Due to unforseen circumstances one of our couples have had to postpone their wedding, leaving us free on 5th May 2012.

In order to fill this opening quickly, we are offering a dicounted rate for any wedding package booked for this date.

So, for 5th May 2012 ONLY we are offering the following package prices:

CD Only

CD Only 5: CD of photos only £500, up to 5 hours coverage (£50 discount)

CD Only 7: CD of photos only £600, up to 7 hours coverage (£50 discount)

CD Only Full: CD of photos only £700, cover from bridal prep to first dance. (£100 discount)

Print Packages

Basic: Prints*, CD of photos and Basic storybook album, £700 up to 5 hours coverage (£50 discount)

Intermediate: Prints*, CD of photos and DVD slideshow, Standard storybook album,
£850, cover from bridal prep to first dance. (£100 discount)

Premium: Prints*, CD of Photos, DVD slideshow, Premium storybook album, framed print or canvas and engagement shoot, £1100, cover from bridal prep to first dance. (£195 discount)

Deluxe: Prints*, CD of Photos, DVD slideshow, Deluxe storybook album, Framed print or canvas, engagement shoot and pre-wedding massage for the bride, £1395, cover from bridal prep to first dance. (£200 discount)

Super Deluxe: Prints*, CD of photos, DVD slideshow, Deluxe storybook album, parent albums, Framed print or canvas, engagement shoot and pre-wedding massage for the bride Treasure/Trash the dress shoot, £1750, cover from bridal prep to first dance.(£250 discount)

Please contact us if you are interested in taking us up on this one-time only deal!

Budgets

There are a lot of companies, venues, florists and other service providers including photographers out there that push their prices through the roof whenever the word “Wedding” is mentioned. They will then try to up-sell you with other services, goods and so-on and it’s easy to get carried away, then suddenly it hits you, your budget has had the cap blown off and you can’t afford things that are important.

Budget tips:

Set your budget, everyone has different circumstances so it’s up to you how you set it but don’t use it all in the planning stages. Something unexpected always pops up last-minute. In the current financial climate it’s worth having a contingency plan if the worst happens with your job – don’t max yourself out from the start, book the most important things first (venue, registrar / church), before booking your flowers, photographer, caterer and so on. Add the little things at the end when you know if you can definitely afford them.

For your reception venue, you will pay a premium for a “Summer” wedding. You can often save thousands of pounds by booking between October and April. Make sure you check with your venue, and don’t forget that summer doesn’t guarantee good weather, even in Barbados.

Don't commit to anything on the spot, get quotes for everything and don't be afraid to barter, it can save you a lot of money!

Flowers can be very expensive, it's tempting to get arches for the doors, floral table centrepieces, standing bouquets, table ends, cake displays and so on. If it's important to you to have all these things that's fine, but this little list of extras can cost thousands of pounds with some florists, before your bouquet and buttonholes! Be shrewd and remember, people forget how the table/door was decorated & there are hundreds of other ideas (like balloons and jars of sweets) for which are much cheaper and more memorable, get creative!

Stretch your budget to things which will help you enjoy your big day and make it more memorable like the DJ/Band, entertainment is very important!

It’s important you remember your big day long after it’s over, pay for a good photographer but we would also recommend a good videographer. Both will capture things you missed and things you will want to remember.

Finally – You will be utterly exhausted after your big day. Book a good honeymoon for as soon after the wedding as you can, it will make it feel like your wedding lasted much longer and help you wind down from the stress – we would recommend going for at least two weeks if you can afford it. If you can’t and you already live together, you don’t need another three toasters! Why not ask for your honeymoon as your wedding present and get your guests to contribute? It worked superbly for us!

Planning

Planning and executing your big day can be incredibly stressful, there are things you can do to minimise the strain on you and your relationship!

Planning tips:

Photographers and venues can get booked years in advance, so be flexible and give yourself plenty of time!

Both of you are getting married so share the planning burden. Grooms, don’t use the old weathered attitude of ‘it’s more her thing’ & make sure you let your future bride have the final say, she’s been planning it since she was 6!

Make to do lists, ideas lists and get a folder or planner in which you can keep everything wedding related together. It’s also prudent to add a contents page and dividers so you can have sections for venue, flowers, photographer, DJ, chair covers, Church / Registry office / ceremony, suit hire, dress etc….

Make sure you allocate jobs to willing friends & family. What little help they can offer will alleviate your stress levels tenfold.

If you’re paying a premium for your reception venue, make sure they will set up your tables. The last thing you need is the stress of setting up the tables the night before/on the morning of your wedding, you will have bigger fish to fry!

Allocate someone to make sure you’re watered for the whole day, usually someone from the venue will do this, you will be too busy to think about getting your own drinks.

Speeches:
Traditionally speeches and toasts are made by the father of the bride, the groom and the best man, in that order, but who toasts who?

Father of the bride – toasts the newlyweds health and happiness, usually after some reflection on his daughter growing up.

Groom – toasts the Bridesmaids, after complimenting his bride (profusely) and thanking everyone who has helped make the day what it is and thank everyone for their gifts. They may also mention absent friends and family.

The Best Man – toasts the couple again, the speech should be humorous, interesting and concise – don’t make it crass, it’s a family event after all.

We don’t profess this to be gospel, do things your way, but we do hope this helps, good luck and happy planning!
 

I used a simple lighting set-up with a white wall for a backdrop. It took about 30 attempts to get it right. Elen was superb and drew on her years of experience to style herself and her expression perfectly.

Here’s the result…

ISO100, 1/160sec, Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 lens set at 52mm and f/8.0
2 pro line Apollo 180w flashes to model’s left, barn door on light for face, snoot on light for smoke.
Adjustments made in Photoshop CS5: colour and minor airbrushing.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The smoking here has been used to create an artistic effect and does not mean that Thomas Day Photography condones smoking. Thomas Day Photography does not support any tobacco company or their affiliates.

The hotel is beautiful and we’re very much looking forward to shooting there! The gardens and the main building are stunning and well maintained in the Tudor style with beautiful detailing in the wood cladding and stained glass windows. It oozes class! See below for a small gallery of photos taken at the venue.

On Saturday, we had the pleasure of seeing FUBAR playing at the GPCA in Harlow on Saturday night. They played an awesome set covering everyone from the Foo Fighters, to Muse, to the Stereophonics. Great vocals, great guitar bass and drums. These guys would definately suit a rocked up wedding reception, pub night or party.

In any case, I thought it would be rude not to take a few photographs. It also gave me an opportunity to play with our new Lensbaby (to give you an idea of what it can do, the only photoshopping on these photos is to convert them to black and white). The black and white conversion worked better than colour due to the mix of coloured lights on stage. The magenta light pointing directly at Mikey’s [lead singer] head made for very difficult, flash free shooting!
I’m still pleased with the results.

FUBAR are available for bookings, see their website for details.

Most of these were shot at approx f/2.8 and 1/60 sec on ISO1000+. The last 4 shots using a Lensbaby Muse f/2.0 with double glass optic (some shots f/2.8 some f/4) the rest using using a Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 DG.

We’re wishing farewell to 2011, a hard year but one that has lead to a great 2012. We have more weddings booked than ever and we’re ready and raring to go!

We’re also going to be making some changes to our products and services to better suit our clients and streamline our website, from the website we’ll be removing some old and adding some new services between now and April, our old services will still be available on request.

In the next couple of weeks we will be adding new shots from new shoots and projects we have planned including some jewellery, portraits and fashion work.
We’ll be adding some more creative stuff too thanks to some new equipment, (A Lensbaby Muse (Click link for more info) and some new lighting accessories).

Watch this space!

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your friends and family and spare a thought or a prayer for those who are not so lucky.

We hope we’ll see you in the New Year, keep an eye out for us – we’re starting an exciting new project in 2012!

Thanks to their organza curtains and the overcast day, the light was beautifully diffused creating a lovely even, almost shadowless light and as you can see below, allowed me to get some stunning results.
 

50mm, f/2.5, 1/100sec, ISO200.
 
 

50mm, f/2.5, 1/100sec, ISO400.
 
 

105mm, f/5.0, 1/100sec, ISO1250
 
 

50mm f/2.5, 1/100sec, ISO400.

I had great fun shooting this! What’s more, we’ll be adding this template to our portrait shoot options. Contact Us for more information

Shooting information
Camera Settings: 50mm, f/9.0, 1/100sec, ISO200.
Lighting: 2 Pro line Apollo180 studio flashes. The 1st on 1/2 power with 6in silver reflector fired onto a white background from appx 0.6m and immediately behind my head. The other squarely towards my face at a 45degree downward angle, from appx 1.5m away on 1/4 power. Both fired wirelessly.