A very special offer…

Those of you who may perchance be regular readers of the Rock ‘n Roll Bride blog (run by the very cool and stylish Kat Williams), will have seen that I am offering three lucky Rock ‘n Roll couples the chance to book their 2010 wedding photography with me for HALF PRICE! The offer is for my Photography and Disk package which gives you a pre-wedding shoot, 100 reception cards, all-day coverage of your wedding day, an online gallery of all your images and all your fabulous images supplied to you on a personalised Disk – all that for just £750!

All you have to do is:

1. Be getting married somewhere in the UK in 2010 (weddings over 50 miles from me will have £50 overnight accommodation costs added – destinations abroad are also included but my travel costs must be met by you)

2. Be organising a wedding that is unique to you – it could be what you’re going to be wearing, your venue, your details – anything that is a bit different to the ‘norm’ and qualifies you as a Rock ‘n Roll couple. (For example, maybe your venue is a converted tram shed, you’re bothRockabillies and are going to be wearing brothel creepers and a polka-dot dress – that’s very Rock ‘n Roll)! Remember though, it’s not all about about rebelling or showing the world how weird you are - it’s more about planning a wedding that’s an authentic reflection of you and your partner and your personalities. 

3. Email your names and contact details, a piccie of the both of you, something about yourselves and your interests along with what you think makes you and your planned wedding totally unique and worthy of Rock ‘n Roll status, to me at info@kimhawkins.co.uk

The three couples who have the most original and exciting sounding wedding day which sets my creative juices flowing will get the deal!

Good luck!

Stephanie and Ian – a winter wedding (and The Beatles came too…)

My final wedding for 2009 was that of Stephanie and Ian, who tied the knot in St. John’s church in their hometown of Royston, with the reception taking place up the road in Cambridge. Ian is a mad Beatles fan (as am I, I might add) and elements of them and their music were incorporated into their day – like Ian’s collarless jacket, the church organist making a fairly decent fist of ‘All You Need Is Love’ as Steph made her way down the aisle and the names of individual tables at the reception were very familiar titles of songs or albums. Although the weather was beautiful to begin with, the cold (COLD!) wind blew all day and brought with it dark clouds – happily, the rain kept off until the evening.

Now my weddings are finished for 2009, I can sit back a little and take stock of all the great couples I’ve photographed this year, along with all those who are booked and yet to come for 2010! I’ll also be blogging later this week about some exciting developments that are in the pipeline regarding my website, logo and blog – suffice to say, all will be revealed very soon!

In the meantime, please enjoy some of Steph and Ian’s great wedding images.

Eleni and Tim – a Bedfordshire Barn wedding

After their fantastic pre-wedding shoot a few short weeks ago, Eleni and Tim were married last week in a 13th Century Tythe Barn, which belongs to The Barns Hotel just outside Bedford. It was a pretty blustery day but luckily the weather forecasters got it wrong and the rain held off until all the photographs were completed! Eleni looked beautiful as she walked down the aisle and I think there was a little glistening in Tim’s eye when he saw her in her dress for the first time!

Here are some of the images from their day.

New funky album for 2010 – introducing ELEMENTS

This week I have taken delivery of a brand new funky wedding sample album that I’ll be offering couples for 2010 and beyond. I am delighted to have found these albums, straight from Michigan, USA. The company is called Finao and they produce each album to order – no mass production techniques, just a unique made-to-measure wedding album every time. I also have two tins of swatches which detail a mind-boggling choice of cover options including brocades, leathers and silks to mention but a few – altogether there are over 30 different covers to choose from! There are VERY FEW photographers in the UK who have these albums (in fact I know of only one other) – they are quite a rare find.

Inside the album are hard pages with mounted 12×12 photographic prints. Each page can be one single image or a composite of two or three.  I design every album to ensure your images sit well together whilst also telling the story of your day exactly in the order it happened. Any couples who contact me from this week onwards will see this beautiful album, which for my sample has a brocade cover in ‘Nehru’. Here are some images I took of it when it arrived yesterday, along with just a few of the swatches, but to get the full beauty of it, you really need to see it in the flesh!

New camera equipment purchase!

I say new – it’s actually about 20-odd years old, but I already love it and I haven’t even shot anything with it yet! This was an impulse purchase on Ebay this week – I’ve never used a Polaroid camera before (but have featured in plenty, growing up with photographers for parents) but I’ve always loved the kitsch look to the images they produce so I had a quick whizz around the web and discovered that this model was pretty damn good. It has autofocus (at 4ft and further – any nearer and things are gonna look a bit fuzzy) and (gulp) a built-in flash! The Polaroid 600 film is not being manufactured any more (however, after a long campaign by its supporters it will re-enter production next year) but I managed to find some for sale online with a use by date of Nov 09 – should be interesting.

As yet, I am planning to ration my use of the beast, as the film is bloomin’ expensive but I think it will be useful for the odd kooky and fun shot of couples prior to the ‘real’ shoot, whether it be a pre-wed or a wedding.

Here’s an image of the beast I took earlier – no, it’s not taken with another Polaroid camera – I’ve just ‘mocked’ it up to look like it was. It looks like something out of 1978! Hang on, it is something out of 1978…..

Rock ‘n Roll Bride featuring Skye and Liam’s wedding

Well, just after being featured on the ‘Rock my Wedding’ blog having just booked the wedding of one of its contributors, Jenny, I’m extremely pleased to mention the fact to all you lovely brides-2-be and post-brides (for I know many of you still come back to read this blog) that Skye and Liam’s Halloween-themed wedding is this week featured on another funky blog called Rock ‘n Roll Bride. The wedding itself from my point of view was perfect – after a wet start the weather gave a soft milky autumnal sunlight all afternoon (lovely for photographs),  a very good looking bride and groom, fantastic details to photograph and a great venue with wonderful backdrops/locations. No wonder then that the images are going down so well.

Kat, who runs and writes the blog has presented to me her ‘Approved Rockstar Vendor’ badge which will take its place at the top of my printed literature from now on. I’m so pleased to be featuring on so many mediums at the moment and it’s also having its effect in terms of brides-to-be contacting me wanting to know my availability for 2009 and beyond, so if you’re one of those just coming across my work, get in touch but be quick!

Rock my Wedding

I met Jen and Matt recently who described to me their wedding next year and more specifically the wedding car they have booked – a vintage split-screen VW camper van (a bit like The Dream Machine from Scooby Doo) called Brian. Jen is a singer in a Ska band and she calls Matt ‘Duncan from Blue’ and not being a massive fan of Blue (who?) I have to take her word to the supposed similarities in their features. Anyway, Jen and Matt have booked me for their wedding next year which pleases me no end, as I think it will be a really funky little affair! Already we’re plotting the locations of their pre-wedding shoot in and around the groovier parts of London.

The other thing is, Jen writes a weekly column for a blog called Rock my Wedding, which aims to reach out to brides-to-be who want their weddings to be just that little bit different to the stated ‘norm’. Jen has today written a great piece (well, I would say that, wouldn’t I?) all about how they found me and why they booked me and I LOVE it!

Here’s a quick screenshot, but head over there to have a read about why Jen wants to be a rockstar….

Skye and Liam – a Halloween wedding

Saturday 31st October was Halloween and I had the absolute pleasure of shooting the wedding of Skye and Liam at a very beautiful venue called South Farm in Cambridgeshire. The venue itself is a working farm and one of the pigs had just had 12 spotted piglets, which were running around in their pen like mad things with all the excitement. Also in the grounds were some vintage Romany caravans and an old steam engine – all of which got my creative juices flowing and I made good use of all of them.

For their Halloween theme, Skye and Liam had informed all their guests that there would be a pumpkin carving competition, thinking most would not bother – on the day, almost every guest brought along a unique and amusing carved pumpkin, the display of which took up one nearly length of the barn in which the reception took place! There were loads of lovely little details at this wedding, including a message tree with ‘leaves’ for people to write on and attach to the branches and everyone was given a masquerade mask for the dancing. All the details were unique and special to Skye and Liam, and you’ll see some of them in this selection of their images. Enjoy!

Amy and Jody – a funky London wedding

There was quite a different feel to this wedding, as it was fairly small and informal, but Amy and Jody are a very funky couple and I loved their outfits! Most of all, I love shooting London weddings, as there are so many interesting locations to use as backdrops for photographs. Amy and Jody both got ready in a lovely little boutique hotel in Smithfield called The Rookery and we all travelled from there to where the ceremony itself took place in the grand surroundings of the Council chambers inside Islington Town Hall. As everyone was waiting for Amy to enter I took the opportunity to sit in the sumptuous Council leader’s chair! After that, the wedding party stayed in Upper Street for lunch and later moved back to a wine bar in Smithfield for the evening party. I got some portrait shots of the two of them after the ceremony in and around Upper Street but also later on in Smithfield which again, is very good for photographs.

Enjoy some of the images from their day.

Stephanie and Matt – an autumnal wedding at Hunton Park

I did a pre-wedding shoot with Steph and Matt in London a few months ago – they thoroughly enjoyed it and were thrilled with the resulting images, which I provided to them printed in a pocket coffee table book. We met again a few weeks ago at Hunton Park near Kings Langley to discuss the day and to get an idea of great photographic locations to be used on the day, as I knew I had a very tight timeframe in which to get them. When Saturday arrived, it was not a good day for weather – but it stayed dry for long enough for us to get the most important shots. There is a beautifully light Orangery inside the venue, which I used for some of the group shots – for the one you see here of all the day guests, I was perched on a rickety chair which itself was on top of a wobbly table – it’s a good job I’m insured!

Here are some of their images.