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A beautiful Manchester & Cheshire marriage to start the wedding season in style!

Gemma & Phil were married at St John the Baptist Church in Irlam, Greater Manchester and held their wedding reception at the very quaint Black Swan in Cheshire. It was a wonderfully emotional day from start to finish, here are a few moments from their day from the bridal preparations right up to the first dance.

The bridal preparations took place at Gemma’s Dad’s house just down the road from St John the Baptist Church in Irlam. Gemma’s bridesmaids were her two sisters with her niece as a flower girl.

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Following the bridal preparations it was a short drive down the road to St John the Baptist Church. Having already visited the church during a pre-wedding meeting with Gemma & Phil, I was really looking forward to shooting the ceremony as it is a lovely venue with plenty of room inside and nice natural light streaming in from the large windows. The vicar was very accommodating, granting me permission to shoot from wherever I wanted.

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Despite being a little breezy, the weather was good and not too cold so I was able to capture the formal group shots outside of the church before everyone headed to the Black Swan for the wedding breakfast and evening reception.

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Upon arrival at the Black Swan I headed off to capture some of the table details and room dressings while the wedding party were enjoying a Champagne reception. Then followed the traditional schedule of the wedding breakfast followed by the speeches, cutting of the cake and the first dance.

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Gemma & Phil make a wonderful couple and it was a pleasure to be present on their wedding day. I’d like to thank them for booking me to shoot their wedding; I had a brilliant time and it was great to meet their family and friends who all made me feel very welcome.


I’m almost fully booked for 2015 but I am taking a couple more bookings before I decide to put up the ‘sold out’ sign for this year. I do have limited availability for 2016 so if you’re getting married please get in touch here and we’ll have a chat in more detail about your wedding day. You can also have a nosey at more of my wedding photography portfolio here.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog post.

Steve x