cee bee photography

Katie and Matthew 28.12.08

So, our last wedding of 2008....and what a beautiful, but cold, day it was.

The day started off with Christine going to Katie's parents house for the prep shots whilst I, Claire, went to the venue, Denbies Vineyard in Dorking, to grab a few shots of the venue and details whilst the sun was shining. Matthew looked smart, but perhaps a little nervous, in a French Connection suit as he arrived with his groomsmen but they seemed to keep him in check whilst he waited for his beautiful bride.

Katie arrived at the venue with her bridesmaids in a beautiful old Bently and looked gorgeous in a Ellis gown which was from Yasemins Gowns in Horley (t: 01293 439698).
The bridesmaids were wearing handmade dresses from dressmaker Lynn Roberts based in Crawley (t: 01293 421011) and all looked lovely.

After the very personal ceremony it was time to brave the cold and head outside for a few photographs in the courtyard. We then went back in after a few minutes to do the group photographs before we headed to the cellar for some more photographs.

Guests enjoyed drinks and nibbles whilst they waited for the speeches before heading upstairs to the Las Vegas themed restaurant for the meal.

Here are a few favourites....

 

   

 

 

 

 

Congratulations guys, have a fantastic honeymoon....be sure to tell me all about it!

Claire

Kathleen & Magnus 13.12.08

Our second to last wedding of 2008 was the wedding of Kathleen and Magnus at Hotel du Vin in Tunbridge Wells.

It was a wet and windy grey day which meant that we were inside all day but it dampen the spirits of the Kathleen and Magnus or their guests. Everyone was in such great spirits.

Kathleen and Magnus both got ready at the hotel and rather than the groom waiting at the aisle for his bride Kathleen and Magnus did things a little different, they both got together once they were ready to share a few minutes alone together before greeting their guests who were all waiting downstairs.
This was a great time to take some lovely portraits of them both together, they were so excited that it was great to capture that in the photographs.

The couple then greeted their guests and had a quick drink before they made their way to the Abbey Well room for the ceremony, with their guests following them. The ceremony was beautiful, even if Magnus hadn't put his teeth in correctly (not literally!) which made everyone laugh. It was great photographing the couple from the front and seeing their joy and love for each other as they exchanged vows and rings.

Ceremony over we made our way quickly through the list of group photographs that we were given by the bride and groom. The couple then went and joined their guests for drinks whilst we photographed everyone enjoying themselves and details of the beautifully festive dining room, including the great favours - which were personalised postcards featuring a photo of the couple as the stamp on the day they got engaged, a postmark from the hotel and a photo of a tree with their initial's carved into it. The postcard was also everyone's menu!! Such a great idea. There was also crackers for everyone which was very festive!

Here are a couple of our favourite photographs from the day...to see their gallery you will need the password from the bride and groom.

A very dapper looking groom...

 

Gorgeous Kathleen with her groom...

 

 

Ceremony over, time to relax...

 

Great favours!

 

Congratulations guys....

Happy New Year....

Finally, we've got around to say Happy New Year to our past and present clients and all of our readers.

2008 has been and gone very quickly...one of the highlights of the year was of course Claire's very own wedding. A beautiful warm and sunny day in....October! You can read all about it on Claire's Wedding Diary pages.

We saw so many beautiful weddings in 2008, we're hoping to see a few of our lovely couples again when we photograph their new baby's in 2009!! We love photographing newborn babies, so scrummy and yummy!

Here is a favourite wedding shot from 2008...

 

A wonderfully happy Pippa and Stuart doing their confetti run...!

 

Fran and Jake all loved up in the Cloisters at our favourite venue, Horsely Towers

 

Fran, Jake and their bridal party....we like to do shots like this when possible and luckily everyone was up for it making it more fun!!

We also had lots of lovely portraits to photograph in 2008. A couple of photographs that stand out immediatly from the year is Charlotte's gorgeous children, Charlie, Maisie and Eddie and of course their big white fluffy Labradoodle!!

Also, how could we forget beautiful little Charlotte in the lavender field...(this is my personal favourite of the year- Claire)

 

We look forward to seeing you all in 2009.

Natalie and James...

So, a few weeks ago we photographed Nat and James' wedding in Woking.

It was a beautifully sunny autumnal day which started off at Horsley Towers, the venue for their reception, to meet James and his merry men. We grabbed a few photographs before we left for the church. Christine went to meet Natalie and her mum's house which was just a few hundred yards from the beautifully quaint little church where the wedding was held.

Despite the short distance Natalie and her dad arrived at the church, just 10 minutes late, in a fantastic VW Camper van...a favourite of Natalie's.

After the service we headed back to our favourite venue, Horsley Towers in Surrey. Whilst guests were arriving for the reception we made use of the ever fading light and took Nat and James off around the venue for a few photographs and met up with family for the few groups that were requested.

Here are a few of our favourites from the day....

 

 

 

 

Just what was needed for the journey from the church to the reception...

 

 

A moment between Natalie and her mum...

 

Yummy cakes!!

 

There's always one.....

Copyright and the reasons why....

There is some confusion over the 'Copyright' thing.

Copyright is something that belongs to the author or creator of a photograph...and as we are photographers producing photographs for clients that means that all copyright belongs to us and does so for a very long time....in fact, for 70 years after our death!

It is illegal for anyone to copy any of our photographs either by scanning, photocopying or indeed photographing a photograph (and yes, it has happened), the person, or shop, doing so is breaching our copyright and can be prosecuted.
If you take one of our photographs to somewhere else, for example on the high street, to be copied and made into something like a canvas or to be enlarged then legally that place has to, under copyright law, contact us to ask our permission..............and of course we're going to say no, it cannot be copied! If they carry out the work they are doing so illegally and can be, and will be, prosecuted.

It is important that we, as photographers, protect our copyright this is why some photographers put watermarks on their photographs, or text across the photographs or add metadata on digital files...which leads us onto a different subject.

Digital files - we are constantly being asked...
"If I buy a HRCD (high resolution digital CD) or a digital file from you does that mean I own the copyright"?
The short answer is NO.
You buy the usage rights which means that yes, you can print from them or whatever you want to do with them, however legally you should always ask permission from the photographer (we provide a letter with our HRCD stating that we provide usage rights). This is why digital files aren't cheap which leads us onto another subject but we'll save this for another time.

We have the right to object if our work is distorted, and the right to an accurate credit where our photographs are unfairly used in publications. These are obviously important to protecting and to spreading our reputation - which without we have no work.

For more information, and some light reading, on the Copyright Act please click here

The Lake District

It's not often we get personal playtime as we're so busy but after our wedding my husband surprised me and took me to the Lake District for a few days for our 'mini-moon'.
I had to take my camera...my main camera and my little compact p&s.

Having never been to the Lakes but always wanting to go I wasn't disappointed when we got there. Our hotel was on Lake Windermere with stunning views across the calm and serene lake. The weather was lovely for mid autumn, it was sunny and bright although it was cold.

One day we took a boat cruise from Windermere to Ambleside. The cruise to Almbleside was a bit fast, fresh and freezing cold as it started to rain however the cruise back was lovely...much slower, sun shining, slight breeze and both my husband and I snuggled up together on top deck!!

On our last day we got up really early to take some morning mist shots on the hotel jetty. I'm not one for early mornings, I hate getting out of my nice warm and cosy bed - especially this one as it was 8 foot wide - but knowing that we had a long drive back home we had to get up early anyway...so after we did some shots we were the first to breakfast - and we've never been first to breakfast.

The Lake District is beautiful and I wish we were there longer but work commitments meant we had to come home however we are definitly going back....maybe for our first anniversary!

Here are some of my favourite shots...     

  

  

Claire

Micky the dog....

So, we've been busy at cee bee HQ hence the delayed update on this blog.

But what better way to update it than by introducing Micky, the west highland terrior.

Micky's owner braught Mickey in to the studio for some doggie portraits because sadly Mickey is quite old - although still spritely.

Here are a couple of our favourites...

 

Claire & Nicky's Wedding 12th October 08

So, our very own Claire got married!!

After 10 years Claire & Nicky finally got married at the beautiful Horsley Towers . This is a venue that we have worked at many times so we knew it inside it but it was very different for Claire this time being the other side of the camera.
Christine took a rare opportunity and put the cameras away to relax and enjoy the day as Claire & Nicky's guest however couldn't resist a few shots later in the day!

After a bit of a stressful start Claire finally managed to relax and enjoy the day. She wore a beautiful dress from Essence Couture which was shaped by Miriam at Collezione Sposa Beautiful Bride in Great Portland St, London. Kelly, Miriam and Nora were superb in the lead up to the day, Miriam even made the bespoke bolero from the cuts of the dress!!!!The dress was very fitted, straight with a fishtail bottom. The bodice had diamantes placed on it which  added some sparkle and the bolero, also hand beaded with sparkles, was the perfect finish...all very 'Claire' so guests were overheard as saying.
Nicky wore a three piece grey tail suit with a ivory cravat which looked very smart, the bridemaids wore Chocolate tea length dresses with a latte sash & wrap whilst the ushers all wore grey tails with caramel cravats.

The flowers, all arranged beautifully by Claire Ann Flowers were orange..very autumnal! The bride's bouquet was mango calla liles and willow, the bridemaids had the same lilies with orange gerberas, the buttonholes were ivory calla's whilst Nicky had mango lilies and willow to complement his bride's bouquet. The table centrepieces were birds of paradise and willow which looked amazing!

The tablenames were named after comedy duos, as Claire & Nicky are a bit of a duo themselves, so the top table was called Max & Paddy and there was also Patsy & Eddie, Lou & Andy, The Krankies, Two Ronnies to name but a few.
Placenames were little framed photographs of each guest...much to their amusement. A great way to get people talking. I have to say it took ages finding each photo, scanning, saving and printing them but it was lots of fun!!
Our favours were homemade CD's, which had a photo of HT printed on the CD itself and a CD cover with HT on it. The music was music from our wedding and other 'love' favourites on it.

All in all everything came together beautifully and it was a very emotional day with little personal touches which Claire & Nicky wanted to add. They both worked so hard making everything from invites, menu's, order of the day booklet's, notices for the disposable cameras, card box and notice, children's gift bags, everything was just how they wanted it and it really was worth every effort, a beautiful day...they even planned the gorgeous weather!!!

Claire was very touched and overwhelmed to receive so many cards and messages from many of you, past and present clients so thank you to all of you.

Here are just a couple of photographs that Claire's friend and colleague Peter took....Read all about the wedding and have a look at more photographs on Claire's Wedding Diary - The Finale!

 

 

For more photos check out the FINALE diary page.

Kate & Ben

Kate & Ben held their wedding at the beautiful Gorse Hill in Woking.

The weather wasn't great, with rain for most of the day but it didn't dampen anyone's spirits!!!
Ater the heartfelt church service everyone made the short journey back to Gorse Hill.

Kate looked beautiful in her Benjamin Roberts gown which really suited her, elegant and sassy!
The bridesmaids looked gorgeous in their hot pink Alfred Angelo dresses.

Hot Pink was the theme for the day which looked fantastic and certainly brightened up the gloomy weather. When we had a break in the weather we managed to grab a few outside shots.

Here are few of our favourites...

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not this wasn't a set up shot...as you can tell from the little one's face!

Lucy & Tim

So, September was a busy month...

We had the joy of photographing Lucy & Tim's wedding at the very beautiful Delbury Hall in Shropshire, http://www.delbury.com

The weather wasn't particularly kind to us on the journey travelling up to Shropshire the night before, it was awful but fortunately we made it to the hotel in one piece unlike some unfortunate guests. Lucy told us that some of their guests had to abandon their cars due to heavy flooding leaving them to hitch hike to the wedding!!

The wedding day started at the venue where the bride and groom along with their attendants were getting ready - seperately of course!
Lucy looked beautiful in her Jenny Packham gown and Tim was simply blown away when we saw her walking towards him.
Tim looked very smart in his traditional tails...with red socks! Very cool!

The ceremony was very personal but yet emotional, even I had tears in my eyes, with Lucy & Tim sourrounded by their immediate families and very close friends.
After the ceremony the guests were served afternoon tea and sandwiches in the sunshine which stayed out whilst we did the photographs.
Lucy & Tim then went their seperate ways ready for their church blessing which took place in the church next door!

After the church service, where more guests joined them, everyone headed back to Delbury Hall for an English Country Garden themed reception........and the sun decided to pop out once again so all in all we were all very lucky and greatful for such weather because it allowed guests to explore the gorgeous gardens...despite them being a bit soggy!

Here are a few of our favourite photographs from the day....

A beautiful but wet Delbury Hall...

 

Tim putting the finishing touches to his outfit...

 

Tim and the two best men with the Austin Healy that Lucy hired for Tim for the weekend.

  

 

   

 

 

Congratulations to you both.....and congratulations on your news.