alternative wedding photography that is fixated on offering that retro or vintage film look in their wedding photos.

Some photographers, like Jose Villa, are actually using film, as their wedding services come with a premium price which can cover the enormous cost of processing and scanning the film. For the majority of photographers, this isn’t an option, but digital photography has opened up a whole world of opportunity for all photographers, especially when it comes to colour, and we’ve seen loads of vintage film effects popping up all over the place! The funny thing is its really hard to mimic a lot of films like the Kodachrome that my parents used – there’s an inherent (and beautiful) look which everyone seems to have spent ages trying to recreate, but can’t quite reach. We tried too, but eventually we said sod it, lets just do something completely new! Of course, if anyone does pull off that perfect Kodachrome effect, count us first in the queue!

It’s not only the couple-to-be that are investing themselves in their wedding day, it is often the input of family and friends that really bring it to life. We were we made to feel incredibly welcome at Brighton couple Emily and Simon’s stunning clash of Deco and punk, and Simon’s dad actually painted the panelling on his beach hut cream and blue, especially for their wedding day, just for the photos. Need we say more?!

The love story…

We asked Emily&Simon to describe each other in three words.

Emily said; Huggable, sensitive and hilarious

Simon said; SQUIGGLEY, caring and selfless

Simon and I went to school together… “I knew him through mutual friends and I also went out with one of his friends! We got together just before I went to university over a shared love of travelling, he had just visited the Amazon and I had spent a long time in India. Our friendship and relationship grew despite being miles apart for several years.”

Simon proposed over cheesecake… “We had chosen the ring together so I knew it was coming, he cooked us an amazing meal and homemade desert. Who wouldn’t say yes to cheesecake that good!”

I love Art Deco… “Art Deco. I love Art Deco architecture and 1920s and 30s style. I have always loved the way women dressed in really old movies, particularly the early ‘talkies’. Living in Brighton was a huge inspiration, I would wander the flea market and the lanes and charity shops my head buzzing with ideas! My Nan and late Auntie Vera influenced me a lot as they would always dress up for special occasions, looking really glamorous. I always loved looking at pictures of them when they were younger. My Nan kept a huge dressing up box of dresses, gloves, handbags, hats and fascinators which I would prance around in at every opportunity as a child! I wanted our families to be part of the decorations as they are so important. So many of our guests commented on the decorations and old photos, it was really special.”

The soundtrack… JUNO… “I walked down the aisle to Barry Louis Polisar’s song “All I Want Is You” from the film JUNO, it was magical. Our first dance was Anyone Else But You by The Moldy Peaches, also features in JUNO, love it. Adam, Lisa and John played it which made it extra special. Near the end everyone got up and joined in. I will never forget that feeling of having everyone around smiling and just enjoying being there with us.”

♥ Photography is obviously their passion and not just a job… “Originally we came across Penny and Martin (aka Tino&Pip) at a wedding fair… [and their] album really caught our eye. Having chatted to them briefly Simon and I were struck by how normal and easy to get on with they were. They seemed happy just to listen to our ramblings about what we liked and didn’t like. After looking at their website we were convinced that they could deliver the experience we wanted, a relaxed day capturing all the special moments without having to say ‘CHEESE’!

Penny and Martin are incredibly talented, photography is obviously their passion and not just a job, this comes across in every image they produce.

We are so happy to have captured such beautiful memories and are looking forward to sharing them again and again in years to come. I also cannot wait to get them printed supersize and put them all over the house!”

Venue: St Augustine’s, Westgate-on-sea, Kent. “The Chapel is just such a stunning room. Once the venue mentioned that we could sit down to eat and have the evening party all in that one space we were sold!”

Dress: Joanne Fleming Design, in Brighton. “I had always been convinced that i was born without the ‘bride gene’. Having not spent any of my childhood fantasising about this dress I found it very hard picturing what it might be like. I went to several traditional bridal wear shops to get some ideas but I found myself rushing to exit feeling really rather squeamish! I have always had a love of all things old fashioned, I guess because if someone else has created something classic and stylish why try and re-invent the wheel! Joanne was fantastic, I told her what sorts of things I liked and how I wanted the dress to fit my shape and gradually over several appointments the dress took shape. It felt wonderful knowing that this dress would be mine alone and that it would fit so perfectly. It surpassed my expectations, I felt truly amazing in it and I will treasure it forever.”

Shoes: Iron Fist. “My shoes were the second pair I got, the original ones were plain and safe and completely not me. I loved the idea of having a pop of colour under my dress.”

Accessories: “A couple of weeks before the big day I decided not to wear the lace headband I had bought and completed changed what I wanted to do with my hair. I was beginning to panic over what to have on my head! Two days before the wedding to kill some time in the evening I started to play around with some netting that my soon to be mother in law had brought for 25p! I added a brooch from Accessorize and voila! The earrings were my something borrowed from Simon’s mum, they were her 21^st birthday present. My underwear was FAUV, my step mum Liz helped me get this, they really did finish the outfit off perfectly and felt amazing to wear.”

Wedding present from Simon to Emily: “The necklace that Simon got me (the skull one) is from the Jewel Thief in Brighton, the crown was my present on the day.”

Wedding present from Emily to Simon: A slideshow presentation of photographs of the two of them throughout their time together that reduced Simon and his entire family to tears on the morning of their wedding!

Hair & make up: “Dannique from Beauty Call was lovely, really easy to chat to and gave lots of great advice.”

Groom’s outfit: Suit from John Lewis, accessories from Kurt Geiger.

Bridesmaid’s dresses & accessories: “The bridesmaids dresses were from Monsoon. The same night that I was making my own veil I put some ideas together and out popped the girls hair accessories. I hadn’t wanted to ask the girls to wear anything in particular so I made them as keepsakes really, hoping that maybe one of them might wear it. I wanted to make sure the girls all had something to keep that said thank you for supporting me. I brought them a necklace each from Etsy.”

Flowers: “The Secret Garden in Cliftonville, Margate, did my bouquet, the button holes and bridesmaids flowers as well as some of the large glass bowls dotted around the venue. I wanted to keep it local and had had several bad experiences of other florists telling me what I should have and the quoting ridiculous amounts of money. Liz was able to make up examples as I gave her ideas so I could really see what it would look like. I chose succulents because as a child I used to grow them in my bedroom and I loved the idea of being able to keep them.”

Décor: “We used peacock feathers pretty much everywhere. In the lounge bar I used some fresh flowers and vases from Simon’s parents house as well as a few succulent plants potted into glass wear I picked up from various flea markets and charity shops. The typewriter and cameras were Ebay purchases and the picture frames were family heirlooms given to me by my Nan, I believe my great granddad made them! I wanted the tables to be a bit mix and match. The general idea was peacock feathers, Deco and black and white film noir glamour. I think it was more a collection of random things I liked the look of! Decorating the tables was one of my favourite parts of the wedding preparations.”

Cake: “A friend of the family made it. It was simply fantastic. The cup cakes went down a storm on the night!”

Entertainment: “Adam, Simon’s brother agreed at the last minute to step in and entertain us. John Perry sang us a sea shanty, which was a surprise for Simon. They played our first dance which was superb, such a perfect song for us to remember the day by. We will be eternally grateful for their performance it really made the perfect atmosphere.”