welcome home..

Next week we head to Dublin for our first Welcome Home Workshop of 2013.. I can't describe how this little family of open, supportive, emotive and kind photographers make me feel.  They make me so proud to be a part of this.. and together we really have created something pretty special.  I can't wait to meet the new bunch of homies and to continue to watch with pride this family grow and grow..

Last year we visited three cities.. three workshops in a week.. our own little road trip.. we met so many incredible people.. and loved every minute..



Shutterbox.. seriously guys.. stop being so incredibly amazing.. this little film makes me cry every time I watch it. Thank you.. thank you.. thank you.. thank you..

We adore sharing this adventure with you..

ahhhh our first dance.. :)

Ahhhh this little video has just been posted on Facebook by our friend Becs.. thank you hun for filming this on your phone.. brings back so many amazing memories.. :)

Welcome Home Workshop film

I really don't know where to start with this little film of the Welcome Home workshop...

 ..apart from..

 ..Shutterbox Films we ABSOLUTELY BLOODY ADORE you guys...

 


I LOVE it.. I LOVE it.. I LOVE it... and have lost count the number of times I've watched it.  Thank you guys from the bottom of our hearts.. it brings back a million and one wonderful memories of such an amazing day... :)

If you're interested in coming on the next Welcome Home Workshop then make sure you subscribe to the mailing list as we've got some exciting news coming very soon!!!!!!

a year ago...

This happened a year ago today... for us, it will always be the most amazing day ever and we are so incredibly grateful to have such amazing friends and family around us.  A year on and we still can't believe we get to call each other Husband and Wife.  Getting married is the absolute bestest.
 
Our surprise Wedding! from Emma Case on Vimeo.

Look what we got...... :)

Our gorgeous friends were amazing on our wedding day. Everyone helped out enormously and happily accepted roles of DJ, celebrant, hall stylist etc and a few others pitched in in their own little ways without us even asking.. for example.. where did the smoke machine even come from???
One of these peeps was Tom Slee who came along with his video camera and filmed THE. WHOLE. NIGHT. Like all of it... even filmed himself buying a drink.. that's just how much he filmed. So here is a couple of minutes.. it's the surprise bit too and makes me soooooo happy every time I watch it...


Our surprise Wedding! from Emma Case on Vimeo.

So, so happy........

cute little wedding video..

My husband Pete made this little video on his iPhone at Ian and Jo's woodland wedding... I don't know about you but I think it's rather cute.. :)

Ian & Jo - Wedding in the Woods from Pete Smyth on Vimeo.

mr and mrs smyth...

On Saturday 19th March me and Petey Pete got married. I still can't actually believe it. Our piccies are being blogged on Rock 'n Roll Bride today and Kat asked me if I wanted to add a few quotes... hmmmmm... I tried to keep it brief but maybe having to keep it as a surprise means that I'm now gagging to get it all out... so I have.... (you might need a cuppa... or a duvet...)

Me and Pete had been happily engaged for about 3 years...but any time we talked about getting married we ended up arguing…. we knew that we wanted something that reflected us but we'd start talking about who to invite, table plans etc and we were quickly getting fed up... the question 'Why are we doing it if it's such hard work?' usually stopped any further discussion. Also we were shooting amazing and creative weddings pretty much every week so all of our concentration was on other people's days... which was great but it meant that it was quite hard deciding on how 'we' wanted to do it... and without copying all of my couples who have flippin' fantastic weddings!

In January a good friend of ours Anthony came round and we chatted about my 30th birthday party… Anthony joked that we could get married in the afternoon and have a party on the night… we all joked about it even mentioning a 50’s prom theme based on the ‘Enchantment Under the Sea Dance’ from Back to the Future and then when Anthony left we started to talk about it seriously and we weren't arguing! But we wanted it to be a surprise. We get asked when we’re getting married a lot and people would then say how amazing it’s gonna be (because of all the gorgeous weddings we luckily get to shoot) so I started to feel a bit of pressure. I also didn’t want to be going on about ‘our’ wedding all the time... I kind of just wanted to get on with it without the fuss.... a little bit like being behind the camera I suppose...

The very next day we booked the Registry Office. Our close friend Zoe Wragg worked there, so it was lovely to think that she would be part of our day. All we needed now was a party venue.. I searched all over Birmingham and this was actually the hardest part of the whole thing... we were looking for a school hall type venue to match the 50’s prom theme, but we were running out of ideas... then we happened upon the Rowheath Pavilion in Bournville, a local community hall literally 5 mins from our house and we had no idea it existed! It was PERFECT! And better still available on my birthday! We booked it straight away! The theme also meant that I didn't have to think too much about a colour scheme.. it was sorted for me.. aqua colours and coral from the original poster for the dance in the film. Done.

For the day time we wanted to keep it very personal and intimate with a brief legal service, and we both loved the idea of a barge cruise with a meal (Birmingham has more canals than Venice don't you know!). We found Away2Dine a locally based floating restaurant and booked them for a wedding lunch cruise which picked us up from right outside the Registry and took us to Bournville! It also meant that we were then restricted to 24 people in all for the day. This was the hardest thing but we really wanted to have the evening as our real ceremony and wanted to be able to talk to people in the day properly without feeling under pressure to get round and talk to 60 people! The ceremony started at 1:30pm and we'd decided to have a first look beforehand and some photos in our local park. I honestly cannot recommend a first look enough. Me and Pete were able to see each other and take it all in properly. It was really emotional. And you get to talk about how you both look and how excited you are... we felt like such a little team making our way to the Registry.

This polaroid below has to be the funniest thing I've ever seen... how small are Pate's parents on the left!?! We literally laughed all Sunday at this picture. It just keeps giving...



When we arrived we were about to go in when Pete shouted 'Fuck!' and started jumping up and down... he'd forgotten the rings!! He must have completely shit himself but actually it made the ceremony really nice.. we borrowed rings from friends and through the ceremony there was lots of laughing!

When we came out the canal boat was waiting for us... we chugged along on the cruise in beautiful sunshine and enjoyed a gorgeous 3 course meal, even stopping for a photo shoot on the way! We passed by our own street at one point, to see a beautiful surprise banner that one of our neighbours had made to congratulate us! It was such a lovely surprise and most of us (well, the girls) on the boat had tears in our eyes!

Initially, when we started organising the day I wasn't going to have any bridesmaids or flowers but as we were planning we ended up saying Joanna, Beccie and my Sister Jodie were bridesmaids so then we thought we maybe should get some flowers and Pete had asked his friend Matt to be Best Man but we let everyone wear what they wanted so nothing really matched but we didn't care... we were just so excited about marrying each other. I did have a little wobble on the Thursday about name places on the boat which I'm totally keeping. I did also make a spreadsheet.

At 5pm we all disembarked and phase two of ‘Surpise Wedding’ began. We headed to the Rowheath Pavillion to dress the room for the 30th Birthday – 1950’s Enchantment Under the Sea Dance! We had Pom Poms, Crepe Paper Streamers, locally sourced balloons, a huge banner made by Rob (one of our friends) and the most mind blowing ‘1950’s Under the Sea’ themed cake table from Vickie at Boutique Baking Company! We hired a PA system, asked a close friend to DJ, another close friend, Joe to be the minister and we were ready! A quick change into our prom (throw people off the scent) outfits and a slick of brylcreme and we were set.

At 7pm guests started to arrive and it was so lovely to see everyone had made such an effort with their outfits! We then had the most horrendous hour talking to people, waiting for the right time to do the ‘announcement’… watching Pete turn a pale grey colour as we waited was quite amusing! He was petrified!

At around 8 o clock I snuck off and got changed back into my Wedding dress and waited with my dad and my bridesmaids. We could hear in the hall our friend Joe get on the microphone and ask the crowd to gather at the front of the hall and then he split them down the middle, creating an aisle. Our DJ Rob then started to play Hide n’ Seek by Imogen Heap. At this point the bridesmaids made their entrance carrying their bouquet’s one by one and the whole room just started to scream! Me and my Dad followed and all I could see was everyone crying…. :)

Joe then performed a short ceremony where we had a brief exchanging of our personal vows (again more tears!) some short speeches and a surreal best man speech containing liberal use of photoshop and extra large heads!

We then danced our first dance to ‘Home’ by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s and halfway through everyone joined us and we were swamped by hugs from everyone!…

The rest of the evening was filled with the longest Photo booth I’ve ever seen (I think it was some sort of release for all the photographers there!) and lots of dancing (and sweating in Pete’s case) until the party finished at 11.30pm. At which point we all headed to the HMV Institute, an Indie club in town where we were given our very own party section in the Karaoke Room! A late night curry at 4am and we were done… our very own 1950’s Prom with Surprise Wedding day was complete…. and it was perfect.

We honestly couldn’t have asked for anything better. The whole day was so full of love and emotion and laughter and sunshine. We have such amazing friends and family who were so helpful and supportive and the surprise element just blew us both away. The whole reason behind the surprise in the first place was that we wanted a ceremony where we could get emotional if we wanted to and guests were free to woop if they wanted to… and woop they did!

Oh… and everyone on the barge got an egg cup each… (well I had to get them in somewhere)

We also got to work with the most amazing people who made the day even more special and we honestly don’t know how to say thank you enough. The whole day was beautifully captured by the amazing talents of Steve Gerrard Photography, Joanna Brown Photography (both such good friends of ours) and the Cine8 film company.... they kicked absolute ass.

There's more photos and a full supplier list on Rock 'n Roll Bride today (who was there til the very end in the curry house!)... it's the weirdest thing being in the photographs instead of taking them and writing about my wedding instead of one of my couples... but it's the absolute bestest being married. I'd recommend it to everyone.... :)

Emma & Pete from cine8 on Vimeo.

My only regret for the whole day is not ordering the £450 balloon octopus for the hall... for a second I was tempted... g.u.t.t.e.d.
Oh and I'm still keeping Case for my photography but will be Mrs Smyth for everything else...yey! :)
All images/polaroids by Joanna Brown Photography
Poster by Thomas Jackson

photo night live...

A few weeks ago I got an email from Ross Dean asking if I would be interested in doing an interview for his new project Photo Night Live. Ross had the idea to do a weekly web TV show aiming to pull together the photography community once a week with special guests from the photo world discussing chosen hot topics.
Every week he invites one Pro Photographer and one emerging photographer in order to get a really cool discussion from both ends of the professional spectrum. Each 30 min show is designed to give the viewers an in depth view into the world of pro photography, whilst matching up names who you probably would not see anywhere else, engaged in discussion. It also provides a fantastic opportunity to the emerging photographer by showcasing them to the photography community.
Of course I jumped at the chance and didn't really think about it until that afternoon when I suddenly realised that a) I was a skype virgin and b) I would have to talk about stuff and try and make it coherent, interesting and no waffling...
It would be Ross, me and a fantastic emerging Photographer Kerrie Mitchell and our show would be all about seizing the moment, creating opportunity and being in control of your own destiny. Sweeeeeeet!
It was so much fun and actually a really lovely exercise talking about my own experiences... I really enjoyed it! Since it aired the response has been amazing and we've all had emails and tweets saying how much people enjoyed it which is brilliant... it really does feel bloody good to share!

Catch ‘Photo Night Live’ every Friday from 7pm (GMT). If you would like to be considered for a future show, please drop an email to info@rossdeanphotography.com
Also I kinda wish I'd checked what was behind me as I'm thinking the mattress propped against the wall isn't really a good look.

Special sneak peek...

A special sneak peek today of Beccy and Michael's beautiful Notting Hill wedding.... my first one in 2011 and I loved it! Beccy and Michael are about to embark on a 10 month trip around the world so we've added a little video clip as our Farewell present...

Untitled from Emma Case on Vimeo.

happy anniversary to meeeeeeee!

A year ago this weekend me and Pete were making our way to our first wedding as 'Emma Case Photography'.... on one hand it feels like a life time ago and on the other... like it was only yesterday.  I'm not going to write a lot in this post as I'm not actually sure my writing skills would do it justice.  I just know that I am so, so lucky.... and very, very thankful for every single person that has helped, supported, emailed, commented, blogged, inspired and followed my little journey....
I also have a huge thank you to say to all my couples this year.... I created this little montage video about you guys and showed Pete and I cried... I could see him filling up too... we honestly think the world of all of you and have made such good friends that I have to pinch myself that this really is my job...

Untitled from Emma Case on Vimeo.

ohh...I'm going again...

from our hearts...

A little while ago, through Flickr I met Debs Ivelja and Joanna Brown. These two girls are gorgeous, funny, talented and in love with photography just as much as I am. We've got to know each other pretty well over the past few months and we speak regularly offering support and advice to each other and both of them have now second shot for me at weddings.

When photography became my job I stopped taking photos for myself so much...I was so busy that I didn't want to add to the workload.... but I think it's important, not only for your personal development but also to keep things fresh, to try things out and to keep being inspired. With this in mind we decided to organise a regular weekend away and do something together and with that 'From our hearts' was born. It's simply a chance for us to get together, ask questions, support each other and to keep taking pictures for ourselves... which is what we adore doing.

For our first trip we decided to go camping. It was a chance for us to relax, talk and try things without the pressure of it being paid work. It sounded great but when we arrived so did the rain. Literally ALL weekend it rained... did I mention that it rained?... I think it might have stopped twice but most of the time we were just soaked through... so in the end there was far more hot chocolate drinking than picture taking but we still had a ball and it was really lovely to just get away for a few days. We're currently in the process of setting up a blog where all three of us are free to post and we are planning to do our weekend trip every year and maybe upgrade the weekend each time. We're all really looking forward to the year we go to Hawaii.

Over the weekend I decided to do some experimenting on my 5D so this is my little video of our little weekend....(and it includes eggs which makes me very happy)...

From our hearts..... from Emma Case on Vimeo.

How to cheer people up...

.. put an embarressing clip of yourself when you were 15 up on your blog...

This is the docu-soap Boyz & Girlz that was filmed back in 1998 (check out my eyebrows)... it was on Channel 5 at the weekends for about 2 years and followed six city kids living and working on a Derbyshire farm... we were then taken to Greece for a week for the sequel but I can't find any clips (we actually did a Baywatch montage on the beach with red swimsuits... ha ha!)... and on a slightly different subject...who the hell invented 'Sun in'?? I've got like two tone hair!

Boyz & Girlz from walshbros on Vimeo.

Can't believe I'm showing you all this......

2009

2009 was a big year for me in lots of ways.... we moved out of our gorgeous little house and gave it to someone else for a bit, we had kittens which was pretty much like having children and I decided to do photography for a living. I look at how much I've learnt these past 12 months and it's pretty staggering. I really love learning. I thought I'd stick some of my fav shots together from 2009 with some scrummy music for your viewing pleasure... hope you enjoy it :)

2009 scrummy montage... from Emma Case on Vimeo.

B got an A!

My gorgeous friend Beccie has recently started her PGCE training to become an Early Years Teacher..... she's just finished her first placement and pretty much nailed the whole thing.

Here's a little video just for you Bee....

You're going to be an amazing Teacher.