Manor by the Lake in Cheltenham has a wonderful formal landscaped garden that makes the perfect backdrop for group photos, as well as more intimate photos of just the bride and groom on their own. The sun was out and bearing down on us for the first image showing the groom and his groomsmen, but we were lucky in that the sun was hidden behind dense cloud for the remaining photos. Having a cloudy sky is ideal for photos as the sun's harsh light is diffused, it has the same effect as using an umbrella of soft-box in front of a studio flash.
For the background images, I used a photo I had taken earlier in the day as a test photo, showing the bridge over the Manor's lake for the left page. The right page features another test photo, this time from the garden itself where we were taking the more formal photos.
To break from having the same background for every one of the group photos, we moved to the front of the building to use some of the stone pillars to naturally frame the people in the photo. This photo can be seen centrally on the bottom row of the right page.
Keywords: Manor by the Lake Weddings (18).