couple photography Archives | London & Cornwall Wedding Photographer Marianne Taylor | Creative wedding, couple & family reportage photography covering Cornwall, London, UK and overseas

Janice & Derek | Beloved

November 6, 2012 · 14 Comments

Once a year I try to do something to help a charity with the work I do, and this year the opportunity came when Love My Dress teamed up with Oxfam to create a big old wedding auction. I donated a Beloved session to the auction (already married people should get to play too!), and the bidder who won a session with me was the lovely Janice from Essex.

On the day of Janice and Derek’s session the weather turned truly awful by the time we met, but since we had all travelled from different sides of the city, we decided to soldier on. I have to say I am quite surprised that Janice’s amazing energy and positivity didn’t literally stop the rain and bring out the sun, what a ray of sunshine this lady is! So even though the freezing rain didn’t make for ideal circumstances, I did have a thoroughly lovely time with Janice and Derek, and I think we managed to capture some of the joy that makes these two tick.

Thank you so much for bidding and helping with a good cause Janice, it was such a pleasure to spend time with you both! x

creative beloved anniversary photography London

Amanda & Nick | Engagement

November 22, 2011 · 22 Comments

Amanda & Nick travelled down to London from Bath for their engagement session, and Amanda certainly came well-prepared! I don’t think I’ve ever had such a huge selection of lovely props to choose from, so huge in fact that we decided to save some for the wedding day portraits. :D

We first met up at the deliciously pink Peggy Porschen shop in Belgravia for some equally delicious, not to mention photogenic, cakes. From there we headed to Green Park for fun with the beautiful autumn coloured leaves. The day was so lovely and crisp with some beautiful sunshine thrown in, but you could definitely sense winter, and dare I say it, Christmas, in the air (I think the amazing gingerbread house at Peggy Porschen helped with getting into the spirit too!).

I had such a good time with Amanda & Nick, and I can’t wait until next summer – judging by the amount of thought Amanda put into the engagement session, the wedding is going to be off the hook amazing! But yes, let’s in fact have that Christmas first…

creative engagement photography

Roz & Severin | Beloved

November 1, 2011 · 10 Comments

Roz & Severin are known as one of the hardest working (and also the loveliest!) couples among wedding professionals. Most of the time they are super busy running Hepburn Collection, creating beautiful hair styles for brides and models. Since they are literally always working and rarely have time to spend quality time together, Sev decided to surprise Roz on her birthday with a booking for a Beloved session with yours truly. Personally I think Roz & Sev are pretty much the ideal couple I had in mind when I decided to start offering dedicated Beloved sessions, a couple who has been together for a long time and deserves to take some time out of their busy lives to reconnect and to enjoy each others company.

At first Roz wasn’t sure about being in front of the camera (oh I know how she feels!), but she bravely agreed to the session – and I’m so glad she did. Below are her thoughts about the experience in her own words:

‘The day arrived. Now what could Marianne do with a tired married couple who quite frankly could potentially ruin her lovely camera? You will be amazed! Our shoot was to be at Bushy Park and it was an awesome day – the sky was blue, not too cold and the colours of autumn were breathtaking. So far so good. Now for the serious stuff, our minds were racing. How is she going to do this? How will we respond to her instructions? Now of course I couldn’t possibly tell you all, as this would ruin ‘the experience’ but let me just say, she was incredible and we felt so comfortable in her presence. I would even go so far as to say it was easy.

I had always thought these shoots were primarily for the engaged couple just before their big day. BUT believe me when I say that they can be for anyone. I’m sure most of you will agree that being married can sometimes be a little busy so taking time out is really important. This shoot for us was like therapy, we laughed until it hurt, felt re-energised, relaxed and more importantly we had reconnected. Marianne and her camera had captured something very special between us, being in love! Thank you Marianne.’

Well, what can I say… thank YOU Roz and Sev, for trusting me so completely and for being as cute and in love as a teenage couple! I loved every minute of our session and would be very happy if this was what I got to do for the rest of my life. I will never ever tire of witnessing people in love. x

P.S. look out for a feature on Roz & Sev’s Beloved session over at Love My Dress today.

beloved anniversary photography

Kelly & Nik | Beloved

July 4, 2011 · 30 Comments

While down in beautiful Cornwall last month, I had the pleasure of photographing an amazing Beloved session with Kelly & Nik. Kelly is originally from the little village of Fowey in Cornwall, and it is also the place where Nik proposed to her, and where they had the official bit of their wedding ceremony two years ago, before a celebration in Ibiza.

For their second wedding anniversary Kelly wanted to give Nik a Beloved session as an anniversary present, as she felt they didn’t have enough relaxed and natural pictures of themselves together.

I can’t tell you enough how much I love doing these sessions! It’s just so touching to be able to watch two people remembering how much they mean to each other, and I feel immensely privileged to be able to capture those moments for the couple to remember forever.

Thank you Kelly and Nik for putting so much trust in me, and for giving to each other so willingly.

P.s. you can read more about what Kelly & Nik thought about their session over at Kelly’s blog.

creative fine art wedding photography

Lisa & Alex | Beloved

June 10, 2011 · 27 Comments

I’m so excited to be posting Lisa & Alex’s Beloved session! Personally I think that each and every image in this set represents the kind of work that makes everything about this job worthwhile to me. I’m actually shooting Lisa & Alex’s wedding in August, but since they’ve been together for 13 years (!), they opted to do a Beloved session instead of an engagement session prior to their wedding. So what’s the difference with these two types of sessions? While there are certainly similar elements, and while I’m of course always interested in capturing that authentic interaction and use the same techniques for encouraging it, there is also a fundamental difference. The simplest way to put it would be to say that engagement sessions are more about the external (different locations and outfits or props and rings etc.) and the environment plays a bigger part, while Beloved sessions are entirely about the internal – the setting isn’t that relevant, it’s more about exploring the love that already exists between the couple.

Here’s a bit about what Lisa and Alex had to say about their experience.

“It was so lovely to spend that time really connecting with each other – something that we rarely get a chance to do with such busy lives (and wedding planning!). We hardly noticed that Marianne was there and I think the pictures prove she captured some really lovely moments. I would recommend this shoot to couples who are looking for something a little different, who maybe are already married or celebrating an anniversary, it’s a lovely way to spend some time together and capture the moment for years to come.”

It was such an honour to share these moments with Lisa & Alex. I think you’ll agree that these two are simply adorable!

London beloved photography