Oni & Travis's Wedding Story
Oni & Travis–Bedford Lodge Hotel
What can I say about these guys, two absolute movie stars that’s for sure. From the second I met them I just knew they were my perfect client. Travis coming from the entertainment industry and Oni being an ex-wedding planner, I knew I had my work cut out. Sometimes with people when you first meet them it feels as if you have known each other for a longtime and that’s exactly how it was with Oni and Travis. They were so nice, appreciative and humble. I just instantly loved them, and conversation was so easy as we began discussing the day and what they had planned.One of the most important skills that a wedding photographer can possess is imagination and these guys were easy to imagine on a shoot.
My birthday morning (Oni and Travis’s wedding day) was a gorgeous day.From the momentI entered the bridal suit at Bedford Lodge I knew I was in for a treat. Oni is stunning and she really did have the bridesmaids to match. Not to mention her son, he was indeed a little heart breaker.My first point of call on wedding day is to get to know the wider wedding party and to get them used to the camera, which was so easy with these guys.With such a luxury setting, work was so easy. There was no need to pick and choose backgrounds and everywhere I looked there were wonderful moments of joy and excitement. None more so special than when Oni’s son entered to room and ran up to mum as they embraced, in an unconditional love type of way. At this point I was out on the balcony shooting through the doorway and managed to capture the moment perfectly.This bay window that Oni was satin was the most perfect lighting scenario that I could have hoped for as well. Nearly everything I focused on at this point was constructed using the natural light source from this window. It shone through like beams of light highlighting subjects from the exact angle that you would have set up in a studio, however nothing beats natural light, and it didn’t seem to want to leave Oni alone, beaming across her face highlighting her perfect jaw lines and infectious smile, making every image pop with perfection
Once Oni was ready, the bridesmaids and Oni’s son gathered on the outside balcony and waiting for her to appear in front of them. As the large double doors opened, I am stood behind Oni, shooting over her shoulder to capture the dress reaction and what a reaction it was to. The whole group erupted in astonishment. Mouths open wide and hands being lifted to hide it. Oni’s son in the middle at the front of the gathering, almost being held back by the bridesmaids, just long enough for me to get the shots I wanted. The wonderful moments didn’t end there either. Shortly after, Oni’s father walked in to see her dressed up for the first time. Oni’s father was clearly overjoyed to see her but managed to keep him self composed, Oni not so much. As the emotion overcame her, she began to shed a tear but caught them tentatively as to not disrupt her make up
Shortly after thisI popped over to capture a little of Travis. It was just like a second movie set. I have an image of travis that I absolutely adore. He’s, at the time, putting his tie on and then sun is shining through the window behind him. He is largely silhouetted so the image doesn’t contain a lot of detail, but Travis has this gorgeous rim lighting to him and so does a very small amount of dust particles that glistening in the open space, it was just atmospheric. Travis knew exactly how to be with the camera from the start. Conversing with me as we chatted away but at the same time ignoring the camera. I guess I like to talk to my couples a lot during shoots. I think it helps people to feel more comfortable with the situation. It also allows me to be able to get a natural reaction to something if the image requires it. You can ask someone to smile but it is far more genuine if you say something funny or stupid and capture their reaction.
The ceremony was also special, as the camera focuses on Oni walking down the aisle, I capture this moment, where in the foreground blurred out but still noticeable is Travis, as he puts his hand up to his eye sand begins to shed a tear and at this moment Oni with her head tilted to one side gives that look, we all do when something adorable happens. Travis’s father sang their wedding song, another lovely touch to the day. As was their exit scene from the ceremony. As the confetti begins to rain down on them Oni and Travis begin to walkout with such looks of happiness together. As Travis shakes hands with his boys, I capture Oni whooping with her girls. Mouths open wide submitting to confetti rain as they celebrate.
The entire day was so magical and fun. The bridesmaids and all the groomsmen were up for trying out some cool ideas. Oni and Travis really put their trust in me with their shoot. As with all my couples I had a pre-planned route for them to take around the venue visiting the areas in which I wanted to work. Now indeed the best section of the venue for images is a trellised column tunnel of Wisteria. Now this is my birthday and in April the Wisteria hasn’t quite achieved any foliage growth to note, however this Wisteria is very mature and so it has very defined stalks growing up each individual column encircling them. I stopped them both halfway up the column tunnel and as usual asked them to pay each other attention and ignore me. The sun was set to the right side of the frame, it was low and warm. The light creped in from the side and softly highlighted details in the scene and caused a gorgeous lens flare to procure on camera. Meanwhile Oni and Travis are just completely lost in each other, and they just looked fabulous.We had the veil floating in the light breeze and everything. I really could have kept them here all day. However next up was their first dance. I was lucky enough to recruit one of Oni’s sisters as an assistant for this part. When it comes to the dance, I love to backlight couples, however in order to do this what I need is the flash unit to be moving as I do. Oni’s sister agreed to play peekaboo with me whilst holding my flash gun and she managed to do a fantastic job, we achieved some of the most gorgeous backlighting that you could hope for when doing this and it really highlighted their facial expressions that were again so joyful and in love.
Later, I was lucky enough to tempt them into a night shoot. Now even though me and Travis were disappointed to be missing the Tyson Fury fight, (Travis runs the Undisputed Pod Cast and is very good friends with David Haye, Eddie Hearn and several other big names in the boxing world by the way) they both played their part very well and perhaps one of my favourite images from the collection came yet again from the trellised columns section of the venue. At night each column has a downlight on it and so whatever appears beneath is lit up perfectly. Now at night a direct light like this is perfect and because the lights radius is small, you only get the subject that lights up and the rest of the scene remains in darkness.The image of this looking amazing. From the bottom right of the image the row of columns begins all the way into the distance in the middle at the top of the image. Half the way up isTravis leaning with his back against the column and Oni stood before him. The whole scene is in darkness expect for Oni Travis and the row of columns. I really caught them having a moment here and it was just an amazing way to finish their story
