GREAT afternoon yesterday with Carly & Ian in Manchester! Gorgeous weather, gorgeous couple – I didn’t need anything else! We started and finished in The Northern Quarter and also used a few other nooks and crannies in the city centre.

What started as a pre-wedding shoot quickly turned into a fashion shoot! Carly & Ian know how to throw some serious shapes! Check out the little sneak preview below…

***Disclaimer***  I didn’t make Carly & Ian do this!  They just took their shoes off and jumped in! ***End disclaimer***

I’m thinking of introducing this into all of my pre-wedding shoots…we must finish with a cocktail that’s on fire…!!!

Great fun yesterday guys!  REALLY excited about your big day at Sandhole Oak Barn and looking forward to working with my great friends from Top Table Catering and the BEST band out there - The Coolers!

x

This wedding was a LOT of fun! A really great mix of people who were all there for one very simple reason – to celebrate Katie & Nick’s wedding and have a great time doing it! I spent a lovely morning wandering between Nick & the boys, Katie’s Mum & Dad’s house, the pub (yey!) back to Katie’s Mum & Dad’s house – it was all very relaxed & we shot some great stuff right through the day. It was also great fun working with my great friends and TOP wedding film makers, Silk Wedding Videos and lovely to meet a new wedding friend (although it turns out we practically know each other because of all the other people we mutually know!) Claire Louise Mobile Beauty.

Here’s a little preview of Katie & Nick’s amazing day…

A quick swing by the pub to check on Nick & the boys…!!!

And on to church…

I think Albright Hussey Manor was the only place in England that wasn’t raining!  Score!

Probably best not to ask about this…

Or this…!!!

Or indeed this!!!

I loved Katie & Nick’s completely personalised seating plan – very cool and very funny!

The speeches were ace!

First dance time – which was brilliant!  A beautifully choreographed routine by the AMAZING Ailsa Baker Dance absolutely wowed Katie & Nick’s guests!

Congratulations once again Katie & Nick!  Have a great honeymoon at The Rugby World Cup!

x

Can I get a reeeee-post?! Apologies – this post seemed to have disappeared from my blog a few days ago (some nonsense from my web guys about a server crash and their back up system – boooo!)

So, I shall try my best to write what I wrote the first time!

I started off in the morning meeting Lucy and the girls at Lucy’s Mum & Dad’s house which was a picture of calm…

How awesome are Lucy’s Jimmy Choo’s?!

Love this shot of Lucy’s Dad, Peter, going over his speech…

I popped over to Panacea in Alderley Edge to catch up with Ian & the lads who were enjoying a hearty breakfast (and lager!)

Then up to St Mary’s in Rostherne…

A very special ring bearer…

As Lucy & Ian walked back up the aisle there was an amazing surprise “Love Actually” moment with a gospel choir AND hidden sax & guitar players!  ‘All you need is love’!!!

A very special shot for Lucy…

Lucy & Ian arrived at Lyme Park in style…

How amazing does the marquee look?!

TOP vocalist Jennie Sawdon performed a very special version of “I’ll be there” at the start of the wedding breakfast and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house…

Mr Darcy compered the wedding…!!! (Much to the delight of the ladies!)

Rick Guard performed during the wedding breakfast (I say performed, more like whipped the guests into a frenzy!) – awesome stuff!

The start of the evening…

First dance time…

Fireworks!

Congratulations again Lucy & Ian!

x

How exciting to find that not one but TWO of my weddings were published in the August issue of Pure Weddings Magazine!

The first is Hannah & Jason’s amazing Styal Lodge wedding featuring some of my best wedding buddies including Silk Wedding Videos, Timeless Bride, Laurel Weddings and of course Styal Lodge…Beauty!

The second is Diana & Brett’s fabulous Scarborough wedding (featuring my great friends The Coolers!) – Awesome!

What a great end to the week!

x

Now….where to start with this blog post…weird forest’s, bears, 700 mile walks, rain, wind, Dirty Dancing, parking tickets, the list could go on and on…!!!

I met up with Vicky & Jamie at Dove Stone Reservoir near Saddleworth for their pre-wedding shoot yesterday and we had a lot of fun!  I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Vicky & Jamie and have been lucky enough to spend a bit more time with them than normal as they were also guests at Jess & Terry’s wedding in August, so we had a good catch up then as well as yesterday!  So, we got lucky with the weather and embarked on a 17 hour hike into the countryside…

The weird forest…

Great fun yesterday you two!  Can’t wait for your big day at The Lowry now!

x

I spent a great night with the very lovely and gorgeous Lucy & Ian meandering around Fletcher Moss Park in Didsbury and finishing off with a cheeky beer in The Didsbury Pub talking about all the exciting details of their wedding (of which there are many!)  Lucy and Ian get married this Saturday and are having what promises to be an amazing reception at Lyme Park in Cheshire – can’t wait!

Here’s a little preview of what we shot last night…

Lucy had brought the coolest pair of Gina shoes with her for a ’shoe change’!

How depressingly gorgeous and good looking are these two?!?!

I loved how up for it Lucy & Ian were – really chilled out and happy messing around and having a bit of banter, but absolutely brilliant at the moody stuff!  If we hadn’t run out of light, I’d have kept them out there all night!  I LOVE these two shots – the mood, the atmosphere, the eerie blue light – awesome stuff!

And what better place to finish up than in the pub?!?!

Great work last night Lucy & Ian – can’t wait for Saturday now!

x

I don’t think we could have actually picked a windier day than today!  BUT – no rain (until we finished!  Woo!) so at least we only had one element to contend with!  Andrea & Andy were well up for a laugh – Andrea had even suggested playing in the arcades (and had brought bag fulls of change with her to make sure we could do this!) which we did…until I was told photos weren’t allowed in there (which I knew but we chanced it and we got some great images before we were kicked out!)

So a little sneak peek at the windiest pre-wedding shoot in history…

They took this particular game quite seriously…!!!

Great day guys!  Looking forward to your big day at The Inn at Whitewell at Christmas!

x

Saturday was the most gorgeous wedding – I’d been looking forward to it for ages! One of my lovely brides & grooms from last year, Steph & James, had very kindly recommended me to Tiz & Rich and it was lovely to see them there as guests this time!

Tiz and Rich were married in their local church in Nottingham and then we all headed over the amazing Priest House Hotel for the reception. Here’s a little sneak preview at their special day…

Priest House Hotel..

First dance time!  Which was played by Liam & Matt from Ashmore Acoustics – VERY cool guys!

Congratulations once again Tiziana & Rich!

x

Vicki & Stu’s wedding was one of those wonderfully rare days where the weather didn’t do what it was forecast to! Well, it did in the morning and then miraculously cleared and was glorious sunshine! (Somebody said to me recently that my advertising strapline should be – “Jonny Draper Photography – We guarantee the weather….” Writing those words makes me VERY nervous…!!!)

Browsholme Hall is the most gorgeous venue. Vicki & Stu were married in the converted Tithe Barn and then we were lucky enough to be allowed to use the grounds of the main hall for photographs as well. I feel like I’ve known the guys up at Browsholme forever now! I first visited when the barn conversion was still a building site when my good friend Rebecca Clarke who is in charge of EVERYTHING up there (!) invited me up for a nosey round (I’ve known Rebecca for quite a few years now as she actually looked after Emma & I at The Inn at Whitewell when we got married!)

So I was very excited to be shooting my first wedding up there as I’ve shot girls in dresses and other bits and pieces up there along the way, but there’s nothing quite like the real thing!

On with the preview just for Vicki & Stu…

Check out the awesome arrangements by the hugely talented (and very lovely!) Laura Coleman…

Jenny Packham dress!  Boom!

We popped up to the hall before the wedding breakfast to get some bridal party shots…

….who were insistent on using the grounds as a playground!  Love it!

For the record, I don’t make my bridal party’s do this – they just sometimes do it of their own accord!

And I certainly don’t make them race….!!!

Later in the day I grabbed a few minutes with Vicki & Stu to shoot something really beautiful with them…

Congratulation Vicki & Stuart!!!

x