Grafton Manor in Worcestershire is a wonderful wedding venue with a massive room that's used as a bridal suite. The light comes into the room through both sides of the room, giving a lovely soft quality to the photos that you can take in there.
For the bridal preparations, I shoot pretty much everything in true reportage style - not posing anything, not telling people to 'just do that again' or 'just look over there' but letting people get on with their day. I try to shoot as much as I can like this, and allowed to operate my own way, I'd shoot the entire day in this fashion. Of course it's not possible, as people want to have formal group photos for example, and you're not legally able to photograph the signing of the register so you're forced to pose thees images.
That perfect light in Grafton Manor makes stunning bridal preparation images like this a breeze, providing you're in the right place at the right time.
For this image, the bride was sitting and facing the perfect direction to make sure that the light was at it's most dramatic angle. All I had to do was wait for the professional make up artist to spray setting spray on the face of the bridesmaid, and time my photo so the bridesmaid was still sat perfectly still, with the fine spray of mist still mid air, being picked out by the early morning light.
Location: Grafton Manor, Worcestershire.
Keywords: Documentary wedding photography (129).