Text Message 1:

Hi Clive,
Wow! The photos of our wedding are AMAZING!
Thanks so much! We were sitting up until 4:00 in the morning looking at them!!
We really appreciate all the extra effort you put in, especially over the whole evening – Lou loves those last couple of silhouette shots…
Your talent is awesome and we really didn’t pay enough to deserve it. We felt we relived the whole day looking through the pictures.
David.

Text Message 2:

Ditto Clive. U are so blessed with talent for perfectly capturing special moments we don’t even realise are lasting memories at the time. You made me well up at parts. Thank u for making something which would have been do arduous so enjoyable!
Louise

BEFORE THE WEDDING

How You Met: Via Dating Direct website

How He Proposed: He took me out for dinner on the 3rd anniversary of our very first date to Bank in Brindleyplace in Birmingham. After dinner we went for a stroll around the place, then he got down on one knee near the fountain and produced a gorgeous diamond and platinum ring. A complete surprise.

WEDDING

The Bride Wore: Phil Collins Bridal

The Groom Wore: Moss Bross

Jewellery/Accessories: Terry Terry for the amazing blingy braceleT

Hair/Make-up Done: Hair by Sharon Gardner (Shar-Deni Hair, Perry Barr), Make-up: Bride did her own

Flowers: Our close friend and new professional florist, Debra Mitchell

Invitations: Elite Invitations

Ceremony Place: St. Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham

RECEPTION

Reception Place: Thistle Hotel, St. Chad’s Queensway

First Dance Song: Mash up of Frank Sinatra’s I’ve Got You Under My Skin and Lethal Bizzle’s POW. Austen and I doing busting our best funky chicken moves was a sight to behold!

Cake: Fiona Cairns (who made Wills and Kate’s wedding cake)

Colors: Deep, dark red and ivory

Décor Elements: Balloons by Melissa Johnson at Blissful Balloons, table decorations chosen and bought by bride

Unique Details: Vintage bags of sweets as favours by Emily’s Best, We are huge fans of real ale so we brewed our own Wedding Ale, which was served at the wedding breakfast. We had our own cartoon designed for our special day which was used as the real ale bottle label, on place cards, menu cards and the table plan. Our friends are in a band called Billy Whizz they played a 40min punk rock set, and our terrific comedienne friend, Annette Fagon did a family-friendly stand-up routine for all our guests too.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

Marverine’s Answer: Groom being the support act for the band, Billy Whizz. He writes his own songs under the name Offal Club, so donned his Rickenbacker guitar and belted out some tunes and then joined Billy Whizz on a couple of songs too. Totally brilliant!!

Austen’s Answer: Standing at the end of the aisle as the organ played ‘The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ as Marverine approached. Both the gravity of the situation and the grandeur of the Cathedral hit me! I kept my resolve and didn’t have a sneaky look back at her. When she drew level with me and the veil was drawn back, it took my breath away. She looked fantastic – and well worth waiting for!
HONEYMOON

Place: We had a mini-moon in Dublin staying at the Fitzwilliam Hotel on St Stephen’s Green

WEDDING ADVICE: Make sure your Wedding Co-ordinator attends on the day of the wedding because handing over to someone else can prove difficult, as we found out

As they both live and work in Birmingham, the City Centre was the natural choice for the shoot.

(Just to explain the beer reference, Marverine is a beer expert in her spare time!! That, along with working as a TV presenter, producer, journalist and running Funf Media with Austen, makes her one pretty busy lady!! You go girl!!! )

I came across a great blog post that I just had to share with you all, especially if you’re undecided whether to book a professional photographer to record your wedding, or instead ask a friend with a camera to do the job.

Can I add too that I know there are a few “professional” photographers who do a less than stellar job and quite a few amateurs who do a fantastic job. But if you take a group of 100 professional and another a group of 100 amateurs, which group is more likely to deliver the goods for you consistently? I’ll leave you to decide!

Click to read article

Received the following lovely thank you message from Laura and Jonathan:

To Clive

Thank you for being so professional on our wedding day.

We were so delighted with our photos and the quality of them.

The storybook album was amazing and met all our expectations.

Take care

Love

Laura and Jonathan Willey

It’s that time of the year again when I look back of the happenings over the last 12 months. Again, I’ve met some great people, visited some lovely venues and eaten some scrumptious food, all in the name of work. What a life, eh?

Anyhow, enough from me. Here are just a few of my favourite images from 2011 (I originally had over 300 images but couldn’t include them all as the slideshows would be too long and then you’d be complaining that they take ages to load!)

2011 review (part 1)

2011 review (part 2)

2011 review (part 3)

2011 review (part 4)

Hi Clive

Thanks for the disk – its just amazing to have a copy of all our photos and the CD is so beautifully packaged. We are going on honeymoon to Florida over Christmas so will choose the photos when we get back and send the list to you.

Once again can I say what an amazing job you did. Everyone has commented on the great quality and you have now been nicknamed ‘Willo the Wisp’ because no one saw you take any of the photos you were really unobtrusive and yet always managed to capture the best shots. We really love the mixture of formal and informal shots, some of the shots could be out of a magazine… they are truly beautiful and I never thought you could capture James and I like that.

Of course use any photos or quotes for your own use, we cannot speak highly enough of you and when Christmas is over I will be back on the wedding forums to tell brides to be about your work.
Thanks again Clive our day was magical and its brought back to life for us every time we see one of the photos you took.

1) The organisers have rolled out their their new website.

2) I’m making my secret plans for the next show. – Don’t ask!! You’ll have to come to the show to know what they are!!!

The Birmingham Show is on March 16-18th 2012, Hall 17 and 18, at the NEC Birmingham. I’m on stand C29.

So get your hat on and get straight down to the show when it opens!

Just a quick note to say thank you so much for our wonderful wedding album!!! It truly is everything we could have ever asked for, and completes such a wonderful experience we had working with you! Thanks again Clive, and all the best!

I’ve just had the following text from a recent Bride who’s on line gallery from Weston Park has just gone live:

“Hi Clive you need to warn people that they need a hanky when looking through their photos.
We love ours ~ we were constantly saying `thats a great shot` . Thank you so much.”

Such comments make my job so rewarding!! Thank you too!!