I love sharing with photographers and helping people to follow their dreams and build their businesses, so I am excited to be
running another of my one day wedding photography workshops on 4th March 2012 in Central London.

The day will involve:

An introduction to my style, work and business
Approaching wedding photography creatively
The wedding day and after
Booking the clients that you want
Getting your brand out there through blogs, social networking and magazines

Followed by a wedding shoot for you in the afternoon with a couple and beautiful props.

See what Lindsey, Fanni , Lisa and Gemma have to say about their time with me at my 2011 workshops.

The cost is £250
10am-5pm, Central London
Sunday 4th March

This will be my only wedding workshop in 2012, so don’t miss this opportunity
to some and spend the day with me.
To book your place please email me at hello@emilyquinton.com or phone my PA Thea on 07793 024 995

Love that James is wearing his byebyebirdie hat!

This year I am going to be working more on my children’s photography in Harpenden and North London, with a few shoots in Birmingham too. Here’s little Sylvie!

I have finally launched my parenting/lifestyle blog. This blog has been in my head for the past couple of years and I am so happy to have finally started it. It’s called Start-Up Wife and I hope you will pop over and have a look!

When we got engaged I knew there was only one person who could make my wedding dress and that person was my wonderful and very talented friend Christian. I have been wearing clothes from the shop Christian runs with his wife Allison and their friend Jo for years. The People Shop quite simply my favourite shop in the world. I was even wearing a Mr Christian original in my proposal photos! .

Over the next few months we talked about styles, lengths, fabrics, straps etc. etc. But all along I knew that Christian knew exactly what would suit me and what would work for our wedding. . I completely trusted him, which made the whole experience of having a bespoke wedding dress made for me exciting, enjoyable, fun and completely stress-free! Dress fittings came with cakes and strawberries (not when I had the dress on of course!) and lots of wedding chat!

The fabric my dress was made from is vintage cotton lace from the year I was born! Christian and Allison found it hidden away in their favourite fabric store in Birmingham. It had been there since the shop opened a very long time ago. It must have just been waiting for me all along! I had a super full skirt, which was just perfect for swishing! And the dress beautiful concealed the fact I’d had my third baby, Max, just 4 months before. Very handy! And in the evening the underskirt and big bow changed into pink ready for dancing into the night.

Christian also made the bridesmaid dresses too!

What can I say? My wedding dress was the most perfect dress in the world. And Mr Christian was the most perfect dressmaker. If you are looking for a vintage look wedding dress and what something bespoke and special then book an appointment to see the lovely Mr Christian soon.

THANK YOU CHRISTIAN! xxxx

And thank you Polly Alexandre for these beautiful photographs! You know how much we love our wedding photos. xxx

If my husband reads this post he will probably laugh and think it will be anything but. However, I have spent this week working through this lovely booklet to visualize my year ahead and I chose Calm as my word for 2012. Obviously just choosing a word isn’t going to make me magically calm but just meditating on it for a few minutes a day has already worked wonders this week. I can do inner calm and I proved that to myself through two drug free childbirths. I practice yoga and that always helps me to be calm. But sadly the reality of every day with three young children, a business and a house to run, things regularly get on top of me and I stay anything but calm. We’ve had a few very tense and stressful years in a row and I’d like to take little steps this year to make every day a little calmer. I hope I will spread this calmness through to my husband and children too. Or, at the very least, they will appreciate and enjoy a much less frantic mummy/wife.

If you could choose a word for your 2012 what would it be?

I would like to thank August Empress for the link to Susannah Conway’s beautiful Unravelling the Heart, and Susannah for writing and sharing. xxx

I have had a funny year, big highs and big lows, so instead of looking back I am going to look forward to the coming year. Towards the end of 2011 I planned to join in 12 by 2012 but I was too busy with the rotation of winter bugs going round my 3 children and preparation for a DIY Christmas full of craft and baking. But I really loved the idea, so decided to turn it into a personal 12 for 2012. (This also gives me slightly more time to achieve them all!)

12 for 2012

1. Have a holiday or two!. {We haven’t had a holiday longer than about 3 days for a very long time. We all need one and this year I am determined to make it happen. At least once.}

2. Establish my children’s photography in Harpenden and North London. {I am an established wedding photographer but as part of my work/life balance changes I am moving my work more towards children’s photography over the next 12 months. Excited!}

3. Launch and build my new blog about being a mum. {I am starting this in a few weeks to help with this goal and cannot wait!}

4. Do something with my 3/4 written PhD thesis. {Finish it, turn it into an MPhil, quit completely, blog it, share it at a conference…just do something with it and draw a line under it.}

5. Continue to keep fit and get a post-3 babies figure that I feel happy with. {I’ve worked hard on this in 2011, so want to keep going with this. It helps heaps with being a busy mum too.}

6. Play more. {Because my children all love it when I play too and so do I. The cleaning, washing, cooking etc. can always be put off for even just 10 minutes. It means the world to them.}

7. See friends more, both my new local friends and those further away. {Diary out, I will start booking things in, making plans and sticking to them.}

8. Make time for preserving happy memories. {Print out more photos and write more in my ‘things the children say and do book’.}

9. Write letters. {I used to write a lot of letters to friends and family. I enjoyed doing it and I know people loved receiving something other than bills through the post. Email, text, tweets, etc. are all lovely but a real letter…that is the best!}

10. Learn to crochet and make some blankets. {I made a little start on this in October but then Christmas crafting came along, so am keen to get back to it very soon.}

11. Get back behind the driving wheel. {Oh how I wish I didn’t have to write this one but we live in a small town now and I cannot avoid it for much longer. As soon as we get a car… About 12 years after passing my test I will actually drive!}

12. Cook at least 12 new dishes. {I love cooking and particularly love baking, so this will most definitely be fun!}

All of the above fit in with my overall plan for gaining a better and happier work/life balance in 2012. I made great progress in 2011 and am now looking forward to building on that!

Have you got things you want to do in 2012? Have you made any resolutions?

I wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! xxx

{the image above is of my little girl asleep outside in the evening on the day after our wedding, as we sat round the camp fire with friends and a yummy BBQ. It is one of my favourites of 2011 and will always remind me of one of the happiest weekends of my life.}