A Whimsical, Pre-Raphaelite Castle Wedding: Sophie & Kenny

Today’s real wedding is utterly mind-blowing! The images captured by Imagine That Studios are just- incredible. It’s common to think of a wedding as solely a joyful occasion, yet for some, the day can be a bitter-sweet celebration. Brides and grooms face the reality of dearly departed relatives not being present on their special day, and it can feel incredibly overwhelming as a mix of emotions take hold. Elated to be marrying the love of their life and starting a new chapter together, yet saddened that loved ones are sadly absent to witness this journey.

Sophie & Kenny married in Fonmon Castle, near Cardiff and had a beautiful day. Sadly, before their wedding day took place, Sophie lost both her parents, which I can only imagine must be a heartbreaking time. Their wedding photographers, Imagine That Studios captured a breathtaking set of bridal portraits and wedding images that exude Sophie’s soulful melancholy and great sense of loss.

Sophie’s whimsical bridal style is brought to life by their avant-garde and emotional style of wedding photography, blending Vintage Chic and Vogue Fashion creating their very own style of Fine Art Wedding Photography.

Sadly, Sophie and Kenny didn’t have time to share their thoughts on their big day so we thought we’d let the images speak for themselves. There are however, some words from Imagine That Studios about their incredibly artistic style of wedding photography. I do hope you enjoy reading about them and also enjoy looking at Sophie and Kenny’s stunning day.

Words by Keith.

A Whimsical, Pre-Raphaelite Castle Wedding: Sophie & Kenny

Sophie sadly lost both her parents, consequently there was an inner soulful mourning which we felt comes out when she is photographed. Yes we have some lovely laughing reportage images etc.

But when it came to the more directed photography Sophie naturally exuded a bitter-sweet sadness of the soul so familiar in pre-Raphaelite art. We wanted to reflect her soulfulness more than anything else, her simply unrequited love.

Cardiff Wedding Photographers Imagine That Studios

All of of our photography retouching is done by hand, something like Portrait-Pro (and I’m not having at go at this software) produces too much of a uniformed finish, it’s not in-touch with the shape of the face, the contours, the blemishes – only by running my hand over a face via a stylus do I feel what needs to be done and retouched.

I work with my daughter Elise, we are members of the Master Photographers Association and the Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers the two largest professional bodies in the world for wedding photographers.

We started the business together and we both have very strong artistic views, which works well for the client, its like steel sharpens steel. I can’t imagine what it would be like to work alone.

Elise sees the big picture, the album spread, I like the detail, I like to get the lighting right. I like shapes, I like to see the shapes around the couple complementing or leading into the subject. Elise like to create stories in stories, moments in-time which ask the viewer to read on. I think in this was we compliment each other!

We work different to other photographers in that rather than trying to get all the couple photos in one two hour session we break it up into 15-20 slots, both before and after the wedding breakfast.

This way we find the couple are more focused throughout the session whereas traditionally half way through their interest starts waning as they want to see their guests.

It also means that we can set everything up in a location and simply walk the couple into the shots then let them get back to their guests. Set up a new location and repeat.

This approach was essential for Fonmon as they have sprawling grounds and we would have wasted lots of their guest time simply walking from location to location. Importantly though it gives me and Elise time to talk through the set and see what works and will suite the client.

Our greatest influence has come from the grand masters of art, from the Pre-Raphaelite Artists who with their use of rich colours and sensual themes created some of the most beautiful portraits.

The grand artists were masters of light, creators of beauty and portrayers of great intimacy. From them we have learnt to use their techniques to great effect for our wedding couples.

We bring our own studio lighting with us to every wedding which allows us, like the grand masters of art, to create beautifully lit images that others cannot create on the wedding day.

On Monday the 5th August 2014 Imagine That Studios won six out of the seven wedding photography categories for The Master Photographers Association including ‘Best Classic Wedding Day Photography”, “Best Wedding Art & Fashion Photography” as well as winning the overall prestigious title of the “Master Photographers : Welsh Wedding Photographers of the Year 2014”.

How amazingly beautiful and emotional is this real wedding? Thank you so much to Sophie & Kenny for sharing their incredibly emotive and beautiful day with the WTW blog and to Imagine That Studios for submitting this amazing imagery!

Isn’t Sophie an incredibly gorgeous bride? Absolutely adore the bright and bold floral crown with veil, Sophie looks like a pre-Raphaelite goddess no?!