GREG & KATIE BRUMLEY'S WEDDING - PART ONE
Elham, Kent. Saturday 5th June 2010, St. Mary the Virgin, Elham (anglican). 
Following a week of yet more of the wet stuff, Saturday announced itself with a warming of my face in the morning sunshine at our house in Canterbury. A beautiful day beckoned for a wedding and wedding photography.
Michelle and I began the day with a breakfast that verged on the 'feed a thousand' style but as with any wedding photography shoot, don't expect to eat!
We'd spent the previous night cleaning lenses, charging batteries, setting up cameras, and packing our two camera bags with the kit and emergency supplies (water is a must).
Our set up for the day consisted of;
- Two Nikon D90's and one D80Nikon
- AF-S DX18-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED
- Nikon AF-S DX18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED VR
- Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8D Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG
- Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG
- SB-600 Speedlight & SB-800 Speedlight
- Tripod and monopodReflector
Our wedding shoot started at 1.30pm at the Bride's house in Folkestone, so we actually had a morning to finish prepping, make
ourselves beautiful - I applied for an extension, but was unsuccessful - and triple check our kit.
Katie and Greg's was a beautiful three story Victorian town house in Folkestone. Upon arrival we set to on shooting the wedding dress, the bridesmaid dresses, shoes and pretty much anything that wasn't yet being worn! The front room offered a beautiful set for Katie's wedding portrait shots, with bright light streaming in through the blinds and working so well with contrast of the rich tones in the wide floorboards. 
Michelle continued upstairs to sneak some preparation shots and some incidentals of the make up - and more shoes - whilst I continued with the dresses and of course the wedding car. We used the first of our split toning processes on the incidental shots, using a selenium filer (faded blue highlight and magenta/purple for shadows - think of it as Persil white!). This process works excellently on high contrast mono images and greatly enhanced with some vignetting.
Three o'clock came around quickly and we had a little under ten minutes to shoot Katie in her wedding dress before she disappeared back upstairs for her final preparations. The small seated table in front of the window gave an air of regality so we started here. A mix of ambient light and fill flash was needed to balance the shots. They worked well, but we felt that Katie was struggling to relax in such a posed, formal position, so we moved.
The shots that followed were a mix of traditional and contemporary. Michelle produced some truly beautiful images shooting towards the window with Katie's back to the camera. The result was a wedding portrait with an angelic glow around Katie and the full beauty of the dress in shot. Her hands give away her pre-wedding nerves whilst the angle of her head slightly down and to the side suggests intimacy and feeling.
Due to the monochromatic nature of the bridal portrait shots, most were processed for black and white and then altered with split tones to enhance each. In the case of Katie's standing portraits, we effectively applied a cream filter to the lighter areas to bring out the tones in the floor and her skin. It also gave the shots a suggestion of the more traditional, sepia, slightly aged and softer feel.
The leather sofa as a prop suggested something more contemporary and modern and so we experimented (briefly) with a few poses that were more contemporary and informal. We kept the colour in for these images but applied a 'bleach process' that slighty desaturated the images whilst keeping the contrast and rich blacks.
Here Come The Girls…Bride
The Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Elham is just beautiful. A Grade 1 listed 13th century Anglican church, it is surrounded by many fine buildings from the late medieval and Tudor period which all form part of this interesting and picturesque village in East Kent. A wedding photographers dream almost.
The church itself had been adorned with beautiful bouquets of red and white flowers. The light streaming from the top windows combined with the tungsten balance of the interior lights to provide some interesting white balance issues, but which also made for excellent backgrounds separated in white balance as well as focus.
The wedding ceremony was just beautiful, with the bride entering the church to the soft sound of Butterflyz by Alicia Keys - which we later used on the slideshow. We were kindly allowed a degree of freedom by the vicar to go behind and in front of the ceremony, which resulted in some superb candids of the wedding ceremony.
Once the register had been signed, the newly married Mr & Mrs Brumley ventured back through the church to their adoring families and a wave of camera flashes.
We had pre-planned the exit so that Greg and Katie could depart through one door and the congregation out the other.
This time allowed Michelle to organise everyone ready for the confetti and also gave Greg and Katie a quick breather. Not too much though as we managed to grab some lovely portraits of the bridesmaids with Katie. The confetti shots, worked well. The church path provided a great natural corridor for the guests to line, although I must add that they were rose petals!
The congregation was at least 140 strong and so Katie and Greg had arranged for the coaches that brought them to the church to take them to the reception venue, just down the road at the village hall.
The Brumley wedding gallery can viewed here. Please note this gallery is password protected, if you have not received login details please contact Greg, Katie or Gareth.
Read Part Two here.