Earlier this week I joined these fine lookers for their pre-wedding shoot around their wedding venue The Mansion in Roundhay Park, Leeds.
Lucy, Rowan & I go way back.
We all went to school together and Lucy Lastic & I’ve been pals since we were teenagers, so it was fab to be asked along to document the fun!
To loosen themselves into the shoot, they cracked a bottle of vintage Rose Moet that Rowan gave to Lucy for her last birthday!
Good thinkin’ there chicos!
I was given one instruction by Lucy; no ‘bush nut’! Ie. avoid making her massive look massive! I’m lovin’ the term bush nut!
Copy that!
So we kicked off the games in Canal Gardens with some practice snuggling!
Champagne clearly helps.
I love this one. This might be my fave pic of the day.
The sun was playing a cheeky game of hide and seek, and during the meet he was blazing, only to shy up for most of the shoot.
But who need sun when you’ve got divs?
Only messin.
Interestingly, it took the longer than they expected to get loosened into it.
Being photographed is always a bit of a weird experience for people who don’t spend much time in front of a camera. Even when the couple are well up for it, are creative individuals and bring props and ideas, it can take a bit of getting used to. Feelings of self consciousness can creep in and basically, as always, it’s so good to go through these feelings at a practice photoshoot before the day, rather than in the 15 minute window allotted to couple portraits on a wedding day.
Really they keys to it for me are being able to almost forget I’m there and concentrate on each other, and to mess about a bit…
Messing about came easy to these guys!
Combine this with bubbles & you get jumpy fun!
After canal gardens (and an entire bottle of champagne!) we wandered over to a place I’d never been before…
The Roundhay Park Specialist Gardens! This part above was the Alhambra Gardens, based upon one of the worlds most famous gardens, the 13th century garden at Alhambra, Spain. Leading up to it was the Monet Garden, based upon gardens planted by the impressionist at Giverny in France, providing an elegant burst of colour and energy to reflect the French passion for life.
Somehow this crazy area had completely escaped my attention! It’s full of ace spots to shoot portraits.
Aww. We were really getting the hug skills together by this point!
In the same area is the Coronation Garden, home to two of Leeds City Councils former Chelsea Flower Show entries. Formally a kitchen garden supplying Roundhay Mansion with fresh fruit and vegetables, the garden is surrounded by a high wall, creating a sheltered sun trap for a whole bunch of crazy flora.
This flower show entry was based on the entry to a cool little military resthouse.
Like it.
In front of the house was a cool little pond to show of Lucy & Rowan’s most excellent footwear 
During the evening of their wedding reception, we’re gonna be running the ol’ BAWP Photobooth, and they’ve been rounding up props to us in front of the curtain, so I told Lucy to bring a few. One of them was this empty frame, which made for a fun sequence of shots.
I particularly like these two together.
On the way back to the Mansion, the sun dropped beneath the clouds it was hiding behind and we got a tasty blast of golden hour rays to play in!
Though I’m borderline concerned this pup might fall into the ‘bush nut’ category!
Loving that flare!
I like this one too, on the 50mm at f1.2
Sun is fun.
I … erm.. swear by flare?
[I wonder sometimes if these blogs’d be better without the commentary…]
Love the silver lining!
Lucy also dug out a retro polaroid camera to use for a few pics…
…including this bad boy!
One other random item in her bag of tricks was this little boat with a message they liked:
“There is no set path, just follow your heart”.
Nice
Can’t wait to join these guys in a couple of weeks!
Bring it on.
B x