Carly and Liam's Wedding

Carly and Liam came to me last summer, recommended by a friend, and so I was delighted to accept the opportunity to photograph their wedding. The year passed very quickly, and after our final planning session at the end of June, the 4th of August arrived almost before we knew it, and we all found ourselves at the Campanile Hotel in Bradford ready for them to tie the knot. It was a lovely relaxed and happy day, full of extended family and friends. Just the way weddings should be! 

Sarah and Paul's Wedding

Paul and Sarah got married at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel at Leeds Canal Basin on 30th of March, although by my reckoning, this was the 3rd name his hotel's had since we've been planning this wedding! It's been City Inn and Mint in recent years, but what it's always had is an astonishing 13th Floor bar, the Skylounge, which looks out across practically the whole of Leeds. The hotel sits at the corner where the Leeds and Liverpool canal meets the River Aire as it comes out from under the city centre. There's been a lot of building here over the last 10years, creating lots of city flats, shopping areas and offices. I tell you all of this in explanation - the tallest building in Yorkshire sits on the other side of the water, and it's created a lethal (no exaggeration) wind tunnel which whips around that corner in it's own little circle. When we went for our walk-through to scout out the location together at the end of February, we watched a man falling through the ice on the canal, and struggling to get out of the frozen water - no doubt blown in. 

Thankfully by their big day the snow had gone and we were blessed with a bright sunny day, but it was inevitable that the wind would be a feature of the wedding photos, and we had lots of fun trying to cope with it. We shot all the group photos down at ground level, and then went up to the bar, above everything in the city including the wind, for the wedding breakfast. I left them to enjoy their meal and drinks with their guests for the afternoon, and then rejoined them at the Royal Armouries for a proper evening knees-up in the Wellington Suite. 

This was my first wedding of the year, and it was beautiful. And, judging by the message I got back from Sarah, it would seem that they enjoyed their day too: 

"Thank you for the pictures they are absolutely brilliant brings back such beautiful memories, would love to do it all again, you made us feel so relaxed about the whole day and I think that shows in the pictures you have taken. I will defo recommend you to anyone. Thanks again for making our day so special. Sarah and Paul." 

I love being a photographer!

 

  

New Year, New Start

Well, happy 2011, everyone.

Sally & Simon tie the knot at Leeds Town Hall, 29th December 2010. 

We're into the 2nd week of January, so it's high time we all settled down and got on with the New Year.

So far, the first few days of my 2011 have been consumed with editing the first wedding under this name, setting up a new website, a new Facebook page, an account with UKBride and generally getting the whole show on the road.

After almost 3years as lead wedding photographer at Hilton Sanders Photography, a reshuffle of how we run things there has meant that it's time to float the wedding service off by itself. So really, although mine is a new name on the market, it's there having gained plenty of experience and had the opportunity to build a portfolio of great shots.

Here's a link to the Hilton Sanders blog coverage of just a few of the weddings we did in 2010... at Woodlands Hotel, On Ilkley Moor, at Oulton Hall, at St John's Church. If you have a dig around, you'll get an idea of the way HSP works, and the values that I will be carrying on in my photography and my relationship with my clients.

I'm a full time professional photographer, with an academic background in the craft that started with a B-Tec ND in Photomedia in 1998 from Leeds College of Art and Design, continued with a degree (BA(Hons) thank you very much!) in Photography from Wolverhampton University in 2002 and took me up to a Post Graduate Certificate in the Politics of Representation at Bradford College in 2004. I finally made the move to work in photography full time in 2007 starting at a major chain of high street portraiture studios, and since founding Hilton Sanders Photography Ltd with Jo Hilton in 2008, haven't looked back, never for a minute missing any of my old jobs as a customer service advisor for various finance and utility companies around Leeds.

We added weddings to HSP's services only by request - clients we had worked with asked us to step in because they liked our work and our approach. HSP never actually advertised our wedding service, each wedding was won by word of mouth and recommendation, but now, the volume of work and the portfolio we built up is strong enough to warrant a little more confidence, and so it's time to launch Caroline Sanders Photography.

Over the coming months I'll post details of each of the weddings I do on this blog, along with details of wedding fairs I attend and promotions and offers.

It'd be great to know that I have readers, so if you're checking in, give me a shout! Leave a comment, or connect to any of the UKBride or Facebook pages.

And if you're looking for a friendly, professional, and experienced photographer, maybe I can help!