Marianne Taylor Photography | Portrait & Family Photographer in Cornwall
On-location portrait and family photography in North Cornwall. Siren of the Sea sessions, couples, families. Soft, romantic, coastal.
Italy in September feels like such a long time ago! Apart from a lovely engagement session with Lyn & Marc in Florence, there were also good times with good people. Here are some snapshots from my two weeks in Tuscany, I hope they’ll help you feel warm on these cold days!
Thank you to Villa Fontelunga for being the perfect place for our adventures and for hatching plans with some of my favourite people.
Charlotte & Fai are just the sweetest couple. Florence, despite the rain, is one of my favourite places on earth. What that adds up to is a couple of pretty magical hours at the crack of dawn on a wet summer’s morning. So we might not have gotten that epic sunrise, but we got plenty of Italian magic that always speaks straight to my heart. I hope you’ll love these as much as I do.
For Gael & Paul’s wedding we got to return to Italy and to the stunning Castello di Vincigliata on a beautiful hill top in Fiesole, overlooking Florence. It really is one of the most beautiful wedding venues ever to get married in.
Having said that, Il Salviatino, where Gael got ready in, was pretty breathtaking itself! There, her stylish hair do was created by Harrisons Hair Team, before she slipped into her gorgeous Enzoani gown and Benjamin Roberts shoes.
At the Castello, Tuscany Flowers had created beautiful flower arrangements to compliment the turquoise and white colour theme. There were many individual touches, such as tables named after songs, and old movies projected to the wall of of castle when the night fell. Also, Alma Project, who were in charge of music were just brilliant.
It was such a pleasure to get to work with the amazing Rossana from Weddings in Italy again, she is one in a million!
Thank you Gael & Paul, and your families, for allowing us to be a part of such a beautiful day! I wish you all the happiness in your future. x
So, this is what went down in Italy, among other things. I have a whole heap of other things to process before I get to these two lovely couples, but I thought I’d give you a little taste of Tuscan colours to brighten up this very wet summer… (mind you, we did get rain over there as well!)
I know this is cutting it quite close to Christmas, but I finally got all my images from Venice in order so I thought I’d share. At the end of November the husband and I spent a long weekend in one of our favourite cities in the world. The weather was chilly, which was actually pretty perfect, as there’s nothing more magical as foggy winter evenings on the canals.
On the rare occasion that I travel for pure pleasure I tend to leave my digital equipment at home and bring with me something more low key and/or fun. This time around I had my beloved Holga, an Ikoflex TLR (operations of which the eBay seller described as ‘esoteric’, and he wasn’t far off!), and of course my iPhone. I mention these cameras for those who take an interest in these things, for me it’s mostly the image that matters. Hence I’m not going to point out which camera took which picture, I think those who take an interest will spot the usual suspects in any case.
Enjoy!
Edited 27 Dec: Oops, just realised I forgot to scan the polaroids I took so have added them in there.
I don’t even know where to start this post… Ok, let’s start from the fact that I love Italy. I mean, I love Italy so much that I used to go there every year. Since starting this here photography business, I haven’t had much holiday (i.e. I don’t often choose where I get to go), and hence I hadn’t been to Italy since my honeymoon in Rome in 2007. I hope that goes some ways to explain how utterly excited I was when Emily & James booked me to photograph their wedding in Florence.
It was so very lovely to be back in my favourite country. Well, apart from the heat. When we set off to the Continentale Hotel where Emily was getting ready, the thermometer was showing +40C, and I’m pretty sure it just kept on climbing higher as the day went on. But that was all besides the point once we got to Emily, and the magic of the day started unfolding. Toni & Guy Florence were in charge of Emily’s hair, and she wore an adorable headdress by Jo Barnes. Azzura created her beautiful (heat-proof!) make up. Emily’s stunning wedding gown was Detalle by La Sposa and she wore the cutest Kate Spade flats for the day, love them!
The ceremony of Emily & James’ wedding took place at Chiesa San Martino a Maiano in Fiesole, just outside of Florence. From there we headed to the UH-MA-ZING reception venue, Castello di Vincigliata, on the hills of Fiesole overlooking the city. It was just… perfection. Gianni from Tuscany Flowers had created the most beautiful arrangements from (my favourite flower!) peonies, which matched Emily’s gorgeous bouquet. I also loved how all the bridesmaids flowers were different, but looked beautiful together in their whiteness. One of my favourite things were the escort cards hanging from a tree, how original and beautiful!
I want to say a huge thank you to wedding planner Rossana Sapori from Weddings in Umbria, who was an absolute star and kept everything running smoothly on the day. Preludio Catering was in charge of the delicious food and the incredible cake, and Alma Project took care of music for the evening. Other details to mention are the beautiful stationery designed by Emily herself (including a hand drawn invite), the adorable ring bearer bowl from Palomas Nest and fun drink stirrers from Miss Pickles Press.
Looking at these pictures now I get a warm glow inside (and it’s just not from remembering the heat). I had the best time of time and I can’t thank Emily and James enough for taking us with them, and for being so utterly nice to us throughout. I love you guys! And Italy… oh, Italy. Miss you already so much it hurts.
When Eva and Clara, the girls behind Design Anarchy Studio, a wedding planning service specialising in weddings in Italy, asked me to do a photo shoot with them, I jumped at the chance. Not only are these ladies extremely glamorous, they’re also an absolute pleasure to work with and we had such a fun day shooting around Notting Hill. I just loooove their style, which shines through in everything, from the way they dress to the glamorous weddings they put together.
Eva and Clara really are the epitome of ‘chic’, wouldn’t you agree? I’d also like to thank all the lovely people who allowed us to shoot in their cafes and shops, especially Alegria Life & Food and Myriad antiques at Clarendon Cross.
Last week I got asked to photograph a wedding in Rome, Italy. Initially I jumped for joy as Italy is absolutely one of my favourite countries in the world! But I soon realised I was already booked on the date, which was a real bummer! Never the less, it was really cool to be asked in the first place. The whole thing made me really miss Italy, and feeling nostalgic, I went through some old shots from Rome, Venice and other places. All of these were shot with a Holga, another thing I miss! When ever I’m on holiday (which unfortunately doesn’t happen a lot these days!), the Holga inevitably travels with me. Perhaps one day I’ll take my Holga with me to a wedding and shoot a few rolls after all the critical stuff has been captured digitally. Hmm.
Well, that’s enough for reminiscing, it’s back to editing yesterday’s wedding now!