Burgess Photography Blog

I met up with Sarah and Richard at Cockliffe House Hotel, their wedding venue, to get a better idea of their plans for their wedding day. We always try to visit the wedding venue before the big day (unless we have photographed there before) just to get a sense of the place and sow some ideas in our heads of how we can get the most from the venue in the photographs. Where a pre-wedding visit isn’t feasible, normally due to distance, we try to get to the area of the wedding early on the day in order to check out the reception venue first.

After looking round Cockliffe House we headed to Sarah’s parents’ house in West Bridgford for a pre-wedding photoshoot. Sarah and Richard were both extremely easy to photograph and I am looking forward to their wedding in May.

It was a very cold morning the day of Gemma & Alex’s pre-wedding shoot so we didn’t linger outside for long, just a quick trip to Branston Water Park to get a few shots and then back home into the warm. Turns out it was cold for a very good reason as the snow started to fall and then just kept coming later in the afternoon. We are all hoping for slightly warmer weather for their wedding at Shottle Hall in March!

Liz is Beccy’s best friend and it was while they were on a girlie holiday together to Lindos in Rhodes that Liz met her now fiance, Tony. We are really excited to be photographing Liz and Tony’s wedding in March, in fact Andy will be doing all the photographs as Beccy has another important role for the day as matron of honour!

It was great to start the new year by meeting up with them to check out their wedding reception venue, Oakley Hall near Market Drayton, and then head to Keele Hall for their pre-wedding shoot. We picked Keele Hall as the weather was not on our side – it was freezing cold with snow on the ground – but we know the venue very well so could get some good shots in quite a short space of time. Then it was off to Liz’s parents’ house to warm up and tuck into Sunday lunch – yum, yum!

We met Helen and Dan at their wedding venue, Wychwood Park, for their pre-wedding shoot as it gave us chance to check out the location as well as having somewhere to sit and enjoy a coffee while going through the paperwork! They are getting married in November but have picked an ideal venue for a winter wedding as the modern, stylish interior of the hotel means the photo opportunities inside are just as good, if not better, than outside. We made the most of some this for the pre-wedding shoot and the rain kept us indoors.

Although most of our wedding clients book with us 9-18 months before their wedding, Suzie and Dan booked us with only 3 weeks notice for their wedding at Norwood Park. However, we still managed to fit their pre-wedding shoot in a fortnight before the wedding. We headed out for a walk along the disused Nottingham to Grantham canal that runs through the housing estate in Gamston. Some of these photos are actually taken around the back of Morrisons – proof that you don’t need a glamourous venue to get lovely photographs.