Wendy, Chris & Charley the horse

Well it did rain quite a lot on Saturday but stayed dry long enough for us to get some great pictures outside after the ceremony. Yes, the horse did turn up and mighty fine he looked too.

Bringing a horse to the wedding...

Should be an interesting wedding tomorrow as the bride is bringing her horse along! Apparently he's not going to take part, just posing outside for pictures. The weather forecast doesn't look too good though - hopefully there will be some parts of the day without rain so we can get some pictures of bride and horse together.

Hayley & Nick, Halton House, Bucks

Hayley & Nick picked the best day of the year so far for their wedding, a warm summer-like day set in glorious surroundings at an RAF Officers' Mess near Aylesbury. With the beautiful surroundings and young bridesmaids running around it was a delight to photograph their wedding for them.



Jan suggested we photograph Hayley & the two older bridesmaids walking up the gravel path... the others didn't want to be left out and demanded to join in even though they had already lost their shoes. They hobbled over the stones, smiling bravely!












The church was a little dark and the vicar not happy to have any cameras at the front so we had to make do with some nice shots from the back of the church to go with the more traditional Bride & Father of the Bride shots we had taken earlier.

Referrals are the best way to build business

Last year we tried advertising using Google Adwords. We were at the top, or near the top of the search results list for "Wedding Photographer" for only £5 per day! Apart from this being a lot of money to pay every day many of the hits were from people shopping purely on price rather than looking for our quality product.
We've now found that referrals from satisfied couples are a much better way to get business. First of all they are obviously happy with their photographs and albums and love to show them off. Secondly their friends have not only seen the results but often also met us while we were shooting at the wedding and realise that we're actually really nice people and not your typical traditional wedding photographers. The only remaining question is "are you available for our wedding?"
As these referrals mean we have to spend less on advertising we are now launching a scheme to reward couples who do recommend us to their family and friends. For every booking we get as a result of a recommendation from a couple we will present them with a free 20x16" print from their wedding or give them an additional free page in their wedding album.

Anna & Darren, Wood Hall Hotel, Yorkshire

We travelled up to Yorkshire for a long weekend to photograph Anna & Darren's wedding in Boston Spa and reception at the fabulous Wood Hall Hotel near Wetherby.

We couldn't make too much of the hotel grounds due to a very cold wind but we made up for it with some stunning images of the day with the happy couple, their family and friends all having a wonderful time.

What is this blog for?

We're using this blog as a diary of things happening behind the scenes at AJ Photographic so that people can see new events and pictures from weddings as they come in. We will post some of our favourite images from each wedding here, we're also thinking about putting a favourites or highlights page on the main web site so people can quickly find a selection of great shots.
We have also enabled the comments function on this blog so people can make comments if they wish to - we'll see how that goes! :-)

Susie & Pete, Frimley Hall, Surrey

A venue just down the road for us with a lovely couple on a bit of a cold day. The temperature didn't matter at all as everyone had a great time and looked great in their photos.
We love this spontanious shot of Susie and her Grandad which captures the happy emotions of the day.