Blackfriars Priory

BLACKFRIARS PRIORY Wedding Photographer

Blackfriars Priory in Gloucester will always be a very special place for me - not just because of how incredibly beautiful it is, with it's dark crumbling walls and gothic feel, but it's actually where I got married myself. Of course it's one of my favourite UK wedding venues, there's so few venues like this, a 14th century priory, perfectly kept and preserved and now a wedding venue, plus it's close proximity to the Cotswolds and the incredible Gloucester Cathedral, it's a dream. After my own wedding, I knew I wanted to get back into Blackfriars for one of my photographers workshops, and transform the space and share it with some other creatives, it was a no brainer. Creating this editorial was an absolute dream, I felt so inspired - by the space, my own wedding, the recent Wuthering Heights film (although my overarching thoughts were all style no substance on that, but the style was very inspiring!). I'm so thrilled by how all this came together, with an incredible team, and 3 couples and one solo bride in front of my lens, it was the most abundant day of photographing, I still feel like I've hardly scratched the surface of sharing these images, so this space for them only felt right.

Manchester Wedding Photographer

For this shoot I wanted to blend together the moody, gothic, victorian style with something more modern and playful. I didn't want it to feel stiff or forced, I wanted it to feel editorial and fashionable, and my team of Elizabeth at 11.11 Weddings on styling, and Ross at Flur by Mackenzie on florals totally understood the brief and brought it together better than I ever could've imagined. Elizabeth mixed together the soft, feminine, romantic draping with the wrought iron of the Victorian style pergola, whilst Ross created scultpural, wired florals in a dark palette, with a modern edge with the choice of blooms. Elizabeth also brought in Virginias Furniture Hire to bring in the wrought iron chairs for the ceremony, wooden chairs for the table, urns and victorian love seat - the perfect finishing touches. Everything looked perrfect, that real gothic, moody, feel that I wanted but still very high fashion. We also had Lulu's Cake Kitchen creating the decadent dessert table, with a Victorian piped majestic main cake, and then trays of mini desserts and fruits. which just looked incredible with the soft draped pink fabric that Elizabeth had chosen. For this shoot, I wanted the photographers to have so much inspiration to leave with, so we had 3 couples and one solo bride. All our brides were wearing incredible dresses curated by Jenny from Belle Lueur Bridal. We had a mixture of full romantic lace dresses, to corseted silk numbers with huge trains and flowing feminine fabrics - we paired these dresses with jewelry and accessories from Debbie Carlisle, opting for pearls and the showstopper birdcage lace over the face veils, which created some of my favourite ever images. We also had stationery by Faye at Linhay press, who mixed lace and fabric with textured papers and calligraphy to create the gothic inspired stationery, the perfect finishing touches to the table. Nala and Knot on hair and makeup created a mix of looks - from slick, restrained hair, to crimped flowing locks and dark lips - adding a modern and dark edge in the hair and makeup to contrast with the more historically styled venue. Our boys, Jay and Sam, wore custom looks curated by Beck at Jean Jackson Couture. A playful twist on black tie and bringing queer fashion into the spotlight, inspired by Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, the boys finished the looks with their own heels, they looked incredible.

I wanted to photograph this shoot on 35mm film as well as digital, film is just so nostalgic and it fit perfectly with the style of the shoot, the film images are definitely some of my stand out images from the whole day. There's nothing quite like getting a super clean, crisp film scan back!

35mm Film Wedding Photographer - GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL

I wanted this shoot to feel really romantic, really intimate and always really moody. The whole feel of the shoot really was leaning into that anyway, and the styling with the dramatic gothic dresses and historic setting really made sense for something darker and more sensual. Whilst Blackfriars is a stunning space on it's own, I really wanted to add the ultimate drama and head to Gloucester Cathedral too. So in the afternoon session, we walked over and used the beautiful cloisters as a backdrop. Gloucester Cathedral has been used as a filming location in so many films, it feels instantly recognisable, but even without that, the architecture in the cloisters is just awe inspiring and so dramatic - the perfect spot for wedding photos (I would know, I had mine here too!). Again, some of my stand out frames from the whole day were taken here in the Cathedral, using the available light to my advantage and getting different angles of the architechture - the dresses especially really came alive in this space.

I'm still not over this shoot and need to share some more of it, but until then, here's a mini gallery below. With thanks to the whole team x