St Marks Church Worsley
St Marks Church in Worsley today for Deborah and Jono’s wedding !
We put a sneaky peak of their wedding photo’s here, but this is part one of a two part post…finally catching up on posting this years weddings !
Deborah and Jono live and work in Abu Dhabi so the wedding day was the first time I met Jono !
Deborah had come back from Abu Dhabi a month before the wedding to get the planning underway, so fortunately, we had met one another before the big day. I remember when I first spoke to Deborah and Jono on the phone, maybe it’s just how my brain works, but I just remember “Hi Ric It’s Jono here, I’m in Abu Dhabi, we love your work and want to book you to be our wedding photographer !)….at this point I was mentaly packing my suitcase ! But unfortunately for me Deborah and Jono were flying back to Manchester for the wedding, maybe next year. [..so if you are getting married in abroad, in Abu Dhabi or any where else let me know, I'm happy to travel !]
A quick trip into Manchester city center for Bridal prep to start the day. The wedding reception was to be held at The Midland Hotel, so Deborah had stayed the night before, always a good plan ! The Midland Hotel is possibly one of the Grandest Hotels in Manchester and if it’s on your possible list of wedding venues, then I’d certainly pop it near the top, if you can get the date you want !
I think we can safely say the Midland Hotel in Manchester is a fantastic venue for your wedding !
The rooms in The Midland Hotel are fantastic, spacious, grand and luxurious. All great ingredients in getting your wedding off to a good start !
No better way to start the celebrations than a few bottles of champagne and strawberries ! [Coffee does it nicely for me though]
The beautiful earings were a gift for the Bridesmaids from Deborah and Jono. They were from Tiffany’s.
[I bought my wife 1 share in Tiffany's many years ago, still waiting for them to send her some free jewelry though !]
One of the many benefits of being at the Midland Hotel, is the size of the rooms, there’s space for everyone to get ready without feeling claustrophobic, keeps everyone nice and calm. They have great big windows too giving plenty of natural light for your make up artist !
Room service were busy today, Deborah and Jono have some wonderful friends and family…they kept sending bottles of Champagne up to the room !
We left the girls [with the champagne] at the Midland Hotel and headed off to Worsley.
St Marks Church Worsley
Deborah and Jono were getting married at St Marks Church in Worsley. It’s a beautiful church very close to the The Worsley Park (Marriot Hotel Golf and Coutry club), and Worsley Court House. Both of which make great wedding venues too !
{ The Worsely Park Wedding Photo’s here and Worsely Court House Wedding photo’s's here}
It was my first meeting with Jono, he’d only flown in a few days before and we hadn’t had the chance to meet up, but it didn’t matter we had a great time and fortunately he wasn’t nervous in front of the camera.
The guys looked very smart in their top hats and tails, fortunately is wasn’t too warm, so they were quite happy to keep their hats on !
St Marks is a fantastic looking church, one of the nicest in Worsley, unfortunately when we were their they were repairing their roof because some unscrupulous people had stolen the lead from it !
Hopefully the next time we are back at St Mark’s they will have had the chance to complete all the repairs, and remove the scaffolding.
St Marks Church Worsley
The bridesmaids looked stunning on their arrival at the church!
The bridesmaids awaiting the Bride at St Marks Church in Worsley.
Deborah and her Mother arrived at St Marks in style, in a beautiful wedding car.
The rain held off, right at the last minute ! Two minutes before it had been raining , the ushers had the brollies at the ready !
Jono still looked calm, normally I find the groom’s are getting a little bit wobbly at this stage, Sorry boys but it is the groom that seems to be more nervous than the bride on the big day !
Sadly Deborah’s Father had passed away a few years ago and so the duty of walking her up the aisle fell onto the shoulders of her mother Maria.
Maria looked extremely elegant as did all the ladies, but then you would expect that as Maria has her own Couture Bridal shop in Didsbury.
” Not losing a daughter but gaining a son”
St Marks is a wonderful church, but unfortunately it’s one of those churches that doesn’t allow photographers at the front. Some churches unfortunately have had bad experiences with amateur photographers [claiming to be professional wedding photographers] who clearly have no idea what they are doing and end up running around in the ceremony thinking they are on a fashion shoot. This then impacts on us all. On arrival I was told by the verger that I was to remain at the back of the church and take photo’s from there. Which is fine and we work with what we are allowed to do, but at the same time it’s very frustrating when the videographer was allowed to be at the front ??
I did ask if I was allowed to set up a camera on a tripod (remotely triggered from the back) at the front next to the videographer, but that was also not allowed. I’m afraid photographers in St Mark’s are not, certainly last year, overly welcome. Which I always find sad as It means we can not capture the ceremony as we would like.
So depending where you are getting married, if you want the photographer to be able to capture certain moments from the ceremony, it’s worth checking with the church/venue officials what is allowed, before booking, just to be on the safe side.
The alter view from the back of St Marks Church in Worsley.
Being at the back of the church is fine as long as you know what you are doing and that you have the correct equipment, which I do and I have…but unfortunately it does mean that you do not get the angle that you want. So details like this, capturing the moment the ring goes on the finger are virtually impossible to get because we need to be on the other side. But I think it’s still a nice shot, could have been better if we had been allowed at the front, but I’m sure Deborah and Jono will still love it !
[For my photographer friends that read this blog, this was shot on a 5dmkii with a 70-200 lens racked out to 200mm [I did have a 1.4 extender in the bag, but didn't need it
]
At least when Deborah and Jono turned to face one another I knew I could get a great shot !
After the ceremony we had a quick ten minutes to get a few formals taken…as the wedding was running behind schedule and we should of already been back at the Midland Hotel.
Then it was a [very fast] drive back to the Midland Hotel, park up and get ready for the Wedding reception 1
The second instalment of Deborah and Jono’s wedding at St Marks Church | Midland Hotel is here.
If you are getting married at St Marks church in Worsley, or at The Midland Hotel and would like to discuss your requirements further, please ring Ric on 07808 174 805
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I find that nine times out of ten, it’s always the groom that is ‘emotional’ on the day. Today was no exception ! We are a privileged bunch who get to photograph weddings, and it’s not very often in life we get to see such magical displays of raw emotion in others, but today was no exception !
I’ve not counted yet this year…on how many ‘blue’ weddings we’ve had and how many ‘red’ weddings we’ve had, Tony and Diane are most definitely CTID !
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