We were very happy to be asked back to photograph De Vere Venues Annual Charity Burns Night at Wokefield Park for the third consecutive year.
This fantastic evening raises money for the Variety Club Children’s Charity and has raised over £200k during the past 3 years.

The complete gallery is now viewable online HERE: (http://bit.ly/wW4OP6)

Wokefield Park’s Mansion House was again treated to incredible projection effects courtesy of SFL Group. This year this included active flames, stunning tartan and GB flag for the launch of De Vere’s Great British Hospitality initiative (if only someone had remembered to turn their bathroom light off!)

The interior was treated to a total transformation again this year courtesy of the ever impressive Cherubs and Bluehat UK.
Bluehat UK designed, built & installed all the dressing in the Mortimer, Old Lounge and Palmer rooms, the 10m horses painting in the bar and the bar lounge pseudo panelling as well as all of the wall decorations, tapestries, paintings, drapes, flicker flames, mirror decorations and screens behind the mini. You get the picture… the scale of the undertaking and quality of execution, never fails to impress!

Guests were escorted to the venue in a fleet of fantastic BMW cars and were greeted by a team of bagpipers & drummers along with a glass of champagne! Definitely a great way to start the evening!

As you might expect, the gourmet food, entertainment, haggis, games and all round atmosphere was excellent!
In a bid to help raise money, some fantastic prizes were auctioned off and one lucky chap won a brand new mini @ midnight!

All in all the night was another amazing success, this year the target of £75k was smashed and over £82k was raised for the Variety Club Children’s Charity.

Everybody appeared to thoroughly enjoy themselves and with such successful night’s fundraising!
We hope to see you all again next year!

On Friday we photographed Oliver and Hayley’s wedding day.

We started the morning preparations at Wokefield Park where Hayley was busy with her girls getting ready. Hayley’s dress was beautiful with stunning details – a lot of hours had clearly gone into designing the dress!

We then headed onto Ufton Court where Oliver was nervously awaiting his beautiful bride. Oliver had his best friend fly over from America to support him as best woman, we’re sure that with such a lovely wedding, she would have really enjoyed her first trip outside of the US!

The Barn looked beautiful with all the Christmas decorations, Ufton Court’s Christmas tree is always extremely impressive at 25ft tall!

Following the wedding ceremony, the guests headed over to Ufton Court house for their drinks reception. Beautiful fireplaces and beautifully paneled walls ensure that, even on the wettest winters day, the main house at Ufton Court is very warm and inviting. We were happy to make use of many of the all the indoor photographic opportunities this lovely venue has to offer.

Oliver & Hayley also had a videographer – The Camera Chap who we have worked with previously and it was great to work together again!

One surprise for the wedding guests was Hayley who treated the wedding guests by singing a beautiful song just before the speeches. She was assisted by an extremely good pianist who played throughout the wedding breakfast, filling Ufton Court Barn with musical atmosphere.

Oliver & Hayley had a musical theme to their wedding, which was visible on everything from table names, fantastic mini-piano name tag holders, and even wedding cake!

True to form, the evening celebrations were started with an amazing Jazz band who played for the first dance and for Hayley and her father which was lovely to see before the rest of the guests joined them on the floor!

We left Oliver and Hayley to enjoy the rest of their evening with friends and family.

They are off to Finland for their honeymoon, we hope they have a lovely time and wish them and their family a very Happy New Year!

Recently we visited an up and coming wedding venue who will be opening their doors next year to a whole host of excited bride and grooms to be!

Shinfield Grange is licensed for civil ceremonies with the opportunity to host a marquee reception in their stunning grounds.

Shinfield Grange was built in 1655 where a small, redbrick farm house was built as a tenant farm of the Manor of Shinfield. In 1857, it became the private property of the Cobham family who extended the property considerably and it was then that it became known as Shinfield Grange.

Further extensions to the property were made in the early 1930’s.

The late Sir Eric Palmer (family member of the Huntley and Palmer Biscuit Company) was its last private owner.

During 1949 the estate was passed onto the University of Reading who absorbed its farms into the Department of Agriculture and Shinfield Grange became the centre of the Department of Horticulture. Most of the 14.5 acres immediately surrounding it were then simply used as a teaching garden… we didn’t have anything quite so amazing where I went to school!

The College of Estate Management now owns and runs Shinfield Grange and has further modernised the building and continued the up keep of the fabulous grounds.

The small mellow bricks of part of the outer walls and the low ceiling and wide chimney are now the main entrance hall and still testify to its humble farm house origins which continue to portray the cultural history of the building.

The grounds at Shinfield Grange are truly stunning. With over 14 acres of beautiful Berkshire landscape, it is perfect for those looking for an English countryside wedding!

There are around 98 species of different tree in the grounds and we were truly stunned at how colourful the trees were when we took some photos for the venue in November. Anyone wanting a late Autumn wedding would be well advised to consider this venue, as the colours were still strong in mid-late November!

With the grounds being so extensive there is plenty of opportunity for group shots, and a chance for your guests to explore the natural beauty of Shinfield Grange. There is a pond and bridge, perfect for those photographic opportunities and private and more secluded areas for your couple shots – a chance to have some time alone on your wedding day.

The advantage of this venue is having such extensive grounds allows for any size marquee you require – a great choice if you have a large guest list and need the space!

We can’t wait to shoot our first wedding at this fabulous local venue!

For more information please contact Jeanette on 0118 921 4685.

Yesterday we were at the spectacular wedding venue Wotton House, to photograph the wedding of Lee & Danielle.

We started off the day capturing both Lee & Danielle during their preparations, Danielle looked absolutely stunning in her beautiful wedding dress. There were plenty of sparkles, with the wedding having a Swarovski theme, Danielle’s dress matched the theme perfectly!

They had organised for the already gorgeous Wotton House ceremony room to be dressed with candles, flowers, a white carpet runway & pink sash chair covers plus some amazing pink uplights which both matched their colour theme perfectly and set the room off beautifully!
I think everyone had the same reaction when they entered the room before the ceremony… wow!

For the time of year, the weather was absolutely great, we were thrilled for the couple as this meant that they could make use of many of the stunning wedding photography opportunities at Wotton House. We had a great time capturing some beautiful wedding photos at Wotton House and Lee & Danielle were fantastic to work with. They were such fun to be around, as were their family & friends!

During the evening, just prior to first dance, Lee & Danielle asked for some additional shots to take advantage of the beautifully lit Roman temple. We were more than happy to take advantage of this stunning setting & loved the fact Lee & Danielle are as enthusiastic about their photos as we are!

We wish them both a fantastic honeymoon (a surprise destination for Danielle!) and happy future together!

Here is a sneak peak at some of the wedding photos we captured on their special day!