Wedding Testimonials

I just came home this evening to receive a beautiful hand written thank you note and testimonial from Eugenie and Craig (some of their wedding photographs are in the previous blog entry or click here to view their wedding collection). Receiving such positive feedback from clients and family is the best feeling; not only professionally, as it’s important to other couples who are thinking of booking to read a first-hand testimonial, but also to know that you’ve exceeded expectations makes the job immensely rewarding. As well as this, the wedding photographs endure long after the cake has been eaten and the dress packed away and the images taken remain the one true permanent reminder of your wedding day, so their unveiling is always quite emotional – for me too!

If you’re planning your wedding (as many of you will be now Christmas is over) and you are considering several wedding photographers right now, looking at previous clients’ feedback will help you decide if you will be as happy with your wedding photographs. Here’s what Eugenie and Craig have to say:

"We just wanted to write to thank you so whole-heartedly for taking the most stunning photographs of our incredible wedding day! As soon as we met you initially we totally felt at ease and knew that we would have amazing shots by which to remember our special day.

You are a consummate professional; with an exceptional eye for detail and the organisational skills of a ‘super-power’ nation! We were so impressed by your portfolio and ethos and incredibly excited about seeing the results of your hard work. Viewing them on a big screen and in such a beautiful studio was the cherry on the icing of the cake!!! We can’t wait to display these works of art in our home and have a constant reminder, permanently captured, of our very perfect day! Thank you so much again!!"

KIlworth House Wedding Photography - Eugenie and Craig

Eugenie and Craig, who were married at the end of November this year at Kilworth House in Leicestershire, came to the studio at the weekend to view their wedding images for the first time. The studio is a beautiful new space courtesy of Pretty Flamingo, where Susan treats her clients to Indian Head Massage and makeover sessions. With its heated flooring, floor-to-ceiling glass doors and warm interior, it’s an incredibly relaxing oasis of calm – and Mirror Imaging’s clients can also enjoy viewing their images post wedding or portrait sessions, with refreshments or even a glass of fizzy, as well as look through the amazing frame and canvas selections we have.

Eugenie and Craig had 226 final images – I always edit the final selection of wedding photographs tightly so that there is plenty to choose from but it won’t overwhelm you. Two previous couples have said they loved every single one of their wedding photographs and would be happy with my choice for their album, which is incredibly gratifying and would be great to achieve with every couple’s wedding. Eugenie and Craig seemed very delighted too, and the unveiling of the photographs is certainly one of the most enjoyable elements to being a wedding photographer.

Their full selection of wedding images are now available to view online here and a small number of wedding photographs are below, as well as the images we previewed in our 26th November blog. If you are a friend or family member of Eugenie and Craig, I hope you enjoy looking through them over the Christmas season and choosing your favourites! And please feel free to email me with any feedback – as other couples who are thinking of booking always find this valuable. If you would like to order, or find out more information, there’s some beautiful print, framing and canvas options available from £20 to £350. Please give me a call 07968 159465 or email me and I will call you back over the holidays, as we’re in the process of streamlining our ordering system online, and I will instead personally deal with any orders or enquiries.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and New Year.
Mirror Imaging, wedding photographers Nottingham

Wedding Photography on Facebook!

I seemed to be one of the last amongst my friends to join the online networking site Facebook in the Summer of 2007, and it has since proved very addictive! I’ve also found it incredibly valuable to meet new people who may be getting married or would like some portraits of family and new arrivals. Mirror Imaging therefore has its very own business page as of July 2008, now with just over 50 members, where you can view all my latest work, leave me messages, meet other customers, add a comment to the discussion board, write a review or just become a fan!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Mirror-Imaging/33197381704

Facebook is a brilliant way of reaching other people and learning about products and services, and it is especially useful as a Nottingham wedding photographer, as I’m able to display where I am based and show off my portfolio as well! Personal recommendations are always the best way to meet new clients, and when a couple is entrusting their wedding to you, it must be more reassuring to know that their friends were delighted with their photographs too. If you haven’t already become a fan of Mirror Imaging, I would very much appreciate your support, so please visit me at Mirror Imaging on Facebook or do a search within facebook for Mirror Imaging. Thank you!

The Wedding Guide

Anyone planning their wedding day at the moment will have no doubt checked out a few wedding fairs for ideas, or they intend to… they are good fun and a huge source of inspiration. There are quite a few wedding fairs planned locally in the new year and The Wedding Guide in Nottinghamshire, Derby and Lincolnshire can tell you where the latest wedding fairs are and on what date. Jayne and her team will be out in force handing out their Wedding Guide books to brides-to-be, which details local suppliers and venues. Mirror Imaging features in the January issue as the Nottingham wedding photographer of the Real Weddings section, where you can read about how other couples created their dream day. Your complimentary copy of The Wedding Guide is available at the wedding fairs listed on their website http://www.weddings-nottsderby.co.uk/

Wedding Photography Testimonials

Feedback from clients after they receive their wedding photography or portrait photographs is always very welcome and I was therefore really pleased to receive a testimonial from Catherine and Mark last week following their wedding in Melbourne, Derbyshire in the middle of October. Thank you both for providing this recommendation, which other couples will hopefully find valuable.

“Mark and I just wanted to say thank you so much for the beautiful pictures you took at our wedding in October. We are so pleased with them and feel that they captured the day perfectly. Thank you for all your hard work on the day and also all you did beforehand to plan and discuss our requirements to ensure that the day went as smoothly as it did, and that we had the photos we had wished for. We have already recommended you to friends who are planning their wedding and we're sure they will be as pleased with their precious wedding memories as we are with ours!"

Recent weddings – Eugenie & Craig

Congratulations to Eugenie and Craig, who were married at Kilworth House in Leicestershire on 22nd November. As Nottinghamshire based wedding photographers, we also cover weddings in Leicestershire and Kilworth House near Lutterworth is a very beautiful venue. The weather once again was absolutely stunning with clear blue skies, but it was also bitterly cold! The wedding guests braved the icy temperatures to have their group photos outside and Eugenie and Craig warmed up by the fire for some romantic wedding photos together. As Christmas is coming Kilworth House was decorated very festively for the season, making the reception a stunning glow of tea lights and baubles. A small number of their wedding photographs are below, but more will be available to view in the Client Galleries section, when the couple return from their honeymoon.

Beautiful Framed Wedding Prints & Canvases

Mirror Imaging is extremely proud to now be working with two quality suppliers to produce stunning prints and canvases for all our clients. After literally months of searching and sifting through suppliers, we’re excited to be offering our clients a quality service from start to finish. Our chosen printing company is one of the best in the business and, as a professional laboratory, they have enabled Mirror Imaging to provide prints with outstanding colour quality, richness and brilliant lustre finish.

Our framing company is in a league of their own – with clients that include Paul Smith and Waitrose. We’ve been working very closely with them to produce full size samples so our clients can see the finished products. Having selected 24 frame samples which we feel set the prints off at their best and will look great in a number of different surroundings, clients, parents and grandparents can choose the perfect look to complement their home.

One of the unique services that our framers also provide is canvas printing and stretching, which uses a method called die-sublimation rather than standard inkjet print. This cutting edge method effectively soaks the canvas in the colour, which can be stripped and put in a washing machine if necessary and still retain the colour. Standard canvases are about a third of the cost to produce and won’t withstand such wear and tear, in fact they can fade very quickly in even normal light and sag on the frame over time. However, with die-sub the canvas will likely last a lifetime. We’re offering these canvases in large format 20” x 30”, 30” x 30” and 40” x 60”.

The client gallery area of the site will be updated so that in time you can order your images framed as well as mounted. Our wedding photography and portrait clients can enjoy a post wedding or post photoshoot meeting, going through samples and canvases to choose artwork that is entirely personal and unique. You can even opt for a wedding montage – a selection of your favourite images mounted and framed in one large bespoke sized frame, to hang in your home as a permanent and happy reminder of your day.

Client Wedding Galleries

Mirror Imaging’s wedding clients can now log online and look through their photographs in our client galley area. We’re very pleased we can offer this service to our wedding clients and it allows couples to view their wedding photography as soon as they get back from honeymoon. This is a great way of sharing your wedding images with friends, family and work colleagues and also choosing your favourites for your album.

We are also developing an ordering system, so payment will eventually be processed online by Paypal and prints delivered either as mounted images, or as mounted and framed prints. In the meantime, you can order the mounted images on the site, which will automatically email through your chosen prints, but for framing information please phone for details on 07968 159465.

Recent Weddings - Catherine & Mark

Catherine & Mark were married on 17th October at Melbourne Parish Church, St Michael & St Mary. This most beautiful of churches is almost a cathedral in miniature, backing on to Melbourne Hall and the stunning lake that borders it. It offers a beautiful backdrop for wedding photography and the local birdlife, including swans, ducks and geese, provided the soundtrack! The day itself was another very sunny day, especially considering the time of year. Catherine and Mark bookmarked their day at the Donington Parkfarmhouse Hotel nearby, with the bride getting ready in one of their cottages and an ivy clad reception in their atmospheric converted barns. To see all their wedding photographs please visit the Galleries section.

Recent Weddings - Selina & Robert

It’s been a very busy last few weeks, starting with Selina and Robert’s wedding at the end of September at St Judes Church in Rainworth. It was an incredibly sunny day for late September, with blue skies and hardly a cloud. Selina and Robert held their reception at the John Fretwell Cricket Ground in Mansfield, which is a newly refurbished complex and they converted the large sports room into a marquee draped reception. We missed the last cricket game of the season by a week, which was a blessing as we were able to take their group photo on the cricket lawns! To see their wedding photographs in full, please click on the Galleries section at the bottom of the website.

Nottingham Wedding Entertainment

If you’re currently planning your wedding you may be struggling to find good quality wedding entertainment for your guests at reasonable cost. As a wedding photographer, I know that after the ceremony and before the wedding breakfast can involve some waiting around for the rest of the wedding party, with often just the one drink! This is the perfect time to mark the start of the celebrations and Nottingham Jazz offer a range of jazz sounds, from duos to saxophone quartets, to get your party swinging. All are students and theref0re reasonably priced but their sound is very professional, having played a number of distinguished events, private weddings, clubs, bars and receptions. They seem to offer a great deal of flexibility, whether you want a real party vibe or mellow sophistication! Contact John or Joel on 07903 809 664 or email info@nottinghamjazz.co.uk

Wedding Inspiration and the Importance of the Wedding Venue

We’re now well into October and Autumn has officially arrived outdoors, so good luck to any couples putting the finishing touches to their Autumn/Winter weddings this year. It’s a beautiful time of year for a wedding; still sunny on some days with the colour palette outside turning orange, yellow and lime green, which is perfect for brides who have chosen a bright contrasting colour theme. If you have just set your date, then your venue will be one of the first considerations. When choosing your perfect wedding venue try not to just look at menu, price and size, but also how photogenic and beautiful the venue is. Consider the outdoors carefully; beautifully landscaped gardens featuring different trees and foliage will look stunning in your wedding photography and you will get more beautiful pictures. Look out for great ‘backdrops’ at your venue and consider leafy locations which feature their gardens as public attractions such as Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. Also, look for gardens that have been designed to look great all year with plenty of evergreen foliage.

If you are in the midst of planning your wedding and struggling for inspiration, wedding magazine Brides advises to create a ‘mood board’ as a starting point, with torn out pictures, fabric, even leaves and natural objects that catch your eye. Over time, they assure you that a theme will emerge as you collect together your favourite things. To help, here are a few Autumn scenes I photographed recently; you might think of horses bedecked in tartan ribbons, a white chocolate wedding cake adorned with jewel coloured mixed berries, a magical flower fairy theme, or a dewy cobweb may inspire a winter wonderland ball... have fun with your wedding planning and maybe one of these will become the inspiration for your big day!

Your wedding images on CD

Mirror Imaging has received several enquiries recently about wedding photography packages to include the wedding photographs on CD-Rom. With the introduction of digital photography and as so many homes now have computers this is becoming more and more popular. As a result, we are offering this option as an ‘add-on’ to each of the three wedding album packages. Wedding photographs are supplied at full resolution, rather than just screen viewable resolution, allowing couples to print their own quality images and play their wedding photographs to friends and family on a large TV screen. The CD-Rom will include the full selection of final photographs, not just the photographs that make it in to your album, for an additional £500. If you have already booked your wedding with Mirror Imaging and are interested in this additional choice, please contact 07968 159465.

Wedding Videographers

Many couples who are planning their wedding have the option of booking a wedding photographer, a wedding videographer, or both to record their special day. Deciding who to choose depends on personal preference, style, budget and finding talented suppliers whose approach is unobtrusive and captures the essence of your day with real flair.

I believe it is important to choose a supplier who specialises in one wedding service only. So for example, choose a trained makeup artist and a separate hairdresser, as the two are entirely different skills and you may otherwise end up compromising in one area or the other. The same goes for your wedding photographer and videographer.

Wedding videographers at the cutting edge of wedding video production take a very modern, exciting approach to capturing your day. I was most impressed recently by Reel Vision wedding videos, whose contemporary ‘taster’ trailers look professional enough for television and really build up the anticipation and emotion of the wedding day. They also work alongside your photographer smoothly and sympathetically, so both suppliers can do the best possible job for you.

Impressive editing skills make the difference between the average and the excellent – for both the wedding photographer and videographer. This is where Reel Vision seems to excel. If you are considering booking a wedding videographer (in addition, we hope, to your wedding photography!), Reel Vision’s prices start at £2,995 inc. VAT, beginning two hours before your ceremony right through to the evening dancing. For more information contact 01925 758 776.

Risley Hall Wedding Fair

Hello to everyone we met at Risley Hall Wedding Fair in Derbyshire on 25th September. This evening fair saw me teaming up with Pretty Flamingo makeup artistry to promote our individual services together with our makeover pamper days for brides to be. Many of you visiting us that evening had decided on Risley Hall as the perfect venue and were at the stage of choosing a professional wedding photographer.

I always offer a pre-booking meeting, entirely without obligation, to every couple who enquires about my wedding photography services and many couples really appreciate being able to meet up and see the albums and prints before they commit. Choosing the right wedding photographer is a really important part of planning your wedding and depends not only on you liking their style and album layout, but also that you like them as a person and are happy to share your day with them. That’s why a face to face meeting is always so valuable.

Meetings are held in and around the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire area and I am always very happy to visit a bride and groom-to-be in their home, so you can relax and look through a variety of images at leisure.

Norwood Park Makeover Photoshoot

A while back, I posted a blog about our makeover or pre wedding photoshoots at Norwood Park in Nottinghamshire. These fabulous makeover days are available to anybody who wants a gorgeous collection of portrait photographs of themselves or someone they love. Perfect for hen parties, best friends or a gift to your husband or partner, the stunning Georgian style venue is an incredibly elegant yet intimate backdrop to equally glamorous photographs!

Jenny and Amanda were pampered and preened with a professional makeover beforehand, before being photographed in the bridal room, which included a fabulous four poster bed. Neither of the girls have done any modelling before or posed for a professional photoshoot (Amanda is an energy technician and Jenny runs a driving instructor business!) They look absolutely amazing and I really hope they love the pictures.

For anyone interested in booking a makeover photoshoot at Norwood Park please contact me by email or telephone 07968 159465.

Actor and Model Portfolios

Yasin contacted me recently for some portrait photography as he’s an aspiring actor and wants to promote himself to local theatre groups and to directors, as well as having a headshot photograph he’s proud to see printed in a theatre program.

He brought several changes of clothes with him and we took some fabulous studio pictures that are very contemporary in style. Susan at Pretty Flamingo was on hand to groom, polish and even the skintone, which made his skin look amazing and helped him to relax before the photoshoot. Yasin was a real natural in front of the camera and he made it incredibly easy to get a great picture, in fact, the problem was trying to edit down the final collection, as they were so many strong images. He wrote to me shortly after reviewing the final shots to say “I so love them!”

Baby Photography

A few blogs back you may have read about our photoshoot with gorgeous baby Bryn. His parents invested in some professional photographs of their newborn and plan on giving these framed prints as beautiful Christmas presents for proud grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Our style of photography is very fresh and natural for children and babies; with black and white photographs outnumbering the colour on this occasion, as the photographs seem to lend themselves particularly well to black and white.

Babies are naturally photogenic and very expressive, as Bryn’s expressions and hand movements in the remaining photographs from the photoshoot demonstrate. His parents are delighted to have captured these first few weeks.