Favourite wedding suppliers #4 - Shelley Daniel Wedding and Portrait Photography

Whenever anyone visits our house for the first time, they get given something special to look at as soon as they've taken off their coat and sat down... our beautiful wedding photo book. 

We had some friends around last night which reminded me that I still had one wedding supplier to add to my Favourite Wedding Suppliers series. You can read my previous posts in the series on the following links: Issy Boo Cakes, Cardiff Invitations and Flowers with a Twist. I got married nearly 9 months ago so this post is long overdue! 

A photographer is a vital part of every wedding day as they provide the memories you look back on in years to come. With this in mind, I started doing research on photographers very early on in the wedding planning process. While frantically googling 'reasonable wedding photographers', I came across Shelley Daniel's website. Shelley's prices were very affordable compared to some of the extortionate prices I'd seen on the internet and in wedding fayres, and I also discovered that she lived around the corner from the flat I lived in at the time. I sent Shelley a quick email and she suggested that she should come to my flat to have an initial meeting and discussion.

As soon as I met Shelley and saw her beautiful photo books, I knew I wanted her to be our wedding photographer. She was so friendly and efficient, and I was really impressed that the intricate photo books were all part of the package. It was also immediately obvious that there were no sneaky financial add-ons. Shelley's arrangement meant that she'd be with me from 11am on the morning of the wedding until around 8:30pm (after the first dance). She would also provide a CD with all our photos and a 42 page 30x30cm photo book, all for £750. 

Shelley was so organised right from the beginning of the process. She arranged to meet us a few weeks before the wedding at the church then at the Copthorne Hotel to go through what particular photos we wanted, where the best photographic locations were, how many group shots we wanted and so on. This meeting was also included in the £750 price. Shelley gave me a form to fill in with times, venue addresses, exact photo groups and so on... she really made me feel as if I could relinquish all control over to her. This is exactly what a stressed bride needs just weeks before her wedding! 

On the big day, Shelley came to the house at 11am to take a few photos of me getting ready with my bridesmaids. She also meticulously took photographs of my flowers, wedding shoes and jewellery as a nice keepsake and to form the background for some of the pages in our photo book. 

Shelley then left for the church an hour before the service to take photographs of the groom, the best man, the ushers and the guests as they arrived, as well as making sure she was there to capture the moment when my father and I arrived in our car. 

Shelley stayed with me, my father and the bridesmaids in the church entrance for a few minutes to take some more photographs then disappeared into the church ready for our grand entrance. I have no idea where Shelley was standing when she took all the photographs inside the church... she was definitely very discreet as I didn't actually see her at all. She must have been flitting around all over the place as there are some lovely photos of the service itself. 

After the service, we all went outside for masses of group photos. I'd emailed Shelley a detailed list of which groups I wanted, what everyone's names were and so on, and she took charge from there. There were a LOT of groups so Shelley needed to be very patient as well as authoritative! We had a lovely mix of posed shots and 'chatty' photographs which all looked very natural. 

After finishing all the group shots and taking lots of photos of me and Neil on our own, Shelley then followed us to the Copthorne Hotel ready for the wedding breakfast and evening reception. There were lots more photos at the hotel including some with our wedding car, some on the balcony of the hotel, photos of the guests relaxing before the wedding breakfast, then plenty of photos during the wedding speeches. 

Shelley was so patient during the evening reception... she was an absolute star. The timings slipped quite a bit so the first dance ended up being about an hour later than planned. In spite of the delay, Shelley still stayed to take photographs during the first dance as promised.

Lots of the guests commented on how efficient Shelley was and how hard she worked throughout the day. She somehow managed to be everywhere at once and kept smiling throughout the day. I had total confidence that she was capturing all the moments we wanted to cherish. She also photographed all the little details such as our table plan, table centrepieces and welshcake favours... these were all things that were very important to me but I would never had time to get my phone out and photograph them myself. 

A few weeks after our wedding day, Shelley came around to our house to drop off our photo disk. I was so excited... 701 wedding photos! We proceeded to look eagerly through the photos and chose 100 for our photo book as instructed. I think it's safe to say that Neil got bored of looking through the photos quicker than I did. 

I went to collect the photo book from Shelley a few weeks later and I was so pleased with the final result. The book is of such a high quality and the design of each individual page is just exquisite. I could never have produced something this beautiful myself. We also ordered two smaller photo books for both sets of parents for Christmas as our parents were such an important part of our wedding day. We couldn't even have had such a lovely wedding day without their support. I think the photo book is such a nice and emotive thing to show people rather than handing them a bunch of printed photographs or dragging the laptop out. The photo book tells the story of the day so well and I love going back to look through it time and time again. 

I'm so impressed with the vibrancy of the photos and the way everything has been laid out. The colours all work so well together and I love it that all the family photos, photos of friends, photos of just me and Neil, all our pretty locations and the little accessories that made the day so visually pleasing have been included in such an accessible format. 

Here are a few of my favourite pages from the book... 

I think you'll agree that this is a beautiful keepsake from our special day. I can't thank Shelley enough for all the effort she put in before our big day, on the day itself and afterwards to edit our photos and put the book together. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her fantastic services. I've linked to Shelley's website at the beginning of the post and you can also view her Facebook page here. 

I still maintain that Shelley's biggest achievement was making me look decent in my wedding photographs as I'm the most unphotogenic person in the world... I think she rose to the challenge very well! 

Wedding, honeymoon and new house!

So... I'm back in the blogosphere! I'm not sure how often I'll be posting over the next few weeks as things are still slightly (very) hectic, but I just wanted to write a quick update on what's been happening over the last month or so. Because a LOT has been happening, as you'll already know if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter.

This is pretty much a post filled with photos... everyone loves photos, yes? I'll be writing more detailed posts on the various aspects of the last month over the next few weeks so that's something for you all to look forward to with bated breath.

Let's start with the biggest and most significant thing. I got married!

It was such a lovely day and all the stress leading up to it was totally worth it in the end. Everything went according to plan, all my suppliers did a fantastic job, it didn't rain, the church service was beautiful, the food was scrumptious, the speeches were tear-jerkingly wonderful and all the guests had a brilliant time. What more could you ask for on your wedding day? 

The day after we got married, it was time to embark on our first ever adventure as Mr and Mrs Davies. Honeymoooooon! 

We travelled to three amazing locations in Italy over the course of a fortnight. First stop... Rome!

Next stop... Malcesine, Lake Garda

And last stop... Venice! 

Separate posts will follow on all our honeymoon destinations, although there aren't enough superlatives in the world to do them justice. I loved the views, food, drinks, architecture, relaxation, people, walks, hotels, ice cream... I could go on for hours. 

Last but not least, we've also completed the move into our new house over the last few weeks. Why not just do everything at once? 

Our little house is coming along nicely, particularly the kitchen. We've got a few little DIY projects to sort out over the next few weeks, but nothing too major as the house was decorated so beautifully before we even moved in. 

So as you can tell, it's been a pretty busy few weeks with constant highs (and an abnormal amount of food). I can't wait to blog all about the separate aspects of my wedding day, honeymoon and new home as it'll bring back all the memories in full force. These blog posts will also be a lovely way of looking back at these momentous occasions and remembering all the little details which made them so special. 

Now I just need to decide which part I should blog about first... watch this space! 

Wedding countdown

You might have noticed that my blog updates have become less frequent in the last few weeks. This one word explains everything:

WEDDING

Yes, my wedding is creeping ever closer and I've got a never ending list of things to sort out every night. This means I've had to neglect my blog as it's impossible to fit everything in, but hopefully I'll be able to make up for the lack of posts after we come back from honeymoon and things are a bit more relaxed. 

Anyway, as frantic wedding preparations have been stealing me away from my blog and causing quite a lot of stress this week, I thought I'd write a quick blog post on what I'm looking forward to most about the day. It's important to remember that it's supposed to be an exciting and happy day and that no one else will care about the little details as much as I do! More importantly, no one else will even notice if the little things don't go quite right on the day.

And even more importantly... it's so crucial to try to remember that it's my day (and Neil's)!

1. Getting ready
I'm really looking forward to putting my wedding dress on once my hair and make up have been done and I'm wearing all my lovely jewellery and accessories for the occasion. Obviously I've worn the dress quite a few times now for various fittings, but I can't wait to see what it looks like once everything else has been perfected. I'm so glad I decided to ask someone to do my hair and make up for me rather than doing it all myself as it'll take a lot of the stress away on the actual morning of the wedding. I'm not sure why I even considered doing it myself... I'm not even very good at applying my 'everyday' make up and my hair is constantly in a ponytail! 

2. Walking down the aisle

Although I'm an introvert and the shy part of me is dreading having to stand in front of lots of people on my wedding day, I'm genuinely looking forward to walking down the aisle with my dad and seeing everyone's faces as I come in to the church. There's a strong possibility that I'll cry and spoil all my make up... I well up every time I think about it!  

3. Being driven away in a fancy car 

I don't even know what make or model our wedding car is as I know nothing about cars, but I do know that it's beautiful. We also get champagne on our way to the hotel so I'm excited about this... first drink together as a married couple! This might also be one of our only chances to be alone together and to have a quiet chat all day, so I definitely want to make the most of it. 

4. Having all the people I love in one room

This NEVER happens, so I can't wait to have all my family, my uni friends,school friends, other friends, Neil's family and Neil's friends all in the same room. It'll take me a while to get around everyone but it'll be totally worth it. Surely this is the best thing about every wedding?

5. The food 

I don't think anyone will be surprised to see this item on the list. If you are surprised, you must be very new to my blog. I'm on a strict diet at the moment and will probably practically starve myself the week before the wedding, so naturally I can't wait to be able to eat whatever I want! We've got lots of lovely food planned for guests and I intend to eat more than my fair share.


So these are the five things I'm mostly looking forward to about the big day... does anyone have anything to add that I've forgotten about? Please feel free to give me more things to look forward to!

Wedding planning... highlights so far!

I'm getting married at the end of August (eep!) so I've been busy wedding planning since we got engaged last September. Although it can be a very stressful task at times, I have really enjoyed quite a few aspects of the planning.

I thought I'd share some of my favourite wedding planning tasks and tools with you, and I'll also take this opportunity to give you a little insight into what our plans are for the day so far.


1. Wedding cake samples

I think this must be everyone's favourite wedding planning task. I've had one appointment with a cake maker so far and she provided me with the amazing cake samples below. We asked for lemon, chocolate and fruit cake samples, and we also threw in Neopolitan as an outside option as we were allowed to choose up to four samples. Unsurprisingly, we were busy eating cupcakes all weekend. I can't wait for the next wedding cake appointment... I won't even fit into my dress at this rate!

2. Wedding invitations

Regular readers of my blog will already know that I work in communications and am obsessed with proofreading. These two important factors meant that I was in my element when looking at invitation designs and wording. I possibly spent more time than was necessary on this aspect, but the look and general feel of the invitations was very important to me. The lovely (and very efficient) Anna from Cardiff Invitations has designed our invitations for us, and they'll all be sent out within the next few weeks. I won't write a blog post on them until everyone has received them as I don't want to spoil the surprise. They're beautiful!


3. Choosing my dress, shoes and accessories!

I went wedding dress shopping with my mother at the end of January and managed to find a dress on my first outing. I did try on five dresses, but the one I chose really stood out for me. It's quite similar to the dress I've always pictured in my mind for my wedding day, but there are certain aspects to the dress which I would never even have thought of and which make it very unique. I've also bought a few of my accessories for the day, including this amazing bag for the wedding reception! No sneak previews of anything else I'm afraid, you'll have to wait until after the big day.

4. Browsing wedding ideas on Pinterest

I've already blogged about how much I love Pinterest, and it's been invaluable for my wedding planning sessions. It's been really useful to search for colour schemes, ideas for hair and make up, wedding cakes, table centrepieces, flowers and even ideas for our honeymoon. You can browse my 'Weddings' Pinterest board here. Let me know if there are any other wedding-related boards I should be following!


5. Researching colour schemes

This leads on nicely from the last highlight. We toyed with a few different ideas for colour schemes, but have settled on teal/turquoise with ivory. Teal is quite an awkward colour to get right as there are so many different shades, but I think everything will look really warm and pretty on the day as it's such a rich colour. The ivory will complement the main colour really well, and I like the fact that ivory is traditionally a very 'weddingy' colour. I'll be writing a separate blog post on our colour scheme in the next few weeks... watch this space.


6. Choosing items for our gift list

We've just bought our first house so our Debenhams gift list is full of bathroom and kitchen essentials, photo frames, little things for the lounge and just general items to help us with the process of turning our house into a home. I've loved browsing the Debenhams website for ideas and adding things to the list, as this has also involved choosing colour schemes! Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to add any clothes or jewellery for myself to the wedding gift list.


7. Keeping my wedding planner up to date

I bought a wedding planner at the first available moment after getting engaged, and it's one of my favourite things in the world. It's already chock-a-block with receipts, confirmations, paper samples, flyers and business cards, and I'm busy recording my every move in all the various sections. A decent wedding planner is an absolute must if you're attempting to plan a wedding!

8. Wedding fayres

We've been to two wedding fayres so far this year. One was in the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay and the other was in the Copthorne Hotel, our reception venue. The wedding fayre at the Millennium Centre was extremely busy with a lot of pushy 'bridezilla' types, but I did pick up some very useful contacts there such as my florist and the designer for our invitations. We also got to taste lots of wedding cake samples! The fayre at the Copthorne Hotel was much more pleasant and relaxed. We managed to pin down a few more things while we were there as well as having the opportunity to have another look at our reception venue. Wedding fayres can be extremely scary when all the other brides seem to be getting married about 2 years later than you are, but don't be pressured into thinking that you have to sort everything years in advance!


9. Visiting our wedding church 

We're getting married in a lovely church in Penarth and I've really enjoyed going to the morning service every other Sunday for the last few months. Everyone is very friendly, including the Reverend who'll be conducting the wedding service, and it's nice to be welcomed into such an inviting atmosphere. I also love having a good sing song on a Sunday morning!


10. Planning all the food for the day 

Yes, I love food. This isn't a secret. I've loved planning all the food for the day from choosing our menu options for the wedding breakfast, sorting the wedding favours, thinking about flavours for the wedding cake and choosing our options for the evening buffet. I'm hoping I won't be too nervous to eat on the day as we've got some amazing food lined up!


Have you planned a wedding lately? What were your favourite planning aspects?