
I’m very lucky indeed to be a Leeds wedding photographer. The photos I provide are packed full of feeling, character and humanity. It’s real storytelling, which some people call wedding photojournalism. It’s your wedding, your story, which means your photos will be 100% unique to you. They won’t look like anybody else’s.
On this occasion I was very pleased to be asked to shoot Karen and Dave’s wedding celebration at the Queens Hotel, an art-deco inspired wedding venue in the heart of Leeds’ city centre. Our bride and groom had already tied the knot abroad in Canada in an intimate ceremony at Niagara Falls. They now wanted to celebrate their marriage with their family and friends and the Queens Hotel was a great location to do it!
The evening started with some Karen and Dave arriving with their close family, for some hugging and a few family photos. While capturing this I couldn’t help but notice the wedding cake, supported by a ton of iced-doughnuts and topped with two model daleks adorned with a bride’s veil and a groom’s top hat! It was a revealing insight into the fun personalities of our newlyweds.
As the guests arrived there was plenty of hugging and laughter as old friends reunited and I was keen to capture this. Upon receipt of their photos, Karen and Dave were kind enough to compliment me on my ability to capture the spirit of the evening. I couldn’t help but wonder at our married couple’s music tastes – quite good as it turns out – since one little boy arrived wearing large blue headphones. Was it that he just didn’t like loud music? They were clearly good quality because he was asleep on some chairs by the end of the night!
As this was a celebration, it was not your typical wedding ceremony. Once everyone had arrived, we had some speeches by both family and friends. Karen’s best friend drew laughs immediately, but soon became emotional as she told stories of their friendship. In breaking with tradition, Dave’s best man – and best friend – was in fact a woman, and this was great to see. The groom’s speech brought the house down, especially when it came to his new wife. As much as I’d love to reveal the contents of Dave’s speech, alas, I would run the risk of my website being blacklisted!
The speeches done it was time for everyone to get their dancing shoes on! Karen and Dave led the way with their first dance, and everyone soon joined them on the dance floor. And this was how the rest of the evening continued, the dance floor packed with wedding guests having a blast. I was very happy to see some pretty awesome dance moves, interspersed with multiple shots of the tequila, both at the bar and on the floor. The salt and lemon reaction is always a sight to behold! There was at least one broken glass, but no biggy, and it was only a matter of time before the ties came off and were used as flags, lassos and restrainers!
Massive congratulations to Karen and Dave! Thanks for having me along. I had an absolute blast as your Leeds wedding photographer!