In honour of Valentines Day…
It’s felt like such a long time since I’ve done a shoot just for fun. My job as a wedding photographer is such a creative one anyway, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go the extra mile every now and again!
Those of you who’ve followed my work for a while will know I absolutely love colour. It’s always been such a huge part of my photographic style, so I’ll take any excuse to include a bit more of a pop in my photos! Valentine’s Day felt like the perfect opportunity to do so. The reds and the pinks were calling my name, so before wedding season properly kicked off for 2024, I got cracking with some plans.
My main goal for this shoot was for it to be FUN. I therefore needed a couple who were fun, smiley, and not afraid to throw popcorn over each other. I could think of no one more suitable than Lydia and Joe!
You may remember I did a shoot with Lydia & Joe over in the Lake District back in 2021. When I convinced them to jump in a lake in early October, I knew they were exactly the people I needed!
Lydia and Joe and honestly the most smiley people you could ever meet. We always have the most fun when we’re together and their infectious happiness always shines through. So one rainy January day we all met at The Studio Ilkley for an epic day of photos!
We had the couple, we had the venue, now we just needed a pop of colour. And I couldn’t think of anyone better than the amazing Kirsty from River and Rose. I photographed Kirsty’s wedding two years ago and she even did her own flowers on her wedding day! She really is such an amazing florist, and when she agreed to do the flowers for our Valentines shoot, I was over the moon! Kirsty created the most beautiful bouquet, and I genuinely felt like a bride on her wedding morning when Kirsty pulled up with the flowers!
There was just one more person I wanted on board for this shoot, and that was the ridiculously talented Lottie Haigh. I have worked with Lottie at many weddings over the years, and I know for a fact she is a wizard when it comes to hair. With her being local to Ilkley as well it was absolutely perfect! We threw some ideas around before the shoot with the kind of look we wanted to create, and in the end Lottie created a stunning half up-do for Lydia. Lottie even worked her magic on Joe’s hair and gave us all hair tips throughout the afternoon!
There were so many ideas I wanted to do for this Valentines shoot and quite simply there were not enough hours in the day! It was so fun to create multiple different looks, including different dresses, shoes, jackets, and accessories.
With colour being the overriding theme, we had of course our beautiful bouquet, as well as red and pink balloons, donuts, and popcorn. We also had some extra flower heads to create one of my favourite photos from the shoot, with Lydia and Joe lying down surrounded by roses!
I honestly loved every single minute of this shoot. I’m so proud of the final images but also the fun we all had on the day made it so much more magical. I am SO grateful to Lydia, Joe, Kirsty and Lottie for not only being so talented at what they do but for giving up their time and making the whole day so enjoyable. This certainly won’t be the last you see from this team!!
