What better way to end what has been a fantastic year than with the lovely wedding of Claire and Russell which was celebrated at Audley Wood Hotel in Hampshire.

For the time of year it could be considered a fairly mild winter wedding but as the day progressed the chill factor increased and I was grateful that the gorgeous couple were brave souls who were more than happy to do some external shots on the day too.

My preview picture of choice came from the evening party which was held in a separate marquee from the main building making for some great fun pictures as everyone dashed across in the rain.

As it is the last day of the year, I will also say a massive thank you to all the couples whose weddings I have photographed this year, everyone of them has been a great experience and it has been my pleasure to get to know so many nice people celebrating their love for one another and I wish you all a very happy future together. And to all my couples booked for next year I will be very much looking forward to capturing your special day for you and seeing you again soon.

Finally a very Happy New Year to all my readers and followers too. Visit the Elton Mogg Photography website

Happy Christmas Everyone

Just want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

This was the biggest tree we could find courtesy of Peppa Pig world at Paulton's Park. Visit the Elton Mogg Photography website

Weekend wedding in Austria

Well I come to the end of an amazing year for overseas weddings and the fourth and final adventure abroad took us to the really very beautiful town of Lech in Austria. When I think about going away for Christmas and finding log cabins and skiing for the family I know this will be the place I dream about.

Enough of the travel agent sales pitch I hear you say, get on with the wedding! Well this was an amazing wedding that was blessed with the first snow of the year only two days before the big event. Anja and Christoph are from Germany but actually met in Lech so they wanted to celebrate their wedding in a place that had major significance for them. The service took place in the gorgeous old church that is a focal point for the town and afterwards the couple took a sleigh ride to the reception. After food and drinks and lots of pictures, the guests were given a couple of hours break to prepare for the evening reception. This was held up the mountain and the only way there was via cable car and then a walk down the ski run and across the slopes, cue much hilarity and bruised bottoms. Fortunately they had flames to guide the way and bring them to the celebration party.

Anja and Christoph were an absolutely wonderful couple to spend time with and we were looked after fantastically well throughout our stay, the only shame being we could not stay longer but we will look forward to going back and of course giving you a full wedding update in due course. So for now here are some pictures to give you a flavour of the day.

Anja's dress, a lovely creation from New York with feathers forming the bodice

An absolutely amazing church interior

Inside the reception venue

Outside with some fun skiiers getting in on the act

It can't be often that you get to capture a bride on a snow ski!

The guests arrive at the evening reception

The beautiful Lech church at night
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Sophie & Stephan's wedding in Wiesbaden, Germany

Ok it's been a while since I updated with a wedding story and there is quite a backlog so here goes. Sophie and Stephan were married in the small town of Wiesbaden, just outside of Frankfurt. This is one of the only towns not affected by bombing in the war so still has the original architecture which is simply beautiful. After an evening welcome party the night before the wedding, Sophie got ready at a local salon and then made the journey to the pretty little church in Kiedrich.

It's always unusual shooting a wedding ceremony in a foreign language but as a photographer it is always the special visual moments you are looking for and this wedding was full of them so the language difference was never an issue - besides the fact everyone could speak English (putting my linguistic skills to shame). Then it was on to the reception which was held in the Kurhaus which was just lovely. I should add that the weather on this wedding day was just wall to wall sunshine.

After some food and some time for pictures everyone retired to their homes or hotels for a few hours to recover and prepare themselves for the evening festivities which ran very very late into the night.

Sophie has a lie down whilst getting ready - not seen make up put on like this before

Getting the final embellishment for her dress ready

Nice detail of the back of the dress

The beautiful church

Sophie arrives

The flower girl awaits

Service underway

The ring goes on

Outside in the car

View of the Kurhaus

One of the beautiful flowergirls

Fun in the sun

Now that's what I call a strawberry cake!

Your not going anywhere

Inside the Kurhaus

The gorgeous Sophie

Perfect couple


Twirl your dress a bit, perfect

Just love this picture

and this one

Yup you've guessed it, this one too

Spotted this reflection as they walked away together and found it strangely beautiful

Onto the evening reception

Quick walk in the woods as the sun went down


Love the ambiance of this one

Last minute speech checking

The girls wanted to do a fun running shot

Speeches get underway



The girls did a wonderful surprise dance for the couple just before their first dance

Now it's our turn

We did it!
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The best things in life are free

I was delighted to recently discover that an image I took of my daughter Rheya has been used in the well known collection of Milk greeting cards.



This image was a winner in the Fresh Milk competition, Friendship, Family, Love & Laughter and featured in the International book published last year. You can read more about that book in one of my previous posts here

You can buy the card online but there was nothing quite as nice for a photographer as wandering into Paperchase and seeing one of your pictures in the card section. The icing on the cake is obviously that my daughter is the star of the show.

If you want to buy the card yourself you can either visit Paperchase or go online here. Visit the Elton Mogg Photography website

Professional Photographer Magazine

Every year the Professional Photographer magazine runs a competition to find the Professional Photographer of the Year (PPOTY). Whilst the competition is running various judges pick out their favourites of the entries so far to showcase in each magazines issue. You can imagine how delighted I was to find my entry included in this months showcase with a comment on why it was chosen.

The image is the one of Hayley on the stairs that you will find on the front page of my website.

Fingers crossed for the full results. Visit the Elton Mogg Photography website

Saturday's Wedding at Nutfield Priory

An absolutely glorious Autumnal day graced the lovely wedding of Christina and Jon which was held at St Barnabas Church in Ranmore followed by a reception at Nutfield Priory in Redhill.  After getting ready at Nutfield Priory, Christina made the journey in a vintage car to the church where Jon awaited.

A beautiful ceremony followed and then it was time for the couple and their guests to enjoy the October sunshine and celebrate until the early hours.

For their preview picture I chose this one of the dress, actually one of two, this one making a surprise appearance later in the evening.
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Temple Gregory Wedding Planners

I was delighted to find a blog post by Rebecca of Temple Gregory Wedding Planners all about a recent wedding of mine held at Rivervale Barn in Yateley. Loads of my pictures and way more details than I am ever able to obtain about all facets of Hayley and David's wonderful wedding celebration.  And of course if your thinking of having a wedding planner then look no further.

Click here to go and see the whole story. Visit the Elton Mogg Photography website

Recent Feedback

It's always lovely to hear feedback from couples once they have seen their pictures so I thought I'd share two of my recent ones with you:

Elton,

Thank you so so much - the photos are absolutely incredible!  We are so so pleased with them and everyone who has looked at them has said they are the best wedding photos they have ever seen!

We are so incredibly pleased with them and you have captured all of the special moments so perfectly.  Looking through the photos allows us to re-live the day in such a special way and we feel so lucky to have had you as our wedding photographer

We can't thank you enough.

Georgie & Russell
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Hi Elton,

Wow I don't even know what to say! I've just had the best evening with my bridesmaids watching the photos on a slideshow. The timing couldn't have been anymore perfect given they were about to come round. The first time I saw the photos was with my bridesmaids! We thoroughly relived the day and we laughed and cried a lot just by looking at the photos - absolutely perfect :)

The images really are stunning and so captured the mood of the day. Some just took our breath away. Thank you so much for creating such beautiful beautiful images.

Claire
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Weekend Wedding in Germany

Well that was a hot weekend. Alas I was not in England for the last days of summer but instead I was lucky enough to be enjoying the sunshine at the wedding of the gorgeous Sophie and Stefan in Wiesbaden, Germany.

My third overseas wedding trip this year was a stunning event set in a really beautiful town that had just about everything you would hope for at a wedding celebration. After a Friday evening welcome party, it was up early for the getting ready and church service, then onto the first reception. This was followed by a break and then everyone reconvened in black tie and new outfits for the girls to reception number two and even more food and dancing into the very small hours.

As with any overseas wedding I have to say a very big thank you to Sophie and Stefan for looking after us so well throughout our stay. I have selected a few preview pictures from the wedding to give you a flavour of the day.

Interesting view to have whilst getting your make up done.

During the service

Arriving at the first reception

Got to love that mirror

Just love this shot of the happy couple

Evening festivities await
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