Crathorne Hall Wedding Fayre with Qwest (Quality Wedding Establishment)

Yesterday I travelled down to Crathorne Hall Hotel near Yarm, North  Yorkshire for the Qwest (Quality Wedding Establishment) relaxed wedding fayre.

It was set up quite differently to other wedding fayres i've participated in, and only Qwest accredited members could exhibit their work there which meant myself and all the suppliers had gone through a business assessment and provided work and service of high standard. 

There were two rooms, one set up for a wedding breakfast by The Countryside Florist, Inviting Concepts and The First Class Wedding Company. 

The other had some coffee tables laid out with exhibitors work and we each had a comfortable seating area to encourage brides to sit down for a chat. I really liked this idea as it meant we could really hear brides & grooms ideas about their weddings and have a proper chat. I also met Becci from Hair By Becci  who is a very enthusiastic and lovely hairdresser (Check her out!) and caught up with By Gina who sells a gorgeous range of handmade wedding jewellery and also some amazing shoes (See more of her work through her website or on display at Just Perfect UK. 

Cupcakes were provided by the fabulous Celebration Cakes Peterlee. Unfortunately they were snapped up before I had a chance to try one, but I hear they were very yummy!

Here are some photographs that I took on the day before everyone came in. 

The above is part of my stand! 

Venue: Crathorne Hall, North Yorkshire

Wedding fayre organised by: Qwest (Quality Wedding Establishment)

Room dressing by: The First Class Wedding Company, Inviting Concepts and The Countryside Florist  

All photographs (C) Katie Byram Photography 2013 and must not be used without written permission. 

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone has had a fantastic Christmas & New Year break...

I always look forward to the New Year as a way to set some goals for the year ahead and have a fresh start. One of my big goals is to blog more.. preferably at least twice a week. I have a lot of 2012 material that is yet to see my blog, and I will be getting a lot more of that up here as well as new work.

Over Christmas I photographed two beautiful weddings, Alan & Paula's wedding at Matfen Hall, and Phill & Joanne's twixmas (In between Christmas & New Year!) wedding at The South Causey Inn.

I will be shortly posting the previews of these two Christmas themed weddings which was lovely.

Also this year my goals for blogging are:

- Include some more personal work
- Write on various photography topics/ideas
- Include wedding planning ideas and tips for brides & grooms
-Showcase other local and national businesses
- Blog some great weddings
- Blog non-wedding related posted (portraits, christenings etc)

2012 was amazing... and I will be posting a year's round up in photos soon too...

I've had some definite highs and lows of the year, but mostly good things....

I photographed 22 weddings, organised and photographed a fantastic photoshoot with local businesses, met some wonderful families, for photoshoots, supported local charity exhibitions (Tiny Lives Newcastle). I had the pleasure of photographing photographed a 1 day old baby, a talented young singer/dancer for her 16th birthday, and a fab village christening.

My largest wedding had approx 150 guests, my smallest had 2 weddings. I travelled to Scotland, The Lake District, Huddersfield, and further afield to photograph weddings and meet clients. I experienced being a guest at a Polish-German wedding in Poland.. I also had the opportunity to me photographed myself which let me see things from a client's point of view... I achieved a Qwest award for business professionalism, worked at some fantastic venues for the first time (Ellingham Hall, Langley Castle and Matfen Hall were definite highlights).... sometimes it's easy to get caught up in hecticness of everything... and to get easily disheartened.. but when you take a step back you can see things differently....

Very excited about what 2013 has to bring!

Exciting News - Qwest Award!!

Qwest (Quality Wedding Establishment) is the UK's only governing body for the wedding industry. All members have to pass an assessment covering sixteen categories regarding their business practice and professionalism. 

I'm pleased to say that in February, Katie Byram Photography received the Qwest stamp of approval, and received a certificate, as well as being featured on their website

I met with Louise & Claire from Qwest up at the Just Perfect Wedding and Events Gallery, along with Wendy Reed from By WendyBespoke Stationery at the end of February, to receive my certificate.

Some of the things I discussed with Qwest were how important I feel it is to provide a tailored service to my clients, rather than applying the same format to every wedding, and to give as much a personal approach as possible.

Here is myself and the lovely Wendy (I'm on the right)

To find out more about Qwest, visit the website:  click here.