Thursday 3 March 2011

IT'S LIVE!!!!

My new website and blog are now live! Hurrah!! 
Please go and check them out and don't forget to subscribe on the blog for regular updates...
www.stephanieoakes.co.uk
www.stephanieoakes.co.uk/blog

xx

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Coming soon....

Happy New Year one and all! I am so sorry for not updating this blog since... forever, but I am in the process of setting up my brand spanking new blog, website and brand. I am hoping to launch it all at the end of January so watch this space...

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Danielle & Tom ~ A sneaky peak...

A sneaky peak of Danielle & Tom' s beautiful, intimate Chelsea wedding.


{there are more sneaky peeks and blog posts to follow shortly, but my lovely dear blogger is playing up; randomly removing images and making some slightly fuzzy! {never a good thing when they are so clean & crisp in 'real life'!}...hopefully one of these days I will find a few minutes to launch my brand spanking new blog & website and all of the aforementioned problems will disappear...exciting times!!}

Monday 25 October 2010

Under the Tuscan Sun

My love affair with Italy began in the summer of 2004 when Andy and I donned our backpacks and set off on a fun-filled, 3 month adventure that started in Venice and ended in Positano. And it still continues today. So I was super excited when my parents asked us if we wanted to join them {along with my sister & her husband} for a week in Tuscany a few weeks ago.

There are so many reasons to love Italy; the gorgeous-sounding language, stunning architecture,  amazing landscapes, passionate and interesting locals and delicious wines to name but a few, but for those of you that know me, its only ever really about one thing and that's the food! In Italy it is so simple, so fresh and cooked with a passion that is almost tangible, and I just couldn't get enough of it! 

We had a fantastic holiday taking in the stunning sights of San Gimignano, Florence and Siena and as always my camera never left my side! Here are a few of my holiday snaps of all things Italiano...{apart from me and my family!}

San Gimignano {& surrounding area}



Florence 
Siena {&surrounding area}

Our accommodation near Siena was stunning; the grounds were filled with yummy fruit trees {I became rather addicted to fresh figs!} and a beautiful well.

Wednesday 20 October 2010

A fabulous photo shoot ~ sneak peek

So sorry it's been a little quiet around here, my life is only just returning to 'normal' after our wedding which is why the blog has been neglected rather a lot of late! There are a good few weddings to be blogged over the coming weeks which I can't wait to share with you and some images from a fabulous photo shoot yesterday organised by the wonderful Jonny Draper at two stunning venues; Twelve Restaurant and The Great Hall at Mains.

Here's just a teeny sneak peek SOOC {Straight Out Of Camera} from the shoot yesterday of Olivia and Emily {two of the three lovely models} with the rest to follow shortly...


Thursday 19 August 2010

Toby & Anna's wedding day ~ Bunting galore in West Chinnock, Somerset

Toby and Anna's stunning wedding was my first booking via Twitter. Toby has a legion of followers on twitter, thanks to his comedic, scriptwriting ability {he is one of the brains behind 'That Mitchell and Webb Look'} and a couple of months ago he put out a tweet to see if anyone knew of any good wedding photographers in the Somerset area. Thankfully, a friend of my husband tweeted back with a link to my blog {despite me not living in the Somerset vicinity!}, they liked what they saw, we had a good natter and I was Somerset bound!

Toby and Anna are a perfect match.They met up in Scarborough doing a workshop of a musical that Toby had written {Anna is a very talented actress} and within 24 hours of getting together, Toby very bravely dared to mention the 'M' word! Thankfully for him, within 48 hours Anna was beginning to agree and with an obvious penchant for the seaside they got engaged on a beach in Brighton 23 days later!

5 years on, on a glorious Sunday they finally tied the knot! It really was such a fabulous weekend; from the pre-wedding drinks on the Saturday night to their beautiful big day on the Sunday, it all went swimmingly.

Anna and Toby ~ thank you so much for asking me to document your big day; I loved every minute of it and I hope these pictures provide amazing memories of a truly wonderful day.

Also a huge thank you to Dominique Bader for second shooting for me on the day; you were fab!

A few details of the day:

Dress ~Temperley

Anna's shoes ~ Dune

Bridesmaid dresses ~ Coast

West Chinnock, Somerset

West Chinnock has to be one of the cutest, picture-postcard villages I have ever seen, so I couldn't resist a mooch around the village when I arrived with my camera.





Bridal Prep

The Davies' household was awash with people on the morning of the wedding with both families getting ready for the big day {minus Toby of course!} I will never forget the look of pride and love on Sergio's face when he saw his beautiful daughter in all her finery walking down the stairs {see the moment below!}. Unfortunately Anna's mum couldn't be there on the day, but she was definitely there in spirit and it was a lovely touch that Anna incorporated so many of her mum's things into her day. Anna's 'something blue' was a little rose from her mum's old nightdress that was sewn into her wedding dress and her 'something old' was an old rattle charm that her mum had as a baby, which Anna incorporated into her bouquet. Anna also had the handbag with her that her mum had on her wedding day to Sergio; a beautiful touch indeed.









The dapper groom and journey to church on foot!

Just as Anna and her girls were putting the finishing touches to their hair and make up, I popped over to the church to take a few shots of Toby and the arriving guests. I then hotfooted it back down the road to capture Anna's last walk as a Francolini. It was such a heart warming little stroll to the church, with all the villagers popping out of their houses to pass on their best wishes and congratulations.





The ceremony

The ceremony was beautiful. There were tears of joy, lots of laughter, two lovely readings and a pretty incredible vocal performance by some of Toby and Anna's friends during the signing of the register.

 
{thanks to Dominique for the above and below shots}







The marquee and drinks reception

The marquee on the village cricket pitch was fab ~ it really was your quintessential English country wedding; bunting galore {I LOVE bunting}, wild flowers and tealights in photo covered jam jars and delicious cupcakes made by the local WI.








The speeches

There was a slight break in tradition when the speeches came around, with 'The Bridesmaids' kicking off the preceedings in style. As a complete surprise for Anna, the four of them read out extracts from Anna's diary as a youngster {with a little embellishment here and there for comedic purposes} and they were HILARIOUS! They had the room in stitches and really raised the bar! They were followed by two lovely speeches from the dad's, with Sergio's being especially poignant as he held a minute's silence to remember his beautiful wife; Anna's mum. It was a heartfelt moment. Anna and Toby followed with hilarious and moving speeches of their own and Toby's lovely best man Chris raised a lot of laughter as he regaled his audience with stories from their school days.





{thanks Dominique for the above and below photos}