Hey wedding lovers!

We are giving a big new Electric welcome today to one of our new sponsors! Hurrah!

James Ruane is a wedding photographer who is still relatively new on the scene, but not so new that he hasn’t got some fabulous experience under his belt!  As we have mentioned before, we love to support and shout out about new and start up businesses, and James was a perfect example of someone we wanted to share with you all!

We asked him to tell us a bit about himself to introduce you all to him….all photography is by James Ruane.

‘I’m 34, half Irish and a new hot, up and coming wedding photographer. I live in London with my gorgeous wife and only recently got married in March 2010. It was the best day of my life!

I’ve always had quite a creative and arty background, but my photography habit originally started as a hobby in my late teens after back packing around Australia. I feel in love with the work of landscape photographer Peter Lik and after the tripalways dreamed that I would be a successful photographer one day.

I studied art and design at school and then public relations at university and needing to balance my urge to be the next David Bailey, with the reality of earning money, I spent the bulk of my career working in PR for some of the world’s biggest and best known brands.

After 10+ years juggling PR with my photography career, which literally involved photographing everything from weddings to friend’s christenings and numerous family portraits to new club nights, I decided to take the plunge and chase my real dream. Hence after years of planning I officially launched James Ruane Photography this year and have never looked back since.

I have developed a natural and spontaneous style that goes against the overly posed feel often associated with wedding pictures. To capture how a wedding really feels I like to mix different styles together from reportage to more glamorous shots of the bride and groom that you’d normally find in editorial.

I never leave home without my camera and to my family I am affectionately known as ‘snapshot’, as I love taking pictures of people. This is why I love to photograph weddings. They are a photographer’s dream packed with so much drama, atmosphere, emotion and fun.

Nothing gives me a buzz more than capturing all the spontaneous and natural moments that can often go unnoticed and I work really hard to get to know every bride and groom I work with, so when it comes to the big day, they are much more relaxed infront of the camera.

Whilst I photograph weddings all over the UK, most of my work is carried out in London and the southeast. I have photographed some fantastic wedding venues from castles to country houses and some of my favourites include Hedsor House and Bisham Abbey in Buckinghamshire and Somerset House and Orleans House in London.

You can follow my photography journey on my photoblog. Whilst I mainly photograph weddings, I still carry out various private assignments like portrait photography, christenings, and parties.

I hope like my work and if you do, please get in touch, as I would love to shoot your wedding!’

If you would like to find out more about James, then visit his website here

Love

Emma xx

Hello Wednesday!

Okey dokey, so…. grand drum roll please…. pictures are back, and here we go – my wedding!  I am still a little bit in awe of how good Sophie’s pics are – she is wedding genius beyond compare!

So I thought I would start with a few pics of me and my very handsome groom… because although it is easy to get tied up in all the details, really it’s all about the two of you, being together, and getting married. To quote my favourite song, in the words of the great Beatles – all you need is love. Yes indeedy! So here we go..

All photography is by Sophie Laslett..

My dress is from Claire Pettibone from Blackburn Bridal Couture, Matthew’s suit is from Reiss.  My necklace is from Yarwood White (so are my hair clips), and I borrowed my mum’s pearl earrings.

I loved my dress (it had a train that came off so it was easy to party in later), which I wore with a big veil in the church, and everyone looked so lovely on the day!

I will fill you in on the rest later on this week. Hope you liked!

Love

Emma

Hey wedding chicksters

We are turning up the heat at Electric Wedding today!

I am very excited today to tell you about a fab new website that we have recently found out about.

We never promised to be conventional on this site, and we think this takes pre – wedding photography in a whole new direction!

A few weeks ago, while researching another post, I was put into contact with the lovely lovely Julie Lovegrove, (by the equally lovely Janey Butler from Sweet Days and Roses).  Julie told me about her new website – Reveal Portraits.

I had a look at some of Julie’s work, and I thought it was absolutely fabulous.

Julie specialises in Boudoir photography and the art of the reveal.

I have long been a fan of vintage pin up photography, Dita Von Teese being a prime example – and I have never seen a photographer until now until does it so well.

You can choose exactly how much you want to reveal.

You can opt for the reveal less shoot (think beautiful evening gowns or a classy man’s shirt), the reveal more (think tasteful underwear shots), and even reveal all (seriously classy  photographs).

Julie even does beautiful bump shots for pregnant women.

The pictures would make a beautiful secret present for you husband to be, not to mention the fact that you can look back at the pictures one day and go ‘wow – I looked like that!’

Julie and her team of hair and make up artists put you completely at ease during your shoot, and will make you feel a million dollars.

Julie has photographed over 350 weddings, and knows how to make a girl look good – you will be in safe hands!

I have been so inspired by Julie’s idea that I have been looking at lovely vintage pin up photography all week!

How fab would it be to look like this?

You can contact Julie here.

There is a £50 off introductory offer for any bookings received before the end of July.

Phew, is any one else hot in here?

Love

Emma xxx

Hello Thursday!

It’s a very exciting day for here at Electric Wedding as we give a big shout out to our first sponsor – Sophie Laslett Photography.

Electric Wedding is all about our own personal journey up the aisle.  We are working with Sophie on very good authority – Sophie is particularly special to me because she is doing the photography at my own wedding! Yay!

Last December I spent a whole evening (whilst watching the X Factor final haha) researching photographers. This was probably the thing I had the strictest criteria on, because I had a really specific idea of what I wanted.  I wanted someone who steered away from cheesy shots and captured a more natural range of shots that were very non posed.  I spent AGES looking.  The main problem I had with a lot of the ones I liked was that they were either ridiculously too expensive, or they wouldn’t come to Norwich.

I was in despair… and then I found Sophie.

We asked Sophie to tell us a bit about herself and her photography…

‘I have always been passionate about photography and from a very young age was never without a camera to hand. My dream right from the beginning was to become an artist or professional photographer, and I studied at the Norwich Arts school for two years before gaining a 1st class honors degree in Art Photography from Nottingham Trent University

After university I took any opportunity I could to build up my photographic portfolio, and tried to balance my love of photography with the reality of needing to earn money! I got the opportunity to work for free as a stills photographer on a couple of films and entered these as part of a portfolio into the Times Newspaper Young Photographer of the Year competition. I was fortunate enough to win the Young Photographer of the Year award and this proved to be the turning point in my photographic career (read more about it here).  The prize was a very nice digital camera and 6 months working as a Times photographer… getting paid to take pictures!

6 months ended up turning into 6 years.. and in that time I moved away from news photography to focus more on features and portrait photography for the Times. I covered a range of events and portraits including some Hollywood ‘A list stars’ such as Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey and Angelina Jolie (insert some pics here). Some of the celebrities were very friendly.. others were less so!

Whilst living in London I also built up a client base focusing on the Arts and Charities:  including the Arts Council, Shelter, Christies and The Roundhouse. During this time I was also asked by friends to take pictures of their weddings. I was a bit terrified at first, but ended up really loving wedding photography! Rather than trying to adopt the traditional style of many wedding photographers (lots of line up shots and people looking rather uncomfortable!!) I focused on capturing the life, energy, colour and love at these weddings.

In early 2009 I was heavily pregnant and found the hustle and bustle of London life, jumping on and off buses & trains with a couple of cameras, studio lights etc,  was getting too much. We decided that some good healthy Norfolk air was needed so moved back to my home town of Norwich. This is where we have decided to settle and I am now building up my photography business here. I still work for the Times newspaper on local jobs but my main focus now is on portrait work (especially natural light) and weddings around Norwich, Norfolk and the East of England’

As soon as we met Sophie (me, Matt plus about 12 members of our family all crammed into a tiny coffee shop) we knew we had made the right choice.  It also turned out that Matt went to school with Sophie’s sister – which slightly infuriated me as I had spent two days trawling through google! Thanks darling!

We are thrilled and proud to be giving Sophie a big shout out and introducing her to you all.

We hope you like some of the tasters we have given during this post, some of these weddings are so lovely we will do features on each one over the coming weeks!