The wedding also happened to be taking place on a special day in Tunbridge Wells’s history. Yes, Tunbridge Wells Football Club (my home town club) had made it all the way to the FA Vase Final at Wembley to play Spennymoor Town from the Durham area. I had been to see many of the previous rounds in the competition and the further we got, I always had it in the back of my mind that I wouldn’t be able to go if we did make it. That day, there was a mass exodus of of supporters going up from Tunbridge Wells and they made up the majority of the 1,700 crowd. Not bad for a team that usually plays in front of a crowd in the hundreds.

I started at the church where Jay was greeting the guests. The vicar was welcoming and accomodating and was happy to let me get on with my job discreetly. Why aren’t more vicars like this?

When Lucy arrived she had an unexpected greeting party. A coach load of French tourists were having a look around the outside of the church and were very impressed with the arrival of this English bride. Lots of extra cameras got shots of Lucy walking up the path to the church door and she even got a large round of applause.

Once the ceremony was over, they exited the church to bright sunshine, confetti and a couple of shots by the church door. When I got back to the car to make my way to Read’s Restaurant, I switched on Radio Kent (well, it sometimes comes in handy) who had live commentary from Wembley. There was only five minutes left and we were 2-1 down and that’s how it ended. Still, they did fantastically well in getting there and certainly gave the town a lift. Our local paper the Kent & Sussex Courier milked it for all it was worth with lots of thumbs up pictures of excited children as only a local paper could.

The wedding reception at Read’s Restaurant started off with drinks and a few shots of Lucy and Jay walking around the grounds of this elegant Georgian manor house. The main speeches were done informally in the lounge, first by Jay then his best man and then there was a lovely surprise ‘speech’ in the form of a video message sent by Lucy’s brother’s family all the way from Sydney, Australia. You could tell that this touched Lucy very much. In fact, lots of the guests had travelled in from all over the world to celebrate with them.

At around 7pm the guests were seated for a special tasting menu prepared by Michelin-starred chef David Pitchford. I counted eight courses on the menu and each and every one that came out of the kitchen looked superb. In between courses, a different guest would get up and do a little speech which was a nice touch.  With such a lovely meal in prospect, the evening disco didn’t get started to late but the dancefloor looked pretty full from the start.

I never did ask the staff why there were so many Ronald Searle drawings, prints and faxes on the walls. He was a British artist and satirical cartoonist perhaps best known as the creator of St Trinian’s School. I expect he was good friends with the owners as each picture had a lovely personal messages wishing them a Happy Birthday or Christmas.

Lucy emailed me the other day, from their boat as they cruise around on honeymoon, to say that they love their photos. “Thanks again for a great job – I personally hardly noticed you were there (sorry!)” said Lucy…….” Don’t worry”, I said, “I take that as a compliment.”

If you are planning a wedding at Read’s Restaurant or anywhere else for that matter, please get in touch.

I’m a documentary wedding photographer based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent offering reportage coverage of your wedding and I travel anywhere in the UK and overseas.

If you’d like to see all the pictures from wedding, click on this link http://craigprentis.zenfolio.com/lucyjay. You’ll need to get the password from Lucy and Jay, not me!

You can also follow me on Twitter and I will be adding these images to my Facebook Page – once there, feel free to share the images with your Facebook friends. New Facebook Page likers always welcome!!

Lastly, if you like the pictures here, please leave a comment – it would be much appreciated.

The post Lucy and Jay’s wedding at Read’s Restaurant appeared first on Kent Wedding Photographer | Craig Prentis Photography.

The couple whose dog I was to photograph wanted to do the session at Harrison’s Rocks in Groombridge and I needed reminding where they are so we agreed to meet at The Junction Inn  in Groombridge and then going up from there. I arrived a few minutes early on a lovely blue sky day and the Morris Men were out in force dancing in front of the pub. I don’t know how long they had been there but I grabbed my camera and got in amongst them as I knew the couple would be along soon.

This is very much up my street. Although there are Morris teams in other countries, it’s very much seen as something in the English tradition. The Morris dance goes back centuries and is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied to music. I know it takes a lot of stick from many people, but in this day and age of X Factor and other so called talent shows, I think this is a tradition to be celebrated.

I was literally there for only five minutes before the dog shoot family turned up and I had to head off, but I think I’m right in saying one or all of these were from The Hartley Morris Men and according to their website, they were on their “Larkins’  Tour” and were heading off later to Eridge and finishing in Tunbridge Wells. I think I’m going to make this a project for another time because it’s just great visually and the blokes that do it seem like quite a friendly bunch. The beer’s good too.

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Today’s choice of favourite wedding photograph (chosen by the couple with words explaining why) comes from Anna and Rob who had their winter wedding at Cripps Barn in Gloucestershire last December.

Here’s what they said about it -

“This photo has got to be my favourite from our wedding day. I love how natural and at ease we both are; it captures a sincere moment of delight and hilarity. At this point we had just got married and were deliriously chatting about how funny and wonderful the whole experience had been. I love that we clearly don’t mind a jot that it’s pelting down with rain, in fact the photo wouldn’t be the same without it as we definitely wouldn’t be laughing so hard. It also never fails to make me smile as the umbrella was bespoke and shaped like a heart (I loved how it would look on all the photos). Alas, on the day, I totally forgot this and have lots of photos of us wandering around with a wonky-looking umbrella; typical.  Craig captured a wonderful, natural, happy, charming moment between us and it will stay in a frame on our bedside table until we’re old and grey.”
Anna and Rob at Cripps Barn

Anna asked me in the email if that was “okay”? Yeah, I suppose it will do….only kidding, loved it and the last line made my wife go “aah”.

If you’ve had your wedding photographed by me and would like to choose your favourite picture, please get in touch. You’ll need to describe why you love it in no more than 150 words and I will send you a print by way of thanks.

To see what other wedding couples chose and what they had to say about their “The One We Love”, I’ve added a new page to my website.

You can also follow me on Twitter and I will be adding this image to my Facebook Page – once there, feel free to share the images with your Facebook friends. New Facebook Page likers always welcome!!

The post The One We Love #6 appeared first on Kent Wedding Photographer | Craig Prentis Photography.

Their wedding was all within walking distance of Sanderstead in Surrey where they live. The ceremony was at All Saints Church and the reception at Sanderstead Cricket Club. In between is Sanderstead Pond where this picture was taken.

Here’s what they said about it -

“Over 120 folk on the bank of Sanderstead Pond. It could only have happened on a day which was dry – and when no serious over night rain had fallen! It was also a reminder of that happy occasion – when literally everything went right – and was so beautifully caught on camera.”
Florence and Patrick in Sanderstead

If you’ve had your wedding photographed by me and would like to choose your favourite picture, please get in touch. You’ll need to describe why you love it in no more than 150 words and I will send you a print by way of thanks.

To see what other wedding couples chose and what they had to say about their “The One We Love”, I’ve added a new page to my website.

You can also follow me on Twitter and I will be adding this image to my Facebook Page – once there, feel free to share the images with your Facebook friends. New Facebook Page likers always welcome!!

The post The One We Love #5 appeared first on Kent Wedding Photographer | Craig Prentis Photography.

Not having been there before, I stopped by at the Knepp Castle estate on my way to Claire’s and found these wonderful tipis being dressed for the day. I call them tipis but actually they called ‘Giant Hats’ and are provided by Beautiful World Tents. They looked amazing and were a nice change from the white marquees that are normally used at weddings.

The location was really lovely with the tipis nestled between the wooded area and Springwood Pond with great open views all around.

The atmosphere at Claire’s house was nice and relaxed. Claire was taking it all in her stride and I loved the way she had time to prepare a lunch for their little daughter Imogen in amongst the bouquets of flowers sat on her kitchen worktop. As we chatted and she gathered the lunch together, I carried on shooting. It’s all part of documenting the wedding day. It may seem mundane, but when they look back in years to come, it will all have meaning to them. I think little moments like this are worth recording and that’s why I’m a documentary wedding photographer.

The formal part of the day turned out to be a very informal Humanist ceremony conducted by Ginny Collins. It kept with the outdoor theme, surrounded by nature with everyone gathered around on the grass by the waterside and it made for some lovely pictures.

I wanted to make sure I got lots of shots of Claire, Tom and Imogen together on the day as I felt this was important. It reminded me of my wedding day and the fact that we had Olivia, our first daughter there too (at the same age – about 18 months). Sadly, I wasn’t doing wedding photography back then and got a photographer mate to shoot some pics at my wedding, but there’s not much there. Let that be a lesson to you if you’re thinking of getting either Uncle Bob or some other perfectly good photographer to do the job. Like every branch of photography, shooting weddings is a speciality and something I would have done differently had I known back then.

As the day went on, the wind got up a bit. A familiar sight during the wedding was people standing around the giant heaters generally warming themselves up. When the meal started, those on the open side of the tipis got the full brunt of the wind. Those inside were more sheltered and each time I looked, the ‘outsiders’ were applying more and more layers and there seemed to be a rush for the heaters in between the courses.

The speeches were very amusing and Claire’s brother made reference to something else that adults do outside in nature with everyone watching. You just don’t expect this activity to be mentioned in a wedding speech! Quite often, I heard most things in wedding speeches before. I do listen in and like it when I hear something new and amusing. If I’ve got the camera in front of my face and it starts bobbling up and down because I’m chuckling so much, that’s all good.

As the day came to a close, I knew I wanted to get a nice shot of the tipis glowing in that hour just after the sun’s gone down. I’ve stopped trying to shoot this hand held, bracing myself against a tree at about a half a second, wide open at ISO3200. No, that’s what tripods were invented for and mine now comes out at the end of the night for a venue shot if it’s going to work.

If you’re planning a tipi wedding at Knepp Castle or anywhere else and would like an unobtrusive documentary wedding photographer, please get in touch.

I’m a documentary wedding photographer based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent offering reportage coverage of your wedding and I travel anywhere in the UK and overseas.

If you’d like to see all the pictures from wedding, click on this link http://craigprentis.zenfolio.com/clairetom. You’ll need to get the password from Claire and Tom, not me!

You can also follow me on Twitter and I will be adding these images to my Facebook Page – once there, feel free to share the images with your Facebook friends. New Facebook Page likers always welcome!!

Lastly, if you like the pictures here, please leave a comment – it would be much appreciated.

The post Tipi wedding at Knepp Castle appeared first on Kent Wedding Photographer | Craig Prentis Photography.

This week’s choice for ‘The One We Love’ is from Jane and David who had there wedding at the Bickley Manor Hotel in Bromley, Kent.

This regular blog feature is where one of my wedding couples choose their favourite picture and describe why they love it in no more than 150 words.

Here’s the image they chose:

And here’s what they said about it -

When I started this blog feature, I didn’t know which picture each couple would be choosing – that choice is entirely up to them. But I’ve really enjoyed getting the correspondance back and reading the explanation as to why they love the one they’ve chosen and this is summed up in Jane and David’s words above.

I’ll be addding another couple’s favourite picture and words to sum it up very soon. If you’ve had your wedding photographed by me in the past and would like to choose your favourite image to feature, please get in touch.

To see what other wedding couples chose and what they had to say about their “The One We Love”, I’ve added a new page to my website.

You can also follow me on Twitter and I will be adding this image to my Facebook Page – once there, feel free to share the images with your Facebook friends. New Facebook Page likers always welcome!!

The post The One We Love #4 appeared first on Kent Wedding Photographer | Craig Prentis Photography.

I usually like to have a little look around if I’m unfamiliar with the venue, so on that morning I stopped by at Bradbourne House before making my way up to the Bromley area for Philippa’s getting ready photos.

Bradbourne House is set in 20 acres and you approach it via a long drive. It was originally built in Tudor times and then was extended in the 18th century. On that bright Spring morning, it looked very much the ‘magnificent country manor’ house, as described in the brochure.

David was there with his best man doing last minute arranging-type-things and a fantastic cake was being lovingly placed by the window in the Breakfast Room. I mistook these four cake handlers as the professional cake makers but they were in fact, members of David’s family. I think I’m right in saying that David’s mum had done most of the work and she’d done a fantastic job.

I did a second stop off at St Joseph’s RC Church in Bromley before heading to the house for Philippa’s preparations. As I was in such good time, I decided to knock half an hour early and was duly invited in to have lunch. Philippa’s family were a really friendly, welcoming bunch and the lunchtime conversation went from The Grand National (which was running today) to white Wotsits – you know, that packaging material you get around fragile things in cardboard boxes.

The beautiful bridal bouquets had been laid out on the table. Philippa had gone for seasonal tulips in a range of vibrant colours that had been superbly put together by Broadview Florist in Hadlow.

Brides before the wedding usually range from the utterly nervous to the laid-back-almost-horizontal. You never know what you’ll find when you get there; I just try to keep calm myself, chat a little but keep my intrusion to a minimum. There’s enough to-ing and fro-ing going on. My job as a documentary wedding photographer is to work around this, record what happens in front of me and add whatever I can to the capture of this important day.

Philippa was in the slightly nervous camp but like all weddings I go to, I always find that once the ceremony is over, the whole atmosphere changes. It’s like a weight has been lifted from the shoulders once this formal part of the day has taken place. Of course, this also means that emotions are running high and without being cruel about it, outpourings of emotions = nice picture oppotunities. I’m sure he won’t mind me saying but David’s father was ‘joyfully happy’ outside St Joseph’s RC Church, Bromley and again during the speeches and I thought this was lovely. It’s what weddings are all about – a coming together of a couple who love each other in front of their friends and family. Although I’m there on an official capacity, I do feel priveledged to be part of so many couple’s special day, as a sort of invited guest to photograph it all. What a great job!

So the day went off splendidly. The truly horrendous weather that had been going on all week (and it seems for the past six months) had cleared up. Nobody could quite believe that Philippa and David’s wedding at Bradbourne House was going to be celebrated outside in the sunshine. It was just about warm enough to be out there without wrapping up too much. And although they were about a month behind, even a few daffodils were out.

Planned just right, we had enough time for Philippa and David to do a little stroll around before getting back inside for 4.15pm. Why 4.15pm? Well, as I said earlier, this was Grand National day. It seemed as though it was a big deal for Philippa’s family in particular and a TV had been set up in the Committee Room to show the race. I’m not sure anyone had any money on Auroras Encore ridden by Ryan Mania though. If I’d have had money on a 66-1 winner, I’m not sure I could have contained myself, wedding or no wedding.

The wedding breakfast was held in the Great Hall which is a lovely, painted blue room, full of hanging portraits with three long tables for the guests and a top table at the window end. The entrance of the bride and groom can often make for some nice pictures but again can be a little hit and miss with guests often obscuring the view as the couple make their way in. This time though, they came straight towards me in between two of the long tables. I’ve got a lovely sequence of about ten pictures with Philippa leading the way being clapped in by the guests and in every picture she is beaming away and looking so happy.

So all in all, it was a lovely wedding to photograph for a great couple and I must thank the families for making me feel so welcome on the day.

To view all the pictures from the wedding, click on this link to view Philippa and David’s wedding at Bradbourne House.

If you are planning a wedding at Bradbourne House or anywhere else for that matter, why not get in touch. I’m a documentary wedding photographer based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent offering reportage coverage of your wedding with minimal fuss and interuption. I also travel anywhere in the UK and overseas.

You can also follow me on Twitter and I will be adding these images to my Facebook Page – once there, feel free to share the images with your Facebook friends. New Facebook Page likers always welcome!!

The post Philippa and David’s wedding at Bradbourne House appeared first on Kent Wedding Photographer | Craig Prentis Photography.

This week’s ‘The One We Love’ is the choice of Louise and Richard who had a lovely wedding in their home city of Bath with a ceremony at the Royal Crescent Hotel.

The Royal Crescent is a street of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent. It was designed by the architect John Wood the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774. It is considered one the greatest examples of Georgian architecture.

The image they’ve chosen shows them leading their guests out of the Royal Crescent and on to the reception venue, The Marlborough Tavern.

Here’s the image they chose:

And here’s what they had to say about it -

“This photo captures the heart of our wedding day; fun, relaxed and surrounded by the people we love.  Craig’s documentary style meant that we can look back on the day and remind ourselves of the story that unfolded.  Our intimate wedding was everything we ever hoped for and thanks to Craig we now have beautiful pictures to continue to remember that day.“
Louise and Richard at The Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath

If you’d like to see what other wedding couples chose and what they had to say, go to the The One We Love page on my website.

The post The One We Love #3 appeared first on Kent Wedding Photographer | Craig Prentis Photography.

Here’s my second posting in ‘The One We Love’ blog feature. This is where one of my wedding couples choose their favourite picture and describe why they love it in no more than 150 words.

This time it’s the turn of Jo and Advait, whose wedding I photographed at Stoke Place last year.

Here’s the image they chose:

And here’s what they had to say about it -

Wow, how lovely is that? Hopefully I’ll be addding another couple’s favourite picture and words to sum it up very soon.

If you’d like to see what other wedding couples chose and what they had to say about their “The One We Love”, I’ve added a new page to my website.

The post The One We Love #2 appeared first on Kent Wedding Photographer | Craig Prentis Photography.

A couple of weeks ago, I met up with Rosie and Ian for their engagement shoot in Hyde Park.

They had booked me to photograph their Yorkshire wedding in May but as yet, we hadn’t met and they were keen to get some pictures done before the wedding day. Like much of the weather this year, it was chilly and a little dull but on the plus side, it wasn’t raining and the light was soft. When we met at the park entrance on that Saturday morning, we chatted about what we would be doing and I told them that as it was an engagement shoot it would have to be a little more orchestrated than my usual wedding coverage which is mostly about observing the day and documenting what I see. But this engagement shoot in Hyde Park would replicate the way I’ll photograph them as a couple on their own on the wedding.

I have done engagement shoots before but they aren’t included in my normal packages. Couples who want to be photographed before the wedding usually book one of these shoots as a separate portrait session. Maybe I should work them into a package? I really did enjoy it and I can see advantages in getting together with the couple before the wedding day. Most couples I meet at an initial consultation usually tell me that they don’t like having their picture taken. This is what I hear all the time and I must admit, I’m the same myself. I do tend to freeze a bit when anyone points a camera at me, so this does make me appreciate how it must feel to be on the receiving end. With that in mind, I know it’s very important to make a couple feel comfortable in your presence and if doing an engagement shoot helps in any way, then I’m all for it.

It’s interesting to note (and I think I’m right in saying this from the photos they’ve ordered) is that a lot of their favourites are my favourites too. They mostly come from the end of the session (i.e. the very relaxed walking and cuddling up pictures). They aren’t all looking at the camera and smiling, more just smiling and enjoying each other.

Anyway, Rosie and Ian were lovely and right from the off, they were great – there was a real sparkle between them. We had a coffee half way round and they told me about their wedding and I know it’s going to be a lovely day and I feel like a know them a little now. From their point of view, they’ve had chance to spend a couple of hours with me and seen themselves in the shots I’ve taken so hopefully, they’ll be nice and relaxed for the wedding, confident in the knowledge that they look good together in the pictures.

Do feel free to comment on the pictures (below) if you like what you see.

If you’re planning a wedding and would like an unobtrusive photographer that won’t have you standing grinning for hours on end, please get in touch.

You can also follow me on Twitter and I always appreciate a new Facebook like

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