Album Preview: Kat and Matt
December 22, 2009 | | 1 Comment
We give a lot of time and attention to our books and albums, working with our clients to make sure they’re given a product they’ll not only treasure forever, but that’s totally unique to them. When we start on a design we think a lot about colours, layouts and styles that will suit each individual project. With that in mind, we’ve realised it’s insane we don’t show off the end results!
Time to put things right. We’re now going to be publishing more of our final proof animations along with some snapshots of the final product . Hopefully, after a while it’ll be loads easier for new wedding or portrait customers to see just what’s possible.
Just in time for Christmas we received a 13″ x 11″ coffee table book for Kat and Matt whose New Forest wedding we shot at the end of October. These two are ultra stylish and had lovely fresh, vibrant colours for details on their wedding day. We know for a fact Kat is a bit obsessed with butterflies, hence the illustration cover (the colours of the butterflies were sampled from the girls’ bouquets).
Check out the full animation preview of their book below.
Categories: | 1 Comment
Wedding Shoot: Emily and Martin
December 16, 2009 | Posted Under: Bournemouth photography, Dorset photography, Highcliffe Castle | 4 Comments
While summer still remains the most popular season for weddings, there’s always quite something special about ceremonies that take place in the Winter – especially if it’s nearing Christmas time. With champagne ditched for mulled wine and plenty of fun to be had with decorations and details there’s definitely a different feel to a wedding shoot in December.
Emily and Martin chose to have their wedding ceremony at Highcliffe Castle in Christchurch, Dorset with their reception taking place at the Hallmark Hotel in Bournemouth.
The month leading up to the wedding was dire weather-wise, really dire, so it was a pleasant surprise to open our curtains to brilliant blue skies. The sun really helped set Emily’s golden wedding dress sparkling too.
Highcliffe Castle had quite minimal Christmas decorations but there was a tree in the back of the ceremony room which proved to be a useful prop for the rings.
Groom, Martin didn’t know Emily had hired a Lamborghini for him to travel to the wedding venue in, but we did! There was something quite rock and roll about hearing it throw up the gravel in the castle grounds.
Emily also arrived in style in a cream Buick.
I was impressed she was able to show off the dress without a wrap or a shrug. It was flippin’ freezing!
The ceremony room at Highcliffe Castle is like a big gazebo. That meant Martin had to close his eyes when Emily drove passed in the car to meet the registrar.
Phil the Best Man did a good job as ring bearer and rounding up folks for the group shots.
The sky was almost a bit too perfect I was concerned it would look fake. It was actually this blue.
Emily’s dress had a lovely long train.
After the ceremony the wedding party gathered for a hot toddy. It smelt so yummy and cosy.
There was another wedding less than an hour after Emily and Martin’s so we quickly had a run around outside to grab some shots in the lovely grounds. Time was of the essence!
Emily was very adventurous and made her own wedding cake, including the cake toppers! The tables were set up like a Christmas party with crackers and bowls of decorations for the table centres.
Another gift from Emily to Martin was used as a decoy for the Lamborghini reveal the morning of the wedding!
Because everyone had their Christmas meal and had pulled their crackers a lot of the wedding party kept their paper hats on. This made for some jolly speeches!
No, the Best Man didn’t put on a Powerpoint presentation, but he did organise a very funny slideshow, with plenty of Photoshop’ed images of the Groom and an impressive backstory to go along with each shot.
Don’t ask.
Food consumed, speeches done and glasses raised, there was a break between the reception and the evening do which marked the end of the photography. We left Emily and Martin to enjoy the rest of their day and wrapped up our last wedding of 2010.
With thanks and congratulations to Mr and Mrs Merrick.
Categories: Posted Under: Bournemouth photography, Dorset photography, Highcliffe Castle | 4 Comments
Wedding Preview: Emily and Martin
December 12, 2009 | Posted Under: Bournemouth photography, Dorset photography, Portraits | 1 Comment
We shot our last wedding of 2009 today taking in Highcliffe Castle and the Hallmark Hotel in Bournemouth. Our toes may have been like blocks of ice this morning but after warming up chasing Lamborghinis and Bentleys it proved itself to be a perfectly crisp winter’s day.
As we’re approaching Christmas, Emily and Martin fully embraced the season with plenty of Yuletide touches such as mulled wine, brussel sprouts and of course, the obligatory party hats. Plenty more merry shots coming soon.
Categories: Posted Under: Bournemouth photography, Dorset photography, Portraits | 1 Comment
You Can’t Put a Good Book Down…
December 7, 2009 | Posted Under: Presentation options | 2 Comments
This might be stating the obvious, but we’re strong believers that photos are there to be looked at. And while an archive DVD is undoubtably a worthwhile investment for keeping your photos safe and archived, there’s something special about being able to leaf through an album - something that watching an hourglass as Windows fires up Picture Viewer is never quite going to beat!
Our custom-designed albums and books can be passed around when the new in-laws come to visit, or make it possible for visiting friends who couldn’t make the wedding to get a real flavour of the day. And with discounts available for multiple copies, they make ideal thank-you pressies for parents!
Knowing how creatively-minded so many of you are, we thought we’d give you a bit of an insight into the process behind our books so you can see for yourselves exactly what happens when you’ve picked out your favourite photos…
No two weddings are the same, so it makes sense that no two books should be the same, right? We certainly think so, which is why we don’t template our books. Every book is designed to complement the colours, feel and theme of the wedding (and couple) within.
We don’t believe its enough to simply plonk photo after photo in a book and hand it over, preferring to put together a real story of your day with incidental shots, readings and any other details you’d like us to include. The photos themselves are all given our thorough spa treatment - whether they’re destined to appear as tiny cameos or striking double-page spreads - making sure the colours look as rich and vibrant as you remember them!
By the time we’re done, we’re confident you’ll love the results. But we want to make sure you get to have your say before we go to press, which brings us rather neatly to…
We know how overwhelming everything can be when you get back from your honeymoon… Inboxes haven’t got any emptier while you were away, you’ve got a mountain of “change of name” forms to wade through, and the 1001 tasks you put off doing in the week leading up to your wedding sadly haven’t gone away. So we’ve tried to make the book review process as painless as possible!
Once ready to view, you’ll see a link to your online book preview on your account page. Our preview system allows you to flick through the book page by page, grabbing the corner of the book with the mouse and turning it like a ‘real’ book. Why not give it a go with the demo below?
Not only that, but the review version of the book preview tool lets you zoom into pages for more detail, and leave feedback on a page-by-page basis. It couldn’t be easier - flick through the book, tell us what you think of each page, and we’ll make any changes you want. We give everyone the opportunity to make two rounds of comments, by which time the book is ready to send to the printers.
There’s always a sense of excitement here at Big Bouquet when the courier turns up with a book order! Sure, we know what it’s going to look like, but viewing photos on screen can’t really compare with the richness and tactile satisfaction of a printed image. Once we’ve given the book a final check and we’re happy it meets our rather particular standards we send it on its way. And then we start on the next one!
If you’d like to find out more about our book and album options, take a look at our Presentation Options page. Or you may be interested in our rather splendid Bellissimo albums - they really are something to treasure forever…
Don’t forget, albums and books can be ordered up to 18 months after your wedding, but we’d suggest not leaving it quite that long! If you’d like to talk about adding a photo book or album to your current presentation package, drop us a line at enquiries@bigbouquet.co.uk.
Ian - BB