Sarah Janes Photography Blog....

Mandy & James wedding day images ♥

2012-01-27T15:40:00.002Z

I cannot believe I am only just blogging Mandy & James December wedding, and my last wedding of 2011!

January has really kicked off with bridal meets for 2012 and 2013 weddings with two of the four last remaining 2012 places already held and 19 places remaining for 2013 before Sarah Janes is fully booked.

So the lovely Mandy & James were married at Inglewood Manor December 2011, lets start our adventure at Mandy's Parents home where we get our 1st peak at Mandy's amazing silver wedding dress.....

♥♥♥

Thank you so much Mandy & James for Booking Sarah Janes Photography to document your wonderful day xxxxx

Inspiration....

2012-01-26T16:33:00.000Z

So I have joined up to Pinterest...just so I could collect lots of pretty images and have a collection of images that inspire me. I think this would be great for my brides to see for pose/shoot ideas but also it would be great if you are also signed up o Pinterest to show me what inspires you!!

To take a look at my pin boards go to

The Last shoot of 2011

2012-01-12T15:55:00.003Z

To see more images from this shoot, take a look on over at my portrait blog Here ♥

Andrea & Family Christmas Portraits..

2012-01-11T14:08:00.000Z

To see the full post please nip on over to my blog just for portraits...♥

http://portraitsbysarahjanesphotography.blogspot.com/2012/01/andrea-family.html

Changes afoot..

2012-01-10T12:45:00.000Z

Last month was Sarah Janes photography 4th birthday..my baby is toddling and growing up so fast..

But this means that I have now 4 wedding seasons of wedding images and 4 years of pre-wedding shoots, family shoots and baby shoots that I am trying to store. I had to ask myself can I really hand on heart say that your digital files are going to be here in 50 years...and I cannot say yes. I can store the files in umpteen places but there can be no guarantee that over time the files will not become corrupt. And with each new camera the file sizes are getting bigger and bigger and bigger.....we are left with a storage problem people!

So after some research and asking a few fellow photographer girlfriends, as of January 2012 I will store portrait sessions for 3 months and wedding images for two years before they are cleared to make space for more storage.

Future facebook images will also change, from now on only the images from prints, products purchased etc will be be uploaded to facebook for you to share with your friends and family on facebook

I will be contacting all my past clients, where possible, with this update.

Autumn location portraits

2012-01-10T12:41:00.002Z

I am slowly catching up on my blogging...here are a few images from the lovely Jenny, Will & their girls last November..

to see more please hop on over to my portrait blog

http://portraitsbysarahjanesphotography.blogspot.com/2012/01/jenny-will-girls.html

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T14:44:00.001Z

My 1st blog post of 2012...exciting! Did you have a good Christmas and New Year? I do hope so!!!

I have a few blogs' from last year I am yet to post, but as I do not "officially" start work until Monday the 9th I thought I would share something a bit more personal instead...

So here is my New Years resolutions, I have thought hard about these as normally New Years Resolutions is not something I try and do...as I know what I am like..I would try until the end of January, by February it would be " New years Resolutions?!!...not sure what you are talking about" :)

I knew for sure I was not going to do a 366 daily photo challenge {its a leap year} That just would never happen...last year my resolution was to do a monthly photography project. I even wrote in my dairy for the whole year prompting me that I was due to do a monthly project...which meant I have a monthly reminder that I was not doing a goal I had set out to do.

{My 2012 Resolution list}

1/ I finished work December 16th and then threw myself into the Christmas preparations...you know writing the Christmas cards you massively fail to send, running from the butchers to the local farm shop in preparation of the most important meal of the year, which I had invited the family around to enjoy..just for that bit of extra fun...and as we had family around I felt I should decorate the house to look like it resembles something like a catalogue campaign for "how your house at Christmas should look"..and then we got to boxing day when I decided to have a little rest that day...5 days later I woke up, I had slept and slept and slept, and once I had slept I could not get enough of it...oh but the Christmas meal was fabulous

So my 1st and most important New year resolution is to spend more time with my young family, working 3 months solid with not a day off is not good, working 6 months with not a full weekend with my family is not good...my girls are growing up so fast and I have such a small window in my life to enjoy this time, as once it has gone I will not get a second chance.

So I plan to slow down this year. Take my time...and most importantly enjoy life, enjoy my amazing job, enjoy my beautiful family...2011 flew by and I am hoping to savour 2012...you know roll it around on my tongue for a bit like you do with wine tasting...just not the spitting out bit.

Our Christmas..

My Mum, Sister and my two beautiful girls....

2/ My second New years resolution is to learn how to knit...to the great pleasure of Wilbur the Cat {aka Catzilla}...So I brought a how too book, for ermm kids, really explain it like I am three and I will get it, which I did...look I have knitted...something..a long strip of something but it is a knitted something all the same.

My 3rd New years Resolution, and it PAINS me to say this...I need to be more active...now I am not going to do the unspeakables' which are..

1/ Cut out Chocolate

2/ Join a gym/aerobics class

3/ Diet...but my nickname is the bin, as in give it to the bin, so I may have to cut down..a little.

But I have in fact gained weight, a lot of weight so I have vowed to do 20 minutes of something active every day with the full intention of building up to possibly 25 or even 30 minutes a day..not sounding to confidant am I ;)

So look out Bailey {the donkey below} more walks for you...I am sure anyone walking past my front window will be alarmed at a crazy woman throwing herself around her front room...that would be me doing the Zumba fit and today's 20 minute active activity was having a dance in the Dining room..Wilbur the cat didn't stay around for that..

And lastly my 4th New years Resolution, is to start taking images of myself as there are zero, nilch, nadda of me apart from my Wedding photographs...I can imagine the gran kids saying what did you look like?

{this is me}

Thank you for reading my ramblings..I am now off to pick up my girls from schools and spend some sofa time with them

Sarah Jane xxx

A new adventure ♥

2011-12-06T16:27:00.001Z

If you are a follower of Sarah Janes on Facebook then I am sure you will have seen the hints of my new adventure...well here it is!

Sarah Janes has teamed up with Mandy Rigby {MUA} and together we have created Red Shoe shoots...it really is very early days of our new adventure together. At the moment we are busy getting the studio ready and planning lots and lots of photo shoots, we only want to offer the very, very best{yes two very's....we mean business} to our clients and so we want our posing, lighting, props & end products to be beyond amazingly perfect before we open Red shoe up for client bookings...

In October I had the perfect 1st experience of shooting boudoir by booking a workshop with Trevor & Faye Yerbury...I think it is fair to say that it is their simple, classic and yet utterly beautiful style is what I love the most, and that I hope is always conveyed with Red Shoe.

All women should feel beautiful and fabulous in their own skin...

So here is Nicole part one {thank you Nicole for being our 1st victim...I mean model!! & thank you for allowing us to share your images on-line}and we will be shooting Nicola again tomorrow for part two ♥

Wedding photography will always be my 1st love.. I am so happy that I can now offer my fabulous Brides, Bridal boudoir photo shoots {eecccckkkk, actually I am beyond excited and the very idea of it!!!}

Album layouts...♥

2011-12-06T12:52:00.001Z

Sharing album layouts is not something I normally do..but I had to show these off! This is Zoe & Andy's 12" by 8" 25 page album...so these layouts below are 24" by 8", a really contemporary looking album. And as always I design my albums in a very contemporary style. No overlapping of images or a faded background image in sight! I really believe a beautiful simple design will give an album a classic feel in years to come...I also believe in designing the albums closely with the Bride and groom...at the proofing stage we can go back a forth with the design and layouts until everyone is completely happy with the final piece ♥

ps this is a 1st draft so road markings etc were removed before print :)

Portrait Session in Buckley....

2011-11-28T11:45:00.001Z

To see all the blog images from the session go to my wonderful blog page just for portraits :)

http://portraitsbysarahjanesphotography.blogspot.com/

Horse riding in the summer holidays ♥

2011-11-28T11:22:00.001Z

So in the summer holidays I treated my girls to a pony party...this was the 1st time Erin {my youngest} rode a pony...but more than anything I wanted my girls to have the pony experience of collecting the pony from the field, grooming and tacking up...they both really enjoyed themselves and received a rosette and little toy pony at the end of the party...was fab :)

So now as weddings, albums, 2012/2013 wedding bookings & portrait sessions...are starting to slow down for Christmas I can catch up with emailing all the summer images to my girls.... so one day when they are older they can see and read about all the great things we did together as a family ♥

Cheshire pony Parties

Anwen & Jamie {pre-wedding shoot}

2011-11-25T17:02:00.001Z

Really looking forward to Anwen & Jamie's Llyndir hall wedding!!I have a feeling there will be LOTS of funky details for me to swoon over :)

♥♥♥

Rhian & Wayne {wedding day images}

2011-11-22T11:01:00.001Z

On October the 22nd Rhian & Wayne held a small intimate wedding...it was an honour to have witnessed this wedding...

♥♥♥

Lisa & Dave {wedding day images}

2011-11-15T11:50:00.001Z

Lisa was the Autumn bride who had the summers day wedding! It was the 1st October...and HOT! Liverpool was playing Everton in the Derby {yes I found the one Everton fan amongst the 60 guests...he sort of stood back...kept quiet...bless} and Lisa & Dave had a beautiful vintage rose inspired wedding day at the Double tree in Chester....it was a pure honour to have photographed such a beautiful day {Lisa you really are a creative lady!} and thank you for feeding me...really the BEST food EVER.

What can I say...Just beautiful...enjoy all the creative little details that gave this wedding day Charm, Beauty, personality....and a little bit of football :)

♥♥♥

Make-up By Mandy

Rhian & Wayne {pre-wedding shoot}

2011-11-14T12:23:00.001Z

I have almost finished editing Rhian & Wayne's wedding day images...however this is the pre-wedding shoot taken just 2 weeks before the big day up near Bala, North Wales...Cannot wait until Rhian & Wayne see their wedding images :) x

Iwan {photoshoot}

2011-11-10T15:34:00.001Z

My Favourite image from Iwan's Photo shoot In Buckley ♥

Nicola & Barrie {wedding day images}

2011-11-09T15:39:00.003Z

Nicola was the elegant Bride...Barrie was the happiest groom in the world..their wedding ceremony and reception at Plas Isaf in Corwen North Wales was the stage for their lovely love story....

A Lovely Love Story {Shortened version...buy the book to read the full story :)}

The fierce Dinosaur was trapped inside his cage of ice. Although it was cold he was happy in there. It was, after all, his cage. Then along came the Lovely Other Dinosaur.

The Lovely Other Dinosaur melted the Dinosaur’s cage with kind words and loving thoughts.

......

Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old. Look at them. Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs.

And that, my friends, is how it is with love.

Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together. For the sun is warm. And the world is a beautiful place.

by Edward Monkton

♥♥♥

Gemma & Andrew {wedding day images}

2011-11-02T15:50:00.002Z

Oh my word, oh my word, oh my wooorrrrrd!!

I am so excited to show you these images...can you tell?...OK...deep breath...enjoy these beautiful, low light, lush, bags of personality, September wedding images with the most adorable, fabulous couple.
{Make-up by the amazing Mandy Rigby}

However please read the {made me cry} feedback 1st..

"Hey Sarah! wowwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First of all I have to tell you that I am sat here alone, after finishing work late, because I just couldn't wait to unwrap this gift.
I am re-living one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.............my heart is racing, I am overflowing with joy.......with each new image, each moment in time that I either never knew existed or had completely forgotten about, comes voices that I never knew I had heard and scents that I never realised I had smelled....that is a precious gift.......YOU did that, you and your big heart that can see deeper than the camera lens. Thanks to you those otherwise lost moments, voices and laughter will remain full of life forever, in a kind of neverland of joy and dreams come true, somewhere we can visit and escape to from time to time.

What more can I say? It's a decidedly shorter message than I envisaged sending you but there's no better way of describing how I feel.....I now have the pleasure of sharing this joy with my husband and family......................THANK YOU!

Gem, aka MRS DOWNWARD! lol xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Wedding Venue.....The old Rectory, Wem, Shropshire

Cake.....Homemade by the bride!!!

Makeup....Mandy Rigby

Rachel & Alex {wedding day images}

2011-10-25T10:08:00.001+01:00

Rachel & Alex were married at the beautiful privately owned Bersham Church and then held their ceremony at the Wild Pheasant in Llangollen on the 10th September.....

Lets start our wedding story with Rachel....

♥♥♥

LOVE this image ♥

Danielle & Gavin {wedding day images}

2011-10-18T13:19:00.000+01:00

OK, so today I am blogging the wedding of Dani & Gavin...and there were so many things I loved about this wedding! firstly this was my 1st September wedding of the season...and September is my favourite time of the year to shoot wedding photography! I love how the sun is slightly lower in the sky, and that Autumn brides are prepared for rain...and if it does not rain, then it feels like a gift.

It did rain...but just a little on the big day, and as I was with the Dani & Gavin all day it did not matter. We were able to cover all the "must have" shots without feeling stressed and pressured by time.

So I started my day at Danielle's parents home...just down the road from where I live... and then onto Bistre church, Buckley to meet Gavin and the boys before the ceremony {which was conducted by one of the school yard parents...yes he is a vicar hehe}

After the ceremony a few of the lucky guests and I were treated to a bus ride to Crabwall manor on the old Double Decker bus that you may have seen around Chester..it was fab! Drinking champagne while on a Vintage bus to Chester!! It was a hard day at the office that day I can tell you ;)

Now let me tell you about Dani & Gavin...how I LOVED photographing this couple...future brides and grooms take note.

You put this couple together in any kind of a pose, and instead of looking at me to say "what now" they kept talking to each other, laughing, kissing, touching heads...it was so beautiful to witness...this was a just married couple and they were so relaxed and just enjoying EVERY single second of the day...I could have photographed them for hours..but did not...I did however get them both into a wet field, with long grass for some shots, and Dani & I {both wearing ballet pumps} ended up with soaking wet feet.. but so worth it, and the Crabwall Manor had underfloor heating so we soon dried out.

Thank you so very very Much Dani & Gavin...you are such a special couple to me and I feel honoured to have photographed your wedding day ♥

Danielle & Lee {wedding day images}

2011-10-11T14:24:00.000+01:00

This is the wedding of Dani & Lee at the stunning Ruthin Castle in August {its October now..I know...I am catching up on my blogs!} Anyway...I do not think Dani will be offended when I say she is quite an indecisive person {hehe}...and so Dani selected me to be her photographer with the help of her 4 gorgeous bridesmaids...so I had 5 ladies I did not want to let down!

It did rain for most of the day however Dani and Lee did not want any large groups, as they wanted their day to be relaxed and informal and so just a few small group photographs which we were able to do inside this beautiful Castle. We also used the interior for some of the Bride & Groom Portraits...however as I was with this stunning couple all day, we were able to use the gardens after the wedding breakfast for some more portraits.. after the rain had died off and the low lush sun came out....and you know I am a huge fan of evening light photography, it really is the best time of the day for outdoor photography.

and when Dani saw her images after her honymoon..

"OMG we have just looked at the photos. How on earth are we going to just choose 60 photos {for the wedding album} there are toooo many nice ones

This is going to take me forever! lol

Thank you so much hun for capturing so many really lovely moments, your a super star. I can't wait to show them off "

What a total and utter pleasure this couple was to photograph...just simply beautiful inside and out xxxx

♥♥♥

Zoe & Andy {wedding day Images}

2011-09-30T12:37:00.000+01:00

Well without intending to I have really gone for the documentary style of photography while photographing and editing Zoe & Andy's August wedding day at Leasowe Castle on the Wirral. Zoe & Andy wanted their wedding day to just be about the people they love...nothing to formal, no top table, no standing on ceremony... and I suppose because they were both so relaxed I felt relaxed too...I was not given any kind of list of formal groups or must have images, they only wanted one large group shot and a few smaller intimate family groups...so I really felt I could just flow with the day...I switched off to everything, and for the 4 hours I was with this wonderful couple and their beautiful family I just shot what I saw and what I felt..I was given more time to be creative...and here are the results....

♥ and a little feed back from the beautiful bride Zoe.. ♥

"Sarah, we cannot thank you enough for the most beautiful images of our wedding day. You have captured every precious moment perfectly and we have gone through every emotion that we had on the day all over again by looking through them. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts ♥

All our love Zoe, Andy and girls xxx"

Nicola & Barry {pre-wedding shoot}

2011-09-22T11:35:00.000+01:00

This was a fabulous pre-wedding shoot at Loggerheads North Wales with the lovely Nicola & Barry...how are getting married this weekend at Plas Isaf Corwen...yes I am behind on my blogging :)

♥♥♥

Sara & Shaun {wedding day images}

2011-09-20T16:44:00.000+01:00

Sara & Shaun had a wonderful outdoor wedding at Llyndir Hall near Chester on a sunny August Afternoon.

I LOVE the pink colour scheme, the handwritten place cards with the glass jars of love hearts {my favourite!} Unfortunately Shaun is a Manchester United supporter, and so the tables were named after old and new players with all the player stats on the back of the cards...you will see I chose NOT to include any of these images ;)

Their Daughter Hannah was such a little joy on the day..how she enjoyed every minute..I know she will not remember her Mummy & Daddy's big day but I am sure she will treasure these images when little Hannah is all grown up...

♥♥♥

Sarah & Wayne {wedding day images}

2011-09-13T12:09:00.000+01:00

On the 13th August Sarah & Wayne were married at St Ethelwolds Church and then held their wedding reception for their 84 family and friends at the Holiday Inn

Sarah & Wayne have a beautiful Family and it was a joy and an honour to have played a small part in their big day..

♥♥♥

Gemma, Andrew...and little Niamh {pre-wedding shoot}

2011-09-08T12:33:00.000+01:00

Now....if the pre-wedding shoot is like this...can you IMAGINE how the big day will look!!!!!! Yes you have guessed it by the amount of exclamation marks just used...roll on the 17th for the big day ♥

Tears!!!! Thank you Lauren ♥

2011-09-08T10:34:00.000+01:00

We love, love, loved the wedding photos, you did us proud with the beautiful photos which helped us to remember each and every moment of our special day! It was a sheer joy and delight to look at each and every one of them and share once again the tears and laughter of the happiest day of my life! You and Mandy {MUA}were my angels and thanks to you both I looked and felt like a princess and I will never forget your kindness and the wonderful personal touches you showed to me throughout the whole experience...you were a true delight to deal with and I would go back over and over again to enjoy the building excitement and tension with you both! My only dilemma now is where to put the hundreds of photos I am desperate to cover the walls with...a homage to the work of sarah jane! Even better iv seen the amazing baby portraits you have done...you might have to wait a while but there is no one else I would ever choose to capture such amazing moments!

Seriously...I am in tears