Yesterday I joined the lovely Kate & Matthew to photograph their wonderful wintery wedding at The Hospitium in York!  Myself and my 2nd shooty wingman Pete Boyd (of PBPhoto) had an class day in perfect wintery (but not too wintery) weather.  It was my last wedding of 2010 and the sun was shining, snow was still on the ground, but it wasn’t too cold to briefly duck out doors.

The Hospitium is always an ace place to shoot a wedding, as it’s nicely self-contained with indoor photo options, but if the weather outside is sweet it’s bang in the middle of York’s picturesque museum gardens; with the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey & York Walls to play around.

Check out central York & the Minster bathed in beautiful low sunshine!

[Don’t tell DVLA, but I actually shot this through my car windscreen at the lights arriving into York.  I always have the camera on the seat locked and loaded with a wide-angle zoom, in case I see any scene setters on the way]

Kate & her gang got ready over at The Judges Lodgings, an amazing 18th Century Georgian Town House, literally over the road from the Hospitium.

[It was great to see the lovely Jessica Goodall again working her hair & makeup magic again.  I fully endorse her work if you’re looking!]

Kate’s couldn’t be any more my kind of bride!

She’s great fun & filled her wedding day with fun details (such as red shoes – Yey!); she loves photography (a enthusiast DSLR owner!), follows my blog and has been tweeting excitedly about our pre-wedding shoot.  I couldn’t ask for more really, and her & Matthew were such great sports at our snowy pre-wedding shoot at Bolton Abbey (check the blog post here).

A star indeed!

There it is – THE DRESS! Out & ready to party.

They’d arranged fantastic colourful flora, brimming with thistles and berries.

The flower girl arrived in her pjs!

Dad’s first look at his daughter on her big day.

[He’s also a pro photographer! Pressure much?!]

Meanwhile, Pete was over with the gents, and got this cracking ringshot

I love Pete’s through-the-door framing of Steve, Matthew’s best man, doing him up.

Soon to be Mr & Mrs Smith, I liked the makeshift poster Pete spotted on a door in the house!

A cheeky portrait of Matt & Steve, before heading to York

Meanwhile, dresses were going on at the Judges Lodgings…

… and Mum joined the fun.

We love it when a plan comes together! Awesome dresses, colours & details.

As also applied at the guy-end!

I liked the spiral staircase at the Judges…

… and can’t work out which image I prefer

Thought had also been put into the amazing graphic design on all the day’s stationary.

Another of Pete’s catches I like of the registrars checking Kate is who she says she is.

Here comes the bride!

The kiss…

Officially Mr & Mrs Smith!

It was great that we could get outside for some quick groupshots & a bit of confetti

Man flora detail

Lady flora detail

… and off we strode for a quick portrait shoot

I think this one looks a touch Narnian!

Their pre-wedding practice certainly paid off & we got some lovely natural portraits.

Massive respect to both of them for braving the cold as long as they did!

I’m quite pleased with this flash pan arriving into the wedding breakfast.

As well as a bag of retro sweets each, another cheeky detail was the bubbles for all on the tables!

Immaturity is my bag.

The cake!

I’ve shot the Hospitium several times before and upstairs is a photographically unfriendly spot, as the walls are red and the high ceiling is brown wood.  What that means is the walls bounce back as red and the roof eats flash, so I came prepared with fast prime lenses to catch the natural light instead.

They still looked nice & punchy, like the one of Dad above.

The best man’s speech was most entertaining

That dusky sky comes and goes so fast, and it was more coincidence that I noticed the light as I came down to work on the slideshow.

That deep blue sky makes the building look great.

It’s strong and it’s sudden and it’s cruel sometimes
but it might just save your life
That’s the power of love!

After a round of sambucas we left the gang to enjoy the party!

A massive thank you to both Kate, Matthew & their awesome family & friends for asking us along to join them on their wonderful wedding day.  It was such a great day, and a perfect way to end a hugely enjoyable year of wedding photography!

I hope they enjoy their honeymoon in South Africa!

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