Last Saturday, we met up with two of our friends, Claire & James, in Nightingale Wood in Ridgewood to take some winter portraits of them. They brought their dogs, Basil & Benson along for an extended walk. It was so cold that piggybacks were required to keep warm haha!We just love this look of complete happiness on James’ face.

Claire is so beautiful….Cold hands, warm hearts.

Thanks so much Claire & James for braving the cold and being such willing & good looking models mwah!

This collection of images feature a combination of Yemi, Elizabeth & Seyi’s work at the Kosibah 20th Anniversary & Bienvenue 20 launch in September 2011. All the suppliers that Yemi, Elizabeth & Seyi worked with for that event are fully credited in the link above. Yemi alongside one of the models wearing “Titania” wedding dress from his Bienvenue 20 collection.Models wearing the Bienvenue 20 collection by Kosibah.Decor by Cedar Events.Evening wear by Kosibah.Cake & Cupcakes by Elizabeth’s Cake Emporium.Elizabeth Solaru of Elizabeth’s Cake Emporium.

So aspiring Wedding Planners, this is an opportunity that you simply cannot miss! For full details, please visit Inspire101.

Hope to see you there!!!

So it was that  a week before Christmas last year, I (Funmi) headed up to Nottinghamshire to second shoot for the lovely Lucy Stendall. It was the Jess & Luke’s Christmas wedding, which Lucy has featured on her blog; please visit her blog for the full story.

Thanks to Lucy for letting me second shoot for you; it was an absolute blast. Congratulations to Jess & Luke!

Last summer, I had the pleasure of second shooting Kelly & Mike’s 1950′s wedding for the lovely Sam Clayton, who featured the full story on her post.

Kelly’s beauty was just emphasised by make up by Jenna Alexander & hairstyle by Tori Millis.Kelly bought this beautiful dress by Justin Alexander at the Butterfly Bridal.Mike’s suit was from Jeff Banks.Mike hands over the wedding rings to his Best Man.Kelly & Mike’s wedding car was a convertible VW Beetle supplied & chauffeured by Timeless Classic.Amazing & delicious wedding cake by Icing on the Cakes.Their wedding reception was at Abbey House Hotel.Beautiful bouquet by Efflorescence.I took the next three images whilst holding an umbrella over Sam as it was drizzling thus proving that I’ll help out as much as I can whilst getting the shots that the official photographer may use!Their dresses were from Vivien of Holloway.Love the movement of Kelly’s dress.Thank you so much, Sam for letting me 2nd shoot for you, I had so much fun. Congratulations to the lovely Kelly & Mike!

2011 has been a year of massive changes, development and growth of friendships. Our biggest change was our re-brand and website in June, that the amazing Melissa Love after working with us to discover our true characters. Thanks Melissa! One of the other changes was instigated on the first day of the year when we announced that we’d undertake a 365 photography project. We’re truly happy to confirm that we did it! Man, it was as much fun as it was a challenge. Especially for me (Funmi), as I took the majority of the images as it meant no more “traveling light” & plenty of impressions of a bag lady. For Adrian, it was a 365 for editing images and so has meant that that he’s developed those skills immensely. It is a testament to the patience & love that we have for each other and I’m not even exaggerating haha!

Due to the changes to our website, blog and branding, they were all out of service for a short time so we decided to do more 2nd shooting for other photographers. Whilst we assisted our photographer friends, we learnt from them and are very grateful for this. We enjoyed it so much that we’ve agreed to more 2nd shooting in 2012.

We collaborated with so many Wedding vendors that all thanks and credit are within separate blogs that will listed later in this one. Thank you so much to our Wedding industry friends, it has been such a pleasure to work with and for you.

Thanks to our lovely Clients and to Suppliers with whom we worked, we are truly grateful. Thanks for your continued interest, support and trust mwah!

We look to 2012 with hearts full of hope, continued gratitude & love of our family, friends & all things photographic.

Here are a few of our favourite images from 2011.

In January, we did a photo shoot with Cherilyn Leeson to show off her latest collection of Bridal wear & Corsets.We worked with Charley from London Bride , Warren House , Pollen Nation,  Kaz Fernando, Charlotte Balbier, TwoBirds Bridesmaid, Flo & Percy, Tempting Cake & Vicky Trainor to produce the Glamour & Grace Bridal Shoot in March.

We photographed Jo’s maternity session in hers & Sean’s beautiful home in March.Due to injury, we covered a Vintage Tea PartyBridal shoot on behalf of Liesl Cheney in April. We worked with Stylist Terri Holmes, PetalProof Super 8 Films , Belle’s Beauty, The Bridal Boutique, Carina’s Cupcakes & Vintage Tiaras by Julia Beazley.

In June, Funmi arranged a surprise 2nd wedding anniversary shoot swap with Elizabeth from Bridal Musings, Anneli & Wayne Marinovich; a surprise because Adrian had no idea that he’d be photographed by Anneli & Wayne. Elizabeth featured the full story so you can see the photographs of Adrian & I.The next 7 images may send you scurrying to the kitchen in the hunt for food. You’ve been warned haha!

Such a tender moment from this engagement session in June.

I second shot Sarah & Andy’s wedding for  Fiona Campbell in July.

Adrian & I second shot Lottie & Jake’s wedding for Fiona Kelly in August.I second shot Kelly & Mike’s wedding for Sam Clayton in August.During the August Bank Holiday weekend, we photographed a family with 5 generations of women, which truly awe-inspiring.

The lovely Seyi from Cedar Events asked us to cover Kosibah’s 20th anniversary & launch of Bienvenue 20 collection as spectators in September.Taking a quick cuddle break from their allotment work, Lisa & Jason enjoyed their lifestyle portrait session in the summertime.Beautiful Melissa turned 1!Nicola & Ashley celebrated 6 months of marriage with a Bridal shoot featuring Jenna‘s styling talents.I second shot Lisa & Phil’s wedding for Ellie Gillard in September. Liz & Tom were the winners of our Dream Engagement session competition, which offered the talents of the wonderful Jenna from Lucky Sixpence Events, Sarah from Coco Violet Make up, Elizabeth of Bridal Musings & us.

I second shot Jess & Luke’s wedding for Lucy Stendall in December.

Massive thanks to everyone for following our work,  supporting & encouraging us. We wish you a fantastically prosperous & happy 2012!

Tom was very pleased when he told us on the day of the session that the first time that Liz knew about our Dream engagement session competition was when he informed her that they had won it! Elizabeth from Bridal Musings publicised our competition which offered the talents of the wonderful Jenna from Lucky Sixpence Events, Sarah from Coco Violet Make up, Elizabeth & us.

With help from Jenna, Liz & Tom decided to have a combined autumnal walk in the park & a 1940s post war theme. We all had so much fun  on the day.

Full details of the session and their proposal story are now on Elizabeth’s blog so please check it out after leaving some comments here for the gorgeous Liz & Tom.

As we love the photographs so much, we also built a website for Liz & Tom.

Thanks everyone for making this session such a great success!

Credits

Make up: Coco Violet Makeup

Styling & Props: Lucky Sixpence Events

Vintage clothing: The Revival Retro Boutique

Venue: The Britannia Pub

Publicist / Behind the scenes report: Bridal Musings

This selection of images have been on our facebook page since September. We had so much taking them and as we scheduled the shoot for the golden hour of beautiful sunlight between 6:30 & 7:30 pm, it was so vibrant. This lovely family was a joy to photograph!

Baby’s hair is hilarious due to sudden gust of wind.“Mummy, if you insist of lifting me so high over your head, then you run the risk of dribble…” Haha.Baby Ciara, Mother Leann, Grand Mother Denise, Great Grand Mother Marion & Great Great Grand Mother Duff = Wow !Mother Leann & Ciara.Ciara & Grand Mother Denise.Great Great Grand Mother Duff & Ciara.Ciara & Great Grand Mother Marion.Love this magical light, thanks to golden hour of sunlight, on Great Great Grand Mother Duff.

On that summery day in August, Adrian & I visited our neighbours, Lisa & Jason, as they tended to their huge & bountiful allotment in Langley Green. As Adrian & I love taking photographs of people enjoying their hobbies and interacting with each other, it was an absolute pleasure. It was even more so because they gifted us with potatoes, cabbage & corn from their allotment. The difference in size, texture and taste is so obvious when their vegetables & fruit are compared to those bought from the shops. We’re afraid that we’ve been spoilt haha!

Don’t say you weren’t warned: this post will be sprinkled with several different ways of saying “big”, “huge” & “impressive” as those words (or similar) were our reactions to what we saw!

Lisa & Jason told us that they normally start their day on the allotment with a cup of tea & pain au chocolat whilst agreeing which jobs they would focus on as the allotment was so big. Their green chillies were impressive.Their allotment shed had several hanging rows of onions in new tights as onions are very  moist when first harvested so they need to dry out before use. As a complete novice to gardening or farming, Funmi had no idea so considers herself “taught”.Jason pulling out some of the carrots that they grow in manure-filled tubes; their produce is so huge that they are compelled to use luggage scales to weigh them.Jason illustrating the difference in size between a tube-grown Carrot (yes, pale cream Carrots exist, no they are not Parsnips) when compared to a pallet-grown (normal as in orange) Carrot. Talk about “inferiority complex” haha.Lisa hand makes their scare crows so she changes them annually with different designs; one of their many massive Beef Tomatoes.Corn ears of possibly the same Corns that they gave a few days after the shoot.Impressive Cabbages that were positioned just to the right of their allotment gate.Cabbage harvest.Jason is carrying one of his and Lisa’s allotment-grown cabbages. The sheer size of it (weighed over 9 kg!) means that store-bought varieties would cower in defeat, if they were able to do so.
These 3 bags of potatoes were a very small portion of all the potatoes they harvest. The texture of these potatoes when cooked was silken and taste, divine!Who said Cucumbers were not romantic!? We defy them.

Thanks to Lisa & Jason for enlightening us in most things allotment and giving us some of your delicious produce!

12 months ago, Nicola of Belle Noir Bride contacted us to introduce us to her new blog, which has main objectives of inspiring, informing & supporting Black British Brides-to-be & newly-weds. As a recently-wed inter-cultural couple ourselves, her aims really interested us so we were really excited to work with Nicola. Thus, we decided to photograph Nicola & her husband, Ashley, in their wedding outfits and items from their April 2011 wedding. The premise was that it would be a celebration of their love for each other and act as a reminder of their wedding day, a cherish the dress & custom-made suit shoot, of sorts.

We asked the highly talented Jenna of Lucky Sixpence Events to help us plan the shoot & boy, did she come up trumps?! Along with Jenna & Nicola, we decided on the “feel” that we wanted to achieve before Jenna organised & styled the shoot for us. Please check out Nicola’s post for the full story of the shoot; meanwhile, here are our favourite images from the shoot.

We love the striking contrast of the architectural styles of the Renoir & The Brunswick so much…..Nicola & Ashley are so lovely.So gorgeous together.Ashley’s bespoke suit had a coral lining too!This photograph of Nicola’s relative inspired them to choose their wedding colour palette based on the Peach jacket.Just adore the flare & Nicola’s smile in this.How cute is this Biscuit Boutique Jammy Dodger necklace that Jenna sourced for us from Of Cabbages and Kings , a fabulous designer-maker shop nestled in beautiful Stoke Newington?

Thanks so much to all involved in this fun yet tender shoot.

Readers, if you like this, then please feel free to show Nicola & Ashley some love by commenting below.

{Update}: The images from this session were also featured on Belle Noir Bride & Beyond Beyond! Click on these:

Natasha was baptised at St John The Baptist Church in Findon. Her parents, Johanna & Sean were joined by Natasha’s God Parents at the baptismal font. Friends & Family witnessed the special event.

After her baptism, family & friends were invited to join Natasha & her parents for a delicious buffet lunch of hot & cold tapas. The celebrations included the making of Paella in front the guests by talented chefs from the Med Cafe in Horsham!

The beautiful Christening cake with hand made sugar flowers and border was made by a lovely neighbour.