Wedding fayres are a great way to meet new suppliers, get ideas for your wedding and get a free glass of bubbly! Come along to one of the wedding fayres we’re attending for a chat. See our work, the range of albums we have to offer and most importantly, come and get to know us and ask any questions!

February Dates

5th February – The Link Hotel, Loughborugh 11-4pm (Hannah will be there)

5th February – Mickleover Court, Derby – 11-3:30pm (Ben will be there)

19th February – Horsley lodge (Ben will be there)

19th February- The royal Hotel, Ashby (Hannah will the there)

26th February – Derby Conference Centre 11-3:30pm (Ben will be there)

26th February – The Stuart Hotel, Derby 11-3pm (Hannah will be there)

March Dates

4th March – Pride Park Asian wedding fayre, Derby (Ben & Hannah will be there)

11th March – Colwick Hall, Nottingham  (Hannah will the there)

11th March – Derby Assembly Rooms (Ben will the there)

25th March – Nottingham Gateway Hotel (Hannah and Ben will be there)

April Dates

1st April – Osmaston Park, Derbyshire 11-4pm    -  This wedding fayre is hosted by ourselves and promises to be a great event with lots of amazing wedding suppliers all under one roof!

…..More dates coming soon!

In the meantime, don’t forget to check out some of our recent blog posts: 10 Ways to get the photos you want - Timings for your wedding day - Honeymoon Ideas - 18 Month Wedding Planner

We’re always interested to see what people think makes a great honeymoon. Whether is trekking in the Andes, taking a safari in Africa, sitting in paradise on a white sandy beach, skiing in the Alps, or simply taking a few days away in the Lake District, there is something for everyone to enjoy no matter what your tastes or budget.

We’d like to share with you our belated honeymoon in the hope that it inspired you to do something special after your wedding and take some time to relax together as a newly married couple.

After a few years of waiting we finally managed to take our honeymoon, and boy was it worth the wait. We spent a week (not long enough!) in the Maldives on the Paradise Island Resort in Kuredu. Having been to the Caribbean before we assumed it would be something similar, but it wasn’t… it was somewhere quite special and without trying to be to stereotypical, it was ‘paradise’. The crystal clear waters, white sandy beaches, the palm trees and the tropical fish certainly live up to the expectations painted in the holiday brochures and TV programmes.

We arrived in Malé, the main island in the Maldives, and were escorted to the Kuredu Islands private lounge where we were refreshed by ice-cold towels and drinks while we watched the sea planes around us landing and taking off. After a short flight by sea plane, with spectacular views of the Maldivian Islands we landed on Kuredu. First impressions of the island were beyond our expectations with the unspoilt white sands and crystal blue waters. We couldn’t wait for our holiday to begin.

We spent our days sitting on the beach in the 30+ degree heat, interrupted by an hour of snorkelling in the lagoon every so often, which is amazing by the way. On one snorkelling session, swimming out from the beach I was greeted by a 5ft green turtle and had the pleasure of being able to swim alone, side by side this magnificent animal for 20 minutes or so, the turtle occasionally rising to the surface to take a breath of air before it swam off into the distance again and out of sight – this alone made the holiday.

For anyone who is a “foody”, the food in the buffet restaurant is great and for anyone who isn’t much of a food connoisseur, you’ll be happy with the vast selection of hot and cold food available. Every breakfast, lunch and dinner there is a selection of hot and cold buffet food, as well as various stations cooking fresh food to order and to a high standard. There are also 3 a la carte restaurants available at an extra cost if you fancy dinner on the beach.

There are various trips available there at an additional cost for those who want to explore more of the Maldives, ranging from a romantic sunset cruise to scuba-diving in the cleaning station for the black-tip reef sharks and manta-rays. We went out on a ½ day snorkelling trip and it was worth every penny to see even better marine life than there is on Kuredu.

If you’re after somewhere to take you completely away from it all, then the Maldives is definitely the place to relax and unwind. We’re desperate to go back again already!

Kuredu Tips:
- The best snorkelling is in the “house reef” – This is where the turtles come to eat and bathe in the sun.
- Everyone staying on Kuredu as ‘all inclusive’ gets a free ‘Sunset Cruise’ trip, so don’t pay extra if the travel agent offers it to you.
- Currency: US Dollars , although the island doesn’t take any money throughout your stay as they charge it to the room and you settle the bill at the end of the stay. You’ll only need a few dollars for tips
- Plugs: Standard UK 3-pin 220v plug
- Flight time: From the UK 10h45m
- When booking , shop around for the best price online and then see if your local travel agent will match the price for you if you don’t want to book online. Most agents will match the online price if you ask.
- If you do book online make sure your holiday is ATOL protected – We booked ours online at first and then the online travel agent went into administration and we lost the holiday. Luckily as it was ATOL protected, we got the money back.
- Towels: Don’t both taking any as you’re provided with bath and beach towels
- Luggage: Take as little as possible…you wont need it, especially shoes! The islands policy is “No news & no shoes”. They encourage everyone to walk around 24-7 in bare feet, or in just flip flops, even at dinner in the evening so don’t bother with the shoes ladies.
-Weather: The temperature remains fairly consistent throughout the year, but if you want to avoid the rainy season, go between October & April. Having said that we went in June and we didn’t see a drop of rain all week. Lucky I guess.
- 1 week just isn’t enough. If you can afford it, take 2 weeks there to really unwind and relax.
- Take a camera with you, and also an underwater camera too if you can get one
- There are various types of rooms available ranging from the garden bungalow through to the water bungalows. All of them are great, and you get what you pay for really. We stayed in a garden bungalow, and it was beautiful. If we went back again we wouldn’t upgrade. We’d rather spend the upgrade money on a few extra nights there in paradise!

For more details about Kuredu, visit their website by clicking here.

Sufyan & Sarah chose to get married at Manchester Museum at the Fossils Gallery underneath the T-Rex, other wise known as Stan! After the ceremony we all headed through to the Reception & Egyptian Gallery for photos and gorgeous Indian canapés, then through to the Living Worlds gallery for dinner. It was far too snowy and icy to risk any photos outside so we got some in and around the exhibits! It was a lovely wedding although next time we visit we going to hope for less snow as we very nearly had to sleep in our van! Here are a few of our favourites from the day….

Its always nice to see a client again. In truth Hilary is more like a friend as we’ve seen her on numerous occasions at weddings with her amazing chocolate fountain. Mia is Hilary’s granddaughter and last year we photographed Mia just after her first birthday, so it was lovely to see her again a year later and with mum Rachael this time! Mia was a good as gold in front of the camera, especially after Rachael put on the nursery rhyme DVD to sing along to (we’ve still got the songs in our heads!!). Here are a few of our favorites…

There are so many different ideas out there for wedding cakes – Different shapes, colours, decorations… the possibilities are endless. We’ve put together a few different pics that we’ve taken over the years to hopefully give you some ideas for your wedding!

Cake Toppers

Fancy having your cake maker sculpt a caricature topper of yourselves? Most online cake makers just need a photo of you both and it can be delivered to your wedding reception as a complete surprise if you fancied unveiling on the big day

Cake Colours

Matching your cake colour to your wedding theme can be a lovely touch. For this wedding the bridesmaids dresses were a beautiful light sage green, perfectly matched by their cake.

Cake Jewellery

If ribbon or sugar flowers aren’t your thing, why not think about ‘cake jewellery’? Made from beautiful beads attached to thin wire, your cake can have just as much sparkle on the big day as you do (maybe not quite as much, but it’ll look nice anyway!).

Cake Flowers

If you want to stay with something more traditional, sugar flowers can be very spectacular on your wedding cake!

Fairytale Wedding Cakes

Why settle with 1 cake when your can have 6! The possibilities are endless…why not have your dream fairytale wedding cake.

Cheesecake!

Why have cake if you don’t like it… you can just have a few wheels of cheese instead!

Chocolate Cakes

If fruit or sponge cake isn’t up your street, why not have your entire wedding cake made out of chocolate? Chocolate by Design, Chesterfield make the most stunning, hand sculpted wedding cakes, entirely out of chocolate!

Cake Pops

Literally, cake lollypops! A delicious wedding favour, or just something for the guests to nibble on throughout the evening. There are so many decorations available for these little treats.

Contemporary wedding cakes

Why not have something a bit special for your wedding cake. Wedding cake maker ‘Wedding Cakes by Carolyn’ specialises in making some very cool cakes…. take a design to her and she’ll make it for you!

Below are some of our favourite cake makers in the local area.

Chocolate by Design – www.chocolate-by-design.co.uk

Wedding Cakes by Carolyn – weddingcakesbycarolyn.co.uk

April Delights – www.aprildelights.co.uk

Layers Cakes – www.layerscakes.co.uk

Cotton and Crumbs – www.cottonandcrumbs.co.uk

For a truly unforgettable wedding what better place to get married than the former home of a romantic poet? 

We love Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire – Its one of those venues that when you approach it, you just have to say ‘wow’!

Newstead Abbey has so much to offer and can cater for every type of wedding, be in an intimate wedding with only a few guests to  a huge wedding. Its grounds, both front and back are stunning and the possibilities for photographs are endless!

The last time we were there is was absolutely FREEZING!! Still, our bride Emily was desperate to take advantage of the beautiful building for her photos so she wrapped up warm and headded outside into the -6 degrees cold and didn’t complain once!

Here is some information from the Newstead Abbey website: www.newsteadabbey.org.uk

Civil Ceremonies

Civil ceremonies at Newstead take place in the Orangey. Originally the south transept of the Priory Church, the Orangey got its name from the Byron family, who purchased the Newstead estate from Henry VIII in 1540, and converted the transept into a room for growing citrus fruits. The Orangey’s ornate plaster ceiling, crystal chandelier and large windows with beautiful garden views beyond make the Orangey a delightful wedding venue.
Chapel Ceremonies
Newstead Abbey houses a Chapel with an active congregation that may be used for wedding ceremonies. Please note that couples wishing to get married in the Chapel must either live in or have obvious ties with the Parish.
For more information on Chapel weddings please contact:

Drinks receptions
Drinks receptions can be held immediately after the ceremony in the Garden room - a quiet, cool and peaceful space that is ideal for your guests to congregate in, while you are having those all-important photographs taken. The decor of the Garden Room is a light cream, so your own colour scheme may be introduced to the room if required. Drinks may be served in the Garden Room, where your guests can mingle and make use of the adjoining French Garden.

Receptions
Newstead Abbey has two distinctive reception rooms available for hire; the stylish West Front Suite offers stunning views of Newstead Abbey’s breathtaking facade, while the Cascade Room has magnificent views over the lake, and is perfect for more intimate wedding receptions.

For other venue blogs, Click the below links:

Moxhall Hall

Donington Park Farmhouse

The Priest House

Lovely to spend New Years Eve at the venue were we got married! We were doing photography, sax and disco for this wedding so we had an early start to get everything set up. Lindsay & Chris are a great couple, both teachers and as it turns out very talented in the styling weddings department! Chris made the table plan and the numbered hearts for the tables which hung from the ceiling. Lindsay played an Adele song on the sax for Chris (first time he’d heard her play). And there was even a “Love Actually” moment when Lindsay’s students sang “All You Need is Love” while the couple signed the register – gave me goosebumps! Chris had chosen “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for the first dance – really beautiful choice (although it’s been in my head now for about 4 weeks!) Anyway we had a great day and we had so many favourite images, but here are just a few….

Don’t forget to leave a comment for Chris & Lindsay to read in the box below. Tell us which photo is your favourite (use the numbers from the full gallery) and the one that gets the most votes will be printed and given to the couple free of charge!!

Ben & Hannah of HBA Photography

www.HBAphotography.com

Amanda and Shaun had planned their Winter wedding at Shottle Hall and very festive it was too with the Christmas trees in the background. Due to the lateness of the ceremony and the lack of light at this time of year, they decided to have their photos before the ceremony and that worked out really well in the end because I think it helped to calm their nerves a little. Great styling at this wedding, Amanda obviously put a lot of thought into her day and rather than go down the obvious festive route using a lot of deep reds, she pulled off a really subtle yet beautiful feel using the colours of champagne and latte – very sophisticated. She’d also arranged casino tables for the evening and we provided the disco alongside a band. It was a great day – they are so obviously made for each other and a genuinely lovely couple to work with, may we wish them all the luck in the world! Here are just a few of our favourite shots from their day….

Don’t forget to leave a comment for Shaun & Amanda to read in the box below. Tell us which photo is your favourite (use the numbers from the full gallery) and the one that gets the most votes will be printed and given to the couple free of charge!!

Ben & Hannah of HBA Photography

www.HBAphotography.com

Well, what a year it’s been. We’ve done 103 weddings in 2011 and I don’t know how we did it now! One weekend in particular found us in Manchester on Friday, London on Saturday, Warwick on Sunday and ending with Oxford on the Bank Holiday Monday!!

We ask all our clients to fill in a questionnaire marking us out of 10 on several different points. I thought it would be nice (and helpful for our future clients) to create a chart showing the responses….

We also had a huge amount of wonderful comments and thank you cards from our wonderful newly weds, here are just a few of their words ….

“When we booked our wedding venue, we were aware that we didn’t have a big budget for things like photography, so I was a little apprehensive about even looking. The venue gave us a list of recommended suppliers and on there were a number of different photographers. I looked at all of their websites, but HBA Photography stood out immediately. I LOVED the look of their wedding photography, it was both stylish, beautiful and relaxed; just the look we were hoping for. When I then looked into the costs, I found we could get their smallest package which would provide us with copyright free photos – exactly what we wanted, for a very very reasonable cost. From the very first email of enquiry, to today, three days after our wedding, the communication between Ben and Hannah and ourselves has been incredible. They gave us lots of information before we booked with them and were never pushy or put any pressure on. Once we had booked them, they kept in contact when we wanted to ask any questions or to remind us that we could choose our ‘must have shots’ in advance of the wedding date. When I contacted them to tell them I felt a little nervous about the photography, they were more than happy to meet up at the wedding venue and talk through what we would be doing on the day itself. They were warm, friendly and enormously helpful and I left feeling so much more confident about our wedding photography. On the day itself, Ben and Hannah arrived early and immediately started to take some shots which I wasn’t expecting as we had booked such a basic package. I had been a little disappointed that we hadn’t been able to afford a package which included the ‘getting ready’ shots and the more informal reportage that I loved so much, yet they were more than happy to capture a few moments along the way. Even when Hannah left to take photos of guests mingling and waiting, Ben stayed to take more getting ready shots. He was even on hand to unhook the dress from above the bed where none of us could reach!! They were unobtrusive yet present during the wedding ceremony and I have total confidence they captured every moment. After the ceremony, they allowed us to mingle with our family and friends before whisking us off for our couple shots. They took us away from the rest of the guests which was really important as it allowed us to relax and enjoy the process. They knew some incredible spots for the type of photography we wanted; open fields with beautiful backdrops, a rustic looking shed, an old beautiful ornate gate, autumn leaves, logs and trees. We’re just SO impatient to see the result now!! Yesterday, Ben sent me a copy of one of our shots and it is beyond our expectations. It was a wonderful surprise as I didn’t expect to see anything yet, but the sneaky peek has definitely whetted our appetite! After our couple shots, we went back to the main venue to have our group and confetti shots. They worked efficiently through the list we’d provided and used a variety of techniques to create a relaxed and happy environment which means I am confident we’ll have some beautiful photos. Hannah kept my glass of bubbles on hand and handed me a sip between shots too, which was definitely appreciated!! Throughout the day, Hannah ensured my dress and jewellery was placed correctly and that my make up looked right. This was another service I didn’t expect but definitely appreciated. They were both adamant that there was no job too big or small which would help us enjoy our day and create the best photographs possible. Throughout the day and the next day, many of our guests commented on how professional yet lovely they had been which reaffirmed how happy we were with our choice. I would wholeheartedly recommend Ben and Hannah for any occasion. They were incredible and I can’t wait to see the end result.” Nadine & Simon

“Thank you both so much for doing such a great job! We had the most amazing day and you captured it perfectly, we’re so happy with the photos – we can’t stop looking at them!” Ali & Nick

“HBA Photography were amazing – Hannah & Ben you have been fantastic before, during and after our wedding,we would not hesitate to recommend you to others. Thank you” Brigit & Matt

“We got married on the 16 July 2011. We chose HBA Photography as they were highly recommended. From the moment we first met, we new these were the ones for our special day! They really did make you feel so relaxed. We felt, as a couple that we had known them for years. After the first meeting Hannah and Ben kept in touch, keeping us updated with all new products and information about our wedding day. Nothing was too much trouble for them no matter how demanding we were! (We had found a location near a lake, which we thought would be beautiful for photos) They got so involved with every idea we had and were even going to meet up before the big day to look around! We really did feel we had made the best choice in HBA due to there down to earth nature and modern approach to photography. They listened to what we wanted and advised on new approaches in photography to make our album up to date with a contemporary feel. The morning of the wedding and the rain was pouring! Hannah and Ben gave many different options to have photos and totally relaxed me (I had every faith in them) the rain thankfully stopped just before the ceremony and Hannah and Ben were so excited to go to the lake, they quickly whisked us off (in  their car) Many of my friends always complain about their Photographers as all their photos are set and boring and they never have  time to spend with their new husband but HBA were far from that! They really were amazing, telling us to have a catch up together! We walked along whilst they took the most natural and romantic pictures, we really did feel so in love. Whilst we were having our sit down meal they were still working (they really didn’t seem to stop). They had found another beautiful location for our photos and were understanding if we just wanted to stop with our guests but wanted to give us an option. We were off before they even gave the location! Hannah and Ben are the most professional people we have ever met with a great eye for location and romance. They will always go that extra mile. They made us feel so relaxed and didn’t feel like the photos took over our day. All our guests complimented us on how lovely and friendly they were. They were very open to new ideas and lots of new ideas for us too. We are so happy with the level of service we received and will definitely be recommending them.” Debbie & Craig

“Hannah and Ben were the first of three photographer appointments we had arranged. They were due to attend a wedding on the day we wanted to meet and they rearranged their schedule to fit us in. They were fantastic and we were comfortable in their company from the very first minute. We liked what they were offering and the price was extremely competative. We cancelled the other two appointments immediately after our meeting with Hanna and Ben. Not one regret!” David & Alison

Its always an exciting day when a new wedding album arrives. We’ve spent so long getting to know our couples through engagement photshoots, the wedding day and then through the album design process, and when the album arrives it feels like the wedding day is finally complete. We love looking through albums as they arrive and laughing about the things that happened on the day and we hope that it brings our clients even more happy memories! Hayley and Oliver’s albums is beautiful…. A 25×35 Graphistudio storybook album with  luxurious thick matt pages and the stunning metal cover for the front!

Album Details:

- 25cm x 35cm Graphistudio album

- Matt laminated thick smooth paper

- Silver metal custom cover

- 2  15cm x 20cm Hardback parent books

For more details about our available albums, visit the ‘Albums’ page on our website!