Caroline Chamberlain

You’ll notice how few bridal gownshops we’re recommending on the blog. That’s because the choice is of  gown is so essential to a bride’s enjoyment of her day – and to the pictures we are able to give her – that we are even more careful than usual to make recommendations. We actually know of only a handful of shops we feel confident in recommending in the Lincoln/Grimsby/Scunthorpe area. We hope to add the others to the blog over the next few months.

Caroline Chamberlain is someone for whom we have nothing but praise and respect – and whom we can recommend without reservation. After working from home, specialising in bridal and theatrical gown design, Caroline opened her boutique shop in the peaceful village of Burton Waters some 3 and a half years ago. And from then on has gone from strength to strength. It’s amazing the range of designs that can be held in such a compact establishment. And Caroline has carved a niche for herself in this lucrative market by being sole area stockist for such prestigious designer labels as Charlottw Balbier, Sacha James and True Bride. And if none of those designs appeal then why not have Caroline create something unique for you We’ve been priviledged to work with brides wearing some of Caroline’s creations and we can totally vouch for them. They always look beautiful, they fit perfectly and all the brides are able to relax knowing that they look stunning in a dress which compliments them to perfection.

There’s a distinct theme running through all the vendors we recommend on this blog and Caroline, like the others, epitomises all that we believe makes for a good supplier. She believes that weddings are fun and that the choosing of the dress is a vital part of this enjoyment for the bride. Her friendly and personable nature immediately makes brides feel relaxed. She treats them just how she would want to be treated. And through her experience, her skill and her personality she is able to help brides choose their dream dress with which suits them to perfection.

Rachel and Andrew

We love All weddings but every season one or two stand out for one reason or another and we have to say we simply LOVED this wedding. We expected it to be nice, of course. Thw couple were attractive and a delight to be with, the venue, Kelham Hall in Newark, is a beautiful place to photograph and we had already met Rachel’s parents and knew them to be a lovely couple also. So all the signs were good. Rachel was clearly a woman who knew her own mind and her instructions were clear – she wanted relaxed coverage – almost completely reportage, with nothing posed or ‘arty-farty’.

Well, the wedding was as relaxed and stress-free as they could possibly have hoped for. With a string quartet and lots of outdoor games to entertain the guests at Kelham it could hardly have been anything else. The sun was shining, the champagne was poured and a lovely, Glynbourne-like atmosphere developed.

But it didn’t all go quit to plan. Rachel changed her mind! She’s the bride and it’s a bride’s perogative – we just go with the flow. But Rachel changed in a way we would never have expected. It was triggered by a short shower whichforced us inside for the photography. And there we were, in the music room at Kelham, when Rachel changed. She suddenly seemed to realise that, far from being an ordeal, the photography was something she was enjoying. There was no need for pure reportage after all.  She looked beautiful ( though those of you who know Rachel know she’s not the sort ever to admit to it), her dress was fantastic, she had just married the man she loved in a gorgeous setting and all was well with the world. This was a time she wanted capturing to remember forever and we couldn’t have been happier than to be there and give her some fantastic images of the two of them looking their very best.

So, it wasn’t what Rachel had planned, it wasn’t what we’d expected, but it was what happened – a lovely relaxed wedding with masses of reportage photography but with an interlude of  more artistic photography to give a slightly different interpetation of their wedding day. Lovely!

Our Cover-Girl Brides

One of the things we feel most strongly about within our wedding photography is in our approach to the bride. Our brides are all real people, not over- posed models and the wedding is a very real occasion, not a fashion shoot. So the bride’s feelings on this very special occasion are paramount. We don’t want her to stand around posing for hours; we don’t want her to feel bored and we certainly don’t want to do anything which might spoil her enjoyment of the day.

And yet, the bride will have spent a small fortune on the dress, the shoes, the hair – the whole package which she knows will make her look stunning. And it’s our job to show her at her best. Anyone can take snapshots, but harsh lighting, the wrong angle or a distracting background can make a beautiful woman look just ordinary. And ordinary is not how any bride wants to remember herself on her wedding day!

So photographing a bride at her best is one of the things we make sure we do best. There’s no pressure, no stress and no faffing about. Our efforts are always rewarded by the bride’s gratitude, but we’ve been honoured with a different from of recognition also. Over the past three year no fewer than 12 of our weddings have appeared in magazines as ‘Weddings of the Month’ features – usually a five or six page article on the wedding and illustrated with lovely photographs to show the happiness of the bride and groom on their wedding day.

Being asked by magazines to suggest suitable weddings and supply the images is, of course, very flattering both to us and to the couples involved. It’s quite something to have your wedding shown to the world in the pages of an up-market magazine and we’re always delighted to help couples who might wish for this to achieve their ambition. But this year we’ve gone one further and two of our brides can now truthfully claim themselves to be Covergirls!

We were approached by a publisher to provide pictures to use as editorial illustration in one of their bridal magazines. This happens quite often and, after checking that it’s o.k. with the brides and grooms we just sent them a CD of more or less random images. A few weeks later we got a phone call confirming that a large proportion would be used AND one of them they liked so much they would like to use it on the front cover. Needless to say, both we and Jennie, the bride, were delighted. Most magazine ‘wedding’ images are actually posed by models because the stress and hurly-burly of a genuine wedding doesn’t allow the photographer as much control as on a staged shoot. So we’re always delighted when our images appear within a mag. But on the front-cover!!! Wow!

We were still trying not to smile about this when, even before the mag came out we got another phonecall from th editor. They’d loved the cover-pic so much that they wanted to feature another of our brides in their next publication!

So 2009 ended on a positive note for us and our brides. Jenny can now be seen looking out from many a newsagents shelf, whilst Gill should be published in the next couple of weeks. It just vindicates our business model of taking pictures of brides at their best without giving them stress.