My second to last wedding of last year had me nipping down the road to Doncaster for the wedding of Danielle and David. 

The day started at the couple's home for the Bridal prep - another room full of women for me to terrorise by pointing a camera at them!  It was all good fun, and the time soon flew by.  Wasn't even any nerves showing ...  So far. 
Midway through the prep I walked a hundred yards down the street to the Groom's parents' house and grabbed a few shots of the fellas getting ready too.  In typical men fashion - this took about 3 minutes flat!
Back to the Bridal party and dresses were all on and pretty soon the car arrived.  A pretty awesome stretched New York Checker cab.

Convoy to the venue time.

The rest of the day was all held at Castle Park - the home of the Doncaster Knights Rugby Club.

After a quick snap of the Bridal Party, I scampered inside to find David patiently waiting at the end of the aisle.  Looking rather nervous I must say!
He needn't have worried - his beautiful Bride-to-be soon followed the bridesmaids down the aisle to take her rightful place by his side.  Time to get down to business!
The vows were soon spoken, rings were exchanged, kisses were kissed and smiles-for-miles were the order of the day!  Maybe one or two tears too!

After kicking us out while the room got flipped, we braved the cold and went outside for a few snaps.  The low winter sun was pretty brutal, and the grounds aren't the greenest place for portraits, but we managed to sneak a few in.

It was soon back inside for an afternoon of food, drink, dancing and love.

And a few more drinks.  A proper good old Yorkshire knees-up!

Thanks for having me guys - you were both awesome!


Here are a few snaps from their day - 'The One Where They Got Married'.

One of my favourite things, when I'm shooting a wedding, is watching the antics of the little guests. 

The kids.

Kids are awesome.  And tiring.  And then awesome again.
I've got 3 of my own, so I know how they can go from the cutest things on the planet one minute, to making you want to pull your hair out the next.  There's a reason that people invented alcohol - and I'd wager a bet that a screaming 2 year old was behind it!

I love the little moments at a wedding - the ones that the Bride and Groom very rarely see until they get their photos back.  That's what I like to do.  I like to capture these little moments forever.  Photos that can be shown in 10 years time when they think they're all grown up!
I love these moments - bridal prep where two sisters are like little Princesses getting ready for the Ball.  Sneaking little selfies on their phones.  Ceremonies where the kids are that bored that they haven't realised the hymn book is upside down.  Outside the church where confetti wars are the best thing on the Earth for 5 minutes.  At the reception where they can't manage any more food, but demolish the sweetie cart in half an hour flat.  Sneaky fingers going for the wedding cake.  Bubbles and balloons - these are two of the greatest inventions to keep a kid busy that have ever been made!  The quiet moments, when two 10 year olds can sit in conversation like a couple of 50s housewives and two 15 year olds can chase each other around like they're 9 again.  The dancefloor, where they let loose like the adults daren't, when sliding is still the best thing in the world and swirly dresses make awesome twirls like they see on TV.
They all catch me eventually, and I get the goofy grin or the embarrassed smile or the covered face or the squeal of laughter.  Sometimes I even get a pose! 

These are precious moments.  Moments which can, and will, be cherished forever. 

There's one thing that kids can teach us - and that's how to live.  Now.  In the moment.  Live every second without a care about what's next.  Cry out your frustrations for a few minutes, but then carry on being the King or Queen of your world.
We all need to live like kids sometimes.

But, don't worry if you don't have kids, or there's no kids at your wedding.  After a few drinks down our necks, us adults soon shed the worry of adulting and start acting like kids again anyway...

Here are a few of those moments.

I thought I'd put a blog post together to show what I get up to in my spare time. 

I have a strong fascination with all things broken and abandoned.  I love rusty steel and twisted metal, broken stones and mossy rocks, shattered glass and age old bottles, broken clocks and worn-out watches.  I love to stand in a place where men and women once toiled and bled, the industry long since gone and their efforts forgotten.  I love the feel of walking down a hospital corridor where cries of joy and tears of sadness would never be heard again, just the eerie silence of something forgotten - maybe the occasional patter of dripping water from the now broken ceilings.  I love to sit in a chair where someone once spent the majority of their daily grind, see the random bits of graffiti carved into the desks, wondering who the initials 'JB' belonged to or whether 'Steve' still loved 'Alice'.  The sadness of some of these places can bring a tear to your eye, the thoughts of someone's job gone as another steelworks or mill closed their doors.  Some of the sights can be breathtaking too - the grandeur of the details in the building, the size of the doorways, the handwritten signs and the craftwork in the smallest window. 

So, here are a few snaps of some of the places that I've visited.  Abandoned mills, steelworks, factories, potteries, hospitals, asylums, collieries, churches, mortuaries, houses and mansions.  Broken RAF bases, trainyards, garages, farms and barns.  Lost cemeteries and junkyards.

I try to see the beauty in the broken.  The splendour of the past in the grime of the present.

Have a nosey through - someone you know, knew or loved could have once walked these halls, drove these cars, sat in these chairs and watched these clocks, just waiting for the weekend... 

A few weeks ago I had the lovely pleasure of photographing the wedding of Kandi and Viv.

I met the couple at their hotel in the heart of Doncaster before we moved on up to the register office. 
After the vows, we were unceremoniously rushed out of the wedding room after about 3 minutes worth of photos, so we went down in to Elmfield Park to shoot some group shots and a few portraits.
After that - it was time to get on board the Wyre Lady!

The Wyre Lady is a riverboat that runs functions and parties round the Doncaster/Sprotbrough area.  For more info, click HERE.

The boat was soon comically nicknamed 'The Lesboat', but we really should have nicknamed it 'The Partyboat'.  Because that's what this wedding was - a party from start to finish.

A special mention has got to be made about the duelling speeches - one a poem and the other a song.  It was proper comedy genius.

And I'm not even gonna mention the cake cutting speech...

When I got home from the wedding at the end of the night, my face was still hurting from laughing!

Thanks for having me guys - it was awesome!

Here's a few pictures from their day.