Cherish The Dress: Bolam Lake Northumberland

This blog entry brings something completely different! I have wanted to do a cherish/trash the dress shoot for a while, where a bride puts on her wedding dress after her wedding for a photoshoot. 

What is the difference between a trash the dress and a cherish the dress shoot I hear you ask? 

Well, both are photoshoots with the bride in her wedding dress after the big day, and may or may not involve their partner. Both usually take place in outdoor locations, either urban or in a natural setting...

 During a cherish the dress shoot,  the wedding dress may get slightly dirty, however the trash the dress has much more of an intent with this of getting it dirty/wrecked/trashed, so may involve more mud, or paint... in some countries they even create an illusion of setting the dress on fire!!  It is to symbolise the fact that are now married for life, and wouldn't need to wear the dress again. 

Having a little bit of extra time this month, and wanting to try something new,  I offered up a free session over on my Facebook page . I had so many lovely emails asking to be involved, that it was a very hard decision to choose. I decided to choose Danielle for the Cherish The Dress shoot as her style really suited the woodland location I had in mind. Many of these types of shoots are very fashion based, with lots of serious expressions and posing. Having a much more relaxed style with photography I wanted to create something more in my style. 

 Danielle got married in 2011 at High House Farm Brewery  to the lovely Scott. Her wedding was featured on top UK wedding blog Love My Dress and also in national Wedding Ideas Magazine.

It was so wonderful to meet up with her again this month. It was a bright & sunny day, and Danielle was so happy to get back into her wedding dress, and her Whichgoose floral crown. 

We had so many giggles during this shoot, and we were also chased by swans which was a rather scary moment... they seemed to seek us out in the woods to chase us!

Anyway here are the highlights of the day....

All photographs copyright Katie Byram Photography 2014 and must not be used without written permission from the photographer. 

Bolam Lake Belsay Pre-Wedding Photoshoot Helen & Luke

Helen & Luke are getting married later this year, and were keen to have a pre-wedding shoot with the view to getting rid of any in-front-of-camera nerves prior to their big day. They wanted their pre-wedding shoot to be relaxed and feature some woodland, so I suggested Bolam Lake, near to Belsay (Northumberland), which is somewhere I have wanted to shoot for a while, and lucky for me they loved the idea!  On the day itself it was quite overcast, and had been raining most of the day. I packed lots of brollies but we turned out not to need them at all. 

We had lots of giggles at various things, mostly the fact we were chased by swans and also re-enacting some scenes of the Blair Witch Project in the woods. I love it when we all get the giggles on a shoot, and it's fab when a couple can relax and be themselves and laugh at my craziness too. 

I'm also very honoured that they chose me to shoot their day, as Luke & Helen are a very creative and arty couple, with Helen having her own freelance illustration business, and Luke being into art photography and lomography. I take it as a massive compliment to be picked by designers/artists/creatives to handle the photography for their big day!!!

Thanks to Helen & Luke for a fab afternoon, can't wait for their wedding. I'm really pleased to have been able to help source a few things for their wedding as well, I'm always pleased to recommend fantastic suppliers to my couples.

All photographs (C) Katie Byram Photography 2013 please do not use without written permission.

If you are looking for fun, relaxed and quirky wedding or civil partnership photography, please feel free to drop me a line via my website. I have very limited dates left for winter 2013, and am taking bookings for 2014 & 2015 now.