It’s Friday yippee… and here’s to a four day weekend ahead hehe!

The last time i featured an engagement shoot by the incredible Andrea Ellison, it was so very popular and i expect this mornings shoot to go down a storm too :-)

Claire and Simon had their engagement shoot at an airport local to them. They chose an airport location because of its significance in their relationship, which you can read all about below.

I adore this tongue in cheek, quirky yet stunningly beautiful set of images, they are breathtaking.

Thanks so much to Andrea Ellison Photography for sharing her work with us today.

“We met years ago whilst working for an airline although we never worked together, We knew of each other because Simon was friends with my ex…… It was the time of the volcano ash cloud thingy and I got royally dumped by my ex, Simon’s friend. I was moaning on facebook and Simon popped up asking if i was OK. We ended up chatting on facebook through the night until 8 am. I got a phone call later that day from him saying when the dust had settled between me and the ex we should meet up for coffee. We couldn’t wait for the dust to settle so one night we decided to meet. I drove from Widnes, he drove from Wolverhampton and we met in a dodgy lay by by Keele services. There was an instant spark, it was quite amazing.

We went on various dates after that and after 4 weeks I put my house on the market…. it sold…. in a week!!! So i moved to Wolverhampton. We commuted for a year and then sold Simon’s house and moved to the country.”

The proposal…. “Well the bloody weather nearly scuppered that one! Simon had arranged a weekend in London for my Birthday ( the week before Christmas 2010). He was flying back from Malta with work the night before we were due to go on the train at 5am ………. The SNOW arrived… As Simon was flying towards Manchester the snow was closing all of the airports, Gatwick, Birmingham, Liverpool and then DISASTER…. Manchester!!! He couldn’t land!! They had to divert back down south to Luton…. Time was ticking. The company put them all in a taxi to drive back from Luton….. Luckily they dropped him off at our house at 4am and we made a mad dash to the station for our train at 5am!! Phew!!

So we got to London. Did lots of touristy things. Id done a list of things to do before turning 30, on that list was to eat at a Michelin star restaurant and so Simon had booked us into one in Chelsea…. It was amazing. At the end of the meal i went to the loo, came back and Simon grabbed my hand under the table…. He started mumbling how wonderful i was and then put a box in my hand, still under the table! He wouldn’t get down on one knee which i was most upset about. The ring was my mums Platinum solitaire that had been her engagement ring…. So the cheep skate didn’t even buy me a ring.

We did lots of touristy stuff and he even took me to see Dirty Dancing the musical Brilliant! (also became the theme for the Hen Do). We nearly got stuck down there because of the Snow. It was stunning, London in Snow!. Perfect.”

The shoot…. “Well we had been trying to think of themes, we had just moved to Anderton and was thinking of the Canal perhaps. But then we were speaking to Claire Pitt Doodlologist and she said well what about a plane theme, could you get to the airport.Then we thought oooooh vintage… Simon had a look on the internet for vintage planes and just down the road was a Tigermoth at Liverpool airport!! I had worked there a few years before so put a few calls in and Martin Keene of Keenair allowed us to use the plane for the whole day!!!

We had a great time collecting all the bits to use and wear, My dress was my mums that she had forced me to wear as a 14 years old! I hated that dress but it was so perfect for the shoot. I already had the cases from my car booting and the gorgeous gloves were from my next door neighbour.

I felt amazing from the moment we had talked to Andrea about it. She was so enthusiastic and excited about doing the shoot, we bounced ideas off each other regularly. Andrea managed to bring along her friend Maria and Hannah to be a second shooter and MUA. OMG it made us feel famous!!!! We had a fantastic time. Andrea managed to capture every look and smile that most people miss, you know the ones that make you fall in love with your partner that the general public just don’t notice…. She got them!!

She managed to put us into positions that flattered and make us look and feel amazing!. Ive asked Andrea to book us in for our 5 year anniversary shoot already! Ha ha I cant wait!.”

Wedding Plans… “We have tried to keep to a low ish budget but we refused to compromise on our photographs. I had been following Andreas work through a friend and so I knew I wanted Andrea before I even knew I wanted Simon!!! I didn’t look at any other photographer, didn’t get quotes from anyone else, it wasn’t a question. We booked Andrea the same day as we booked our Venue 18 months before the wedding…..

We have booked Chester Zoo for our wedding. We decided early on that we didn’t want a church ceremony. Simon had been married before for 22 years and had lost his wife to Cancer. So we wanted to book somewhere fun, different and uplifting. We initially looked at Kenya because my parents had lived and married over there in the 70′s (think Out of Africa) but we couldn’t go abroad as my Gran wouldn’t have been able to come and nor would Simon’s kids. So we jokingly looked at Chester Zoo as an alternative. We went with my mum and just fell in love with the place. The Lions are right next to the venue and you can hear them calling to each other… Amazeballs. Also its a charity so all money goes straight back to the animals!. Perfect.

Our bouquets are stunning, made out of vintage broaches and roses of foam and plastic. Our wedding rings are bespoke from Andrew at Sparkle Designer. I had said to Simon I didn’t want him to have to take his late wife’s wedding ring off… He entered into his vows with her and they were very very happy and very much in love for 22 years and then he lost her. I didn’t feel right taking the ring off him and replacing it with another, I’m not replacing Julie. So we decided to have their ring made into our one. So the very clever Andrew has laid White gold over the top of Julies gold ring to represent me and on top of that a layer of rose gold to represent Simon’s kids. Its stunning. We love it!.”

Thanks so so much to Claire and Simon for sharing their love story with us today… I’m off to dream of vintage air travel now :-) XOXO Lou

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT...