On Saturday I joined Shanshan & Chris to photograph the fun-filled English leg of their cross-cultural wedding at Holdsworth House, near Halifax.

Here are my personal highlights from the day (including a little taster at the end from the photobooth we ran in the evening).

Bridal preparations were at Shanshan & Chris’s clean & creatively furnished house.

Her dress was seriously beautiful.

I love this one of Shanshan having her hair & makeup done

In the corner were Shanshan’s fantastic shoes! (Shot at f1.2 on the 50mm, shutterbugs!)

Beautiful, fragrant flora were supplied by the wonderful Firenza Floral Design.

I just love the work Fiona and her gang do.

Shanshan’s family had flown over from China and Dad was a cutey practicing his speech (in Mandarin), several times over.

Chinese Tea was brewing in the kitchen (& I had a few cups, cos it’s lovely!)

I like this moment of their little flower girl having her hair done

While this cool little dude watched a bit of TV

Meanwhile, Clare started following Chris’ preps at Jack’s Snacks in Bramley.

Jack’s Snacks was actually the meeting point for an Exposure Leeds photo walk we did with Shanshan & Chris a month or so ago (blog post here)

The rings!

Their wedding ceremony was at the wonderful Saltaire United Reformed Church.  Saltaire, a World Heritage Site, is an amazing place to visit with a lovely tale behind it.

Basically, Sir Titus Salt built a textile mill to weave Llama wool on the River Aire and used his fortune to build a full-on town for his workers; keeping his workforce happy & content by supplying them houses, schools, healthcare and this amazing church.  The only thing they didn’t get was a pub.  Titus clearly didn’t want his staff having fun!

Meanwhile, back at Shanshan’s it’s time to get into the dress!

I love this shot of all the goings on

And this one of Shanshan positively glowing as she comes down the stairs.

(Feeling the mixed arty frames on the wall!)

A little later than scheduled (!) here we catch our happy couple laying eyes on one another for the first time.  It’s always a special moment.

Look at this amazing building!  I was allowed up onto the pulpit during a song and caught the sheer scale of it.

I like this one of proud family looking on as Shanshan slides on Chris’ wedding ring

From the back Clare caught this great snap of the kiss in front of the mammoth organ.

I rarely get to photograph the throwing of the bouquet (as traditionally, it’s done at the end of the night), but they wanted to do it after the ceremony.

It was a fun scrum to watch!

Shanshan and Chris’ pre-wedding shoot was one of the coolest I’ve done in a long time.

They were so natural together and we got some wicked images (check out the post here).  It really helped when doing their wedding portrait shoot.

It helps build trust so we can catch soulful images like this.

Back at Holdsworth House we had a play in the lovely sunshine.  The girls clearly enjoyed the bouquet toss earlier, so did another!

The dudes, looking sharp.

The roof of their wedding breakfast was adorned with hundreds of origami swans, all made I believe by Shanshan’s fair hands!

Speeches were fun

I love Shanshan’s face on this one.

Another cool moment during the first dance

All in all, Shanshan & Chris’ wedding was such a great day.  We really enjoyed ourselves and everyone else did too.

I was gutted when they asked me if I was available to photograph the Chinese leg of their wedding later this year, as I’m already booked!  (Apparently Chris gets to ride into town on a donkey!)  But I hope they have a fantastic few weeks showing the family around the UK and really have a blast in China!

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