A Wedding in Stone | Emma & Josh
Tropical Weather for a Stone Wedding
Emma & Josh got in touch in 2018 looking for a wedding photographer for their big family wedding in Stone, Staffordshire. With well over 100 guests and a huge bridal party the service was held at the Immaculate Conception and Saint Dominic Catholic Church in Stone before moving on to Aston Marina’s Boat House for the wedding reception. Their guest-list made every venue just the right kind of full and a great atmosphere all around.
It did however become some what of a challenge to remember all 16 members of the bridal parties names. I did in true Adam form make up a few on the spot nicknames which brought true comedy as many people took to Flutey as a new name for a groomsmen who played the flute in the service. Super inventive I know.
With a storm front rolling throughout the day we had high winds, horrendously large downpours and blistering sun through blue clouds. To be honest, minus the crazy wind which had Emma relinquish her J&J Designs veil early, I actually love this kind of weather as you really get a strong difference within the photographs and it makes you assess every single location with a completely different eye.
I think this is the first wedding where I’ve actually had food made for me in the morning. Upon arriving Emma’s 8 bridesmaids all fell over themselves to help me. It was such a lovely warm welcome as I worked my way around the hair and make up team to capture some stellar preparation photographs.
As I arrived church it was so great to see some familiar faces in the crowd. I photographed Josh’s cousins wedding a couple of months back so it was so a part of the church was filled with many people who’d recently been making there way through my editing gallery. Having this wedding already behind my belt was great was a lot of the people knew what I was about and I didn’t really have to do much.
A Stone Wedding Day Slideshow
Stumbling Across Hidden Beauty
Arriving at the church is such a tense moment. I’m to introduce myself to so many people and also catch up with the groom whilst perfecting settings and positioning for the impending service. Something I always also do is make myself known to the person leading the service. This time it was Father Doyle, I looked for him everywhere. Could I find him, no! Slipping through a side door to see if he was there I came across a nun who didn’t know where he’d slipped off to either. Luckily I soon found out he’d slipped back home to feed his cat.
During this frantic search I came across such a beautiful setting just on the adjoining corridor to the church. With the church having a Convent and a school directly adjoined there were loads of rooms everywhere. The corridor was like something out of Hogwarts and I was desperate to bring Josh and Emma in here later. Knowing full well that things would be tight at Aston Marina if we were bound to the inside I decided to use this awesome hidden gem in Stone to shoot a few couple portraits before heading off. It’s always super important to me I use everything I can before moving on as the room nor weather may not be so favourable at the other location.
I never knew I was going to get the chance to take such an amazing portrait on this day. To be honest I hardly ever know what I’m going to take and for this reason it’s super important to move fast and make quick decisions to get the most out of the day whilst not disrupting the flow too much.
Stone Wedding Photography
Having photographed at Aston Marina’s Boat House last year I was keen to see it all in a new light. Changing things around I used different areas to do different things. Last time we did the confetti at the church and this time I didn’t have that luxury so the only way to include over 100 guests is to create the ole classic confetti tunnel. Being a Stone wedding photographer you have to do some serious thinking ahead. Knowing the confetti shot would be my first as Emma and Josh arrived I positioned the bus in the right place to then have Emma and Josh pull up just behind it creating a real great back drop for the area I was going to use for the confetti tunnel.
Not wanting to play games with the ever changing weather I then used my best dictator impression to burn through all their groups shots in record time. These photographs are so important but sometimes they can be the only thing the guests remember about the day. How many times do you hear “The photographer took ages to do the official photographs of the family”? Yeah I don’t want to be that guy so working with my fool proof method we burned through everything in no more than 30 minutes which was pretty impressive with such a large wedding party.
