Hillbark – Wedding Venue

Hillbark is one of Wirral’s leading wedding venues.   It oozes history and charm with lots of features for photographic opportunities – like the Sir Walter Raleigh fireplace and the beautiful stained glass windows. The large mirror and upstairs windows make particulary good compositions.   Then there is the gallery above the hall as the bride makes her entrance, looking down on her beloved awaiting her arrival. The outdoor space has landscaped gardens and a gazebo for outdoor photographic opportunies too.

Originally known as Bidston Court, Hillbark House originally stood near the urban farm in 1891, built for soap manufacturer Robert Hudson. Designed by Edward Oult, who also designed houses in Port Sunlight Village, it was inspired by 16th century Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire. It was moved and re-built at Royden Park between 1921 and 1931.

Pixsmiths really enjoy photgraphing weddings at this fantastic location so if this is your choie of venue please don’t hesitate to let us  quote for your wedding photography.

wedding tables

Grand Hall

wedding breakfast

Wirral Winds

This Sunday we had a brief meet up with Wirral Winds as they practised for thier Summer Serenades at the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead – always a well attended event. We were there to take some photographs for a new website for the musical group led by Valerie Warr. We got some shots but plan to get a group photo at a more convenient time as we had to leave before the end of the conert. Wirral Winds are a well accomplished smalll wind ensemble and they are available to play at wedding venues and receptions as well as many concerts and events – hence the need for a website to enhance their promotion and details of events. Pixsmiths hope to be of assistance with their forthcoming website and hope that it will give Wirral Winds a wider audience and clientelle.

Wirral Winds Collage

That Dress!

At Ed and Viv’s blessing the other week we met up again with friends of theirs -  Tony and Nicola, the bride of my favourite wedding dress, with its beautifully embroidered detail. Tony and Nicola were married at St Bridgets Church in West Kirby a year ago now, so Happy First Anniversary to you both!.  We chatted to Tony and Nicola and discovered that we had  shots of their wedding on our pc from a try out of a new lens.  We gave them the images on CD which they were very happy with and thank you for letting us use the images on the website.  So below is that dress pic and a coupleof others.

arriving

Tony and Nicola

Weddings – Sandals, St Lucia, Style

Whilst celebrating our silver wedding in St Lucia we saw several weddings taking place at the Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort - the most intimate of all the Sandals resorts, being the smallest and friendliest..  Thought it might be an idea to share our views of weddings here in case it appeals to you as a venue for a destination wedding.

Its certainly a beautiful setting with the sparkling turquoise Caribbean Sea in front of you. and the colourful gardens around. Two gazebos are available for weddings,  carefully prepared with tables, linens, flowers and cake etc..  They are fairly small so only suitable for small groups and bear in mind that the officiant, photographer and videographer are also present! Hence more suited to small wedding parties. The ones we saw were mainly just the bride and groom and their witnesses (can be provided by Sandals).

There can be several weddings a day – our last day there were 4 – 11am, noon, 3pm and 4pm    The ceremony takes about 10-15 minutes, cake is cut and a champagne toast made by the couple for the photographers.  A  small canape buffet was then often served in the gazebo to the wedding part – larger groups were set up on a lawned area.  The happy couples often had a dance in the garden afterward. It was It was funny to see newly weds in their just married T-Shirts the next day too.

wedding gazebo.

Weddings also took place on the beach, with sunbathers and swimmers around it seemed a bit surreal! Either way you are probably going to use the services of  a Sandals  photographer. It would be too expensive to fly out a photographer and accommodate them, besides which a work permit is required here if  not a local.  They all seemed good at posing couples and taking the pictures efficiently.  We had a few chats with Gavin the main photographer – he used the same camera as us and we exchanged a few ideas about settings, positions and albums.  As a side note we had Gavin do a photo shoot for us on our anniversary and it made a change for us to be on the other side of the camera and be posed.  Gave us a new perspective on that!.  15 min Complimentary photo shoots were available – prints were obviously extra, packages for 10 prints on a CD and  7 x 5 print for $99 were available.  Single prints $20 but the more you have the better value it was. Albums can also be purchased and pictures can even be viewed on-line when back home in case you change your mind about which ones to choose.

We saw couples of all ages getting married here, it was lovely to see them.   Sandals being a couples only resort its not possible to have family children present so these weddings suit those who want to enjoy a wedding in beautiful surroundings. either by themselves or just a few family present. Its hot and humid out here so Brides cool dresses and shoes that are beach friendly are the order of the day!  Several brides wore pretty flip flops – esp if they wanted pics on the beach afterward.

Sandals were great at organising the bridal preparations.  All the couples we spoke to had a great day and got special treatment at their eveing dinner.

wedding on the beach

close capture

comparing gear

Extreme Weddings

Visited Focus on Imaging yesterday at the NEC Birmingham.  Didn’t get to buy anything but got lots of ideas and updates on wedding albums and marketing ideas.   Saw a demo of creating slideshows in Lightroom which looked cool.  Even cooler was  a presentation by  Uzair  Kharzwala of a wedding in the ice hotel Sweden  He use a new Nikon D3s and shot all using ambient light at extreme ISO with amazing results.

ice wedding

A Wedding at Work

No the hospital lab hasn’t been licensed for weddings!  One of our colleagues is getting married next Friday…when most of us will be hard at work..so we planned a surprise alternative wedding and a wedding breakfast at morning tea-break.  We all hope the real wedding goes as well as this one!  Our bride to be was not only showered with gifts and confetti but a wedding dress was made to adorn her on this special day. Coloured ribbons with loving messages for the couple were attached to the dress.  She was so pleased with the outfit that she wore it for the rest of the day.   Happy Wedding Day Jenny, hope next weeks do is even more fun

Busy Autumn

Well its been a busy few weeks on the wedding photography front and glad that all albums are under way – a good mixture of coffee style albums and a large memador storybook album with its beautiful templates. One coffee book is at the printers shortly to be dispatched. The memador album is awaiting proofing with clients who have a CD posted of the wedding images album layouts posted to them in Sweden. Another album is also with clients for proofing – images on lightscribed CD have been sent and pdf of album layout sent via Yousendit.com – a very useful way to send large files over the internet. Bridegroom here is in Spain – guess we could be Pixsmiths International! Its been hard work but its been great fun putting the albums together, creating montages and getting great response from the happy couples..

After all this it will be time for our travels:
End of November we are off to La Palma, one of the smaller Canary Islands which has a touch of Madeira about its capital town. Our Silver wedding in March will see us lapping up the luxury of a Sandals resort in St Lucia followed by two weeks in May Island hopping in the Greek Cyclades from a base in Mykonos. So lots more to look forward to.

Wedding Venue Knockaloe Bar & Restaurant

A decking area leads down to a grassy lawn – ideal for group and aerial shots. The function room easily held the wedding party of 50, capacity can be much more than this. It was beautifully decked out with table settings and covered chairs and in the evening coloured dimmer lights added to the ambience. A raised stage at one end is both ideal for DJ’s, bands and photographers for overall room shots. Each time the room was checked personally by the Bride and Groom and we could also come in and record the scene.

We are delighted to recommend wedding functions at the Knockaloe Bar and Restaurant.