Wow! Another crazy year is over. In fact, a whole decade has rolled to a close. The first ten years of the 21st century have been exciting, traumatic and life changing for me. At the beginning of the decade I discovered my love of photography and, by the end of it, I’ve grown my business to become one of the top wedding and portraiture companies in the UK. I married the love of my life, an event that accidentally landed us on the Oprah Winfrey Show and in Patrick Swayze’s arms.

On the down side of this decade, there was September 11, which is a day that will be ingrained in my memory forever. I have never cried so hard or felt so much sadness. It has unfortunately become a day that set the political and emotional tone of the 21st century.

Hmmm…this post has taken a bit of a maudlin turn. I’m supposed to be talking about my top ten wedding photography memories of 2009. Let’s start over again…

Welcome to the 2009 Boggies, where I, Julia Boggio, reveal my personal top ten wedding photography moments of the year. I’ve been very lucky to photograph some amazing weddings throughout my career. I’ve decided to start sharing some of my favourite moments and some of the suppliers who helped create those moments. So please grab a glass of bubbly, sit back and enjoy my ramblings.

MOST ADVENTUROUS

There was no contest on this one. Lisa and Neil win it hands down! I could tell from their Sex & the City-style pre-wedding shoot that they would be fun to play with. For ages, I had wanted to do a wedding where I could get the bride and groom jumping on a trampoline. Lisa and Neil were completely up for it, but, unfortunately, couldn’t get their hands on one before the big day. They really did try! So imagine my delight when I pulled up to the bed & breakfast they had booked me into and saw a huge trampoline in their front garden. Score! The owners were more than happy for me to bring Lisa and Neil back for a bit of bridal bouncing.

They also indulged my group photo idea, which was based on a film set. The idea was that Neil would be the director and the groomsmen would be fighting over the bride. I brought all the props with me except the Chihuahua (stage left in bridesmaid’s arms).

FYI the bride is wearing Caroline Castigliano. You can read more about this wedding in Bride’s magazine next year.

MOST INSPIRED MUSIC CHOICE

As you would expect, I’ve been to a lot of wedding ceremonies. Nothing in all my years made me smile and tap my toes as much as Steve and Louise’s wedding at Babington House. They hired the ACM Gospel Choir to sing during their ceremony. If you haven’t been to the chapel at Babington House, it’s a small, intimate chapel (where the vicar won’t let the photographer to the front of the church, but that’s another story). As the choir started to sing, it brought all the guests to their feet, singing along and clapping their hands. It truly was a joyous occasion and I couldn’t help but feel completely uplifted by it.

In a close second, I have to mention Nadene and John, who hired Chas from Chas and Dave to play at their pub-based wedding. Being American, I had no idea who they were, but I will never forget all the guests dancing along to the rabbit song.

MOST ENTERTAINING CAKE CUTTING

Personally, I consider the cake cutting to be one of the most anti-climatic moments of a wedding. The couple pose with the knife, I take a few pics, and then they push the knife down a little. The couple always looks at me after as if to say, “Is that it?” Which is why I’ve become an advocate of Cake Smooshing, as I call it. It’s the norm in America, where the newlyweds feed the cake to each other after cutting it. Some couples do it sedately, nervous of getting cake on their clothes; some GO FOR IT! I had three couples this year that happily accepted my suggestion of cake smooshing. All of them WENT FOR IT, but Nick and Chris really take the cake. Ha ha.

When I suggested it to Nick, he said, “Only if Chris says yes,” thinking that there was no way that Chris would have said yes.

Little did he know that Chris already had agreed to it. Enthusiastically. [Insert evil laugh here].

So Nick and Chris win best cake smooshing. FYI Chris is the gleeful one on the left and Nick is the one with cake all over his face.

BEST TRANSPORT

The wedding car is always a big decision. It fits in with the tone of the day and says a lot about the couple and they kind of wedding they want to have. We had a classic 1950’s Chevrolet because I wanted a few American touches at my Wales-based wedding.

There is a two-way tie for this one. I think the top one has to be Nick and Emma. The bride had a long-abiding love of all things green. So they hired a bright green, classic VW campervan. I don’t know exactly who they got it from, but here is a link to the company that James and I hired one from for our holiday in September.

In a close second place is Chris and Charlotte. The funny thing is that they didn’t actually have a wedding car hired for the day. They were getting married in his parents back garden (read more in this blog post). I asked if they had a car so we could go off and do some photos. I didn’t expect much. Thankfully, one of their guests happened to have this immaculate car.

MOST CONCENTRATION WHILE PUTTING ON A RING

I love this photo. I love how the bride’s tongue is poking out of her mouth in concentration as she pushed the ring onto her groom’s finger. This picture of Kevin & Marisa is one of the prime reasons that I think it’s important for photographers to be allowed to the front of the church. I get so angry when celebrants relegate the photographer to the back, as if we are somehow trying to steal the sacred nature of the ceremony. No, we’re just trying to capture heartwarming moments like this for the bride and groom because the day goes so quickly and their memory of that sacred moment is going to disappear if we don’t help them out. Some of my favourite images from my own wedding are from during the ceremony. Okay, climbing down from my soap box now…

Here’s another fun one from their wedding:

BEST MONSOON WEDDING

Although this is an award that I’m sure most brides would hope to avoid, the rain played a real part in the Cardiff-based wedding of Andrew and Rashmi. Both raised in Wales, they still had two different cultures to satisfy at their wedding. On the Friday they held a traditional British wedding in Monmouth; however, there was a real feeling of anticipation from all the guests for Saturday’s Indian celebration.

Never have I seen so much rain on a wedding day. We also did the wedding film and, by the time Simon the Cameraman and I reached the groom’s hotel from where we parked the car, we were soaked through.

We were meeting the groom to capture his processional from the hotel to the Town Hall in the centre of Cardiff. As tradition dictates, he could arrive at the wedding on one of three animals: a horse, an elephant or a tiger. He had never ridden any of them before, but chose the horse nonetheless.

The procession consisted of a band, the groom on his horse, his dancing groomsmen (lots of lightbulbs were screwed in), and the groom’s family and friends.

My favourite part had to be when we were caught at a red light. We patiently waited for the light to change and then continued on our way. When we arrived at the wedding, the women of Rashmi’s family gave Andrew certain traditional gifts, while his crazy groomsmen continued to dance behind him.

And here is Andrew’s beautiful bride, Rashmi, who demurely awaited her prince to arrive on his very wet horse.

YUMMIEST FOOD

My assistant always jokes that her favourite part of weddings is the food. At least I think she’s joking. We work extremely hard on a wedding day, which is why it’s important for us to be well fed.

Sophie and James had a wonderful London wedding in Clerkenwell. They chose Portal, one of their favourite local restaurants, for the reception. The food was amazing, so much so that I brought James back there another time.

Some venues treat the other suppliers who work at their weddings with very little respect or courtesy, which is a real shame because WE PHOTOGRAPHERS MAKE A LOT OF RECOMMENDATIONS. Portal was lovely to us and took really good care of my assistant and me.

If you go, have the Bisaro. It is to die for.

BEST GROUP SHOT

Those who follow my work know that I love my quirky group shots. The ideas come to me from all sorts of places. I could be watching a TV show or looking through a book…I get my inspiration from all around. Most of them are born with the words, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”

With this group shot, I had obviously been listening to Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off by Louis Armstrong. As an American in Britain, I can’t tell you how many times people sing at me, “You say tomayto, I say tomahto”, etc., etc. I thought it would make a fun group shot. The bridal party, of course, had no idea what I was up to with this one, as the pieces of paper I had them holding were blank. I drew the words in later using Photoshop. Ah, Photoshop. I love you.

Ben and Penny had an amazing wedding at Lulworth Castle. You can read more about their wedding on this blog post. They were also featured in Cosmo Bride earlier this year.

BEST BRIDAL ENTERTAINMENT

It’s not very often when the bride and groom get up to entertain the guests. Chris and Amy, both lovers of swing music, hired the Rat Pack Boys to croon on their big day. They are very dear friends and I love them both dearly, so they won’t mind me saying this: both are tonally challenged. But hitting the notes wasn’t what was important; the guests all loved the fact that they put the effort in and I’m sure that in a few years’ time, it will be the abiding memory for many of them. Chris sang his karaoke stalwart, “That’s Life”, and Amy, who actually took singing lessons to help her hit the notes, sang “Things”.

BEST USE OF ME AS INSPIRATION

What does this mean? I hear you ask. Well, I often get couples who say they’ve seen images that they like that they’d like to try on their wedding day. Andrew and Lisa had loads of images they’d like to try…mostly inspired by images they had seen on my website. We gave each of them their own twist, so that the images were different.

For the Bride and Groom in the window image, they actually went around Brighton beforehand to find a window and ask permission for us to use it. I love that we used Fired Earth and got them in the bath tub. Hilarious.

THEIR IMAGES:

INSPIRED BY:

For the KEEP image, they wanted to involve their best friends in the image. Luckily, the KEEP they found was also in front of a restaurant called FOOD FOR FRIENDS. Happy coincidences…

THEIR IMAGE:

INSPIRED BY:

You can see more images from this wedding on the Rock n Roll Bride website in the New Year.

AND FINALLY…

Yes, I know this is more than ten now, but I wanted to give a mention to my favourite cufflinks of the year. Steve generously got these great Vivienne Westwood cufflinks for each of his groomsmen and I fell in love with them on the spot. So I bought them for James for Christmas!

And now I will leave you to your final celebrations of the year/decade. As I write this, the snow is pouring down outside, there is a cat next to me, and a glass of wine waiting in the kitchen. Here’s to a fabulous 2010 for all of us and may we not be doing the below on January 1.

Check out another one of our real life weddings in the latest issue of You & Your Wedding. Elizabeth & James’ wedding took place at the lovely Highclere Castle, the family seat of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon. From my point of view, Highclere has amazing light to photograph by, starting with the room the bride was getting ready in to the ceremony room - a rare treat indeed!

Elizabeth’s inspiration for the colour scheme started with a pair of purple shoes that she saw at LK Bennett. She bought them even before she bought her dress. The colour purple was then used for accents and details throughout the day.

Here are some more images from the day that weren’t in the magazine:

Last night I attended a fabulous women’s networking event, organised by Women Unlimited, a company started by my good friend, Julie Hall. She also happens to run Springmedia and built this website that you are on right now.

I am a big believer in networking because you never know who you’re going to meet. Through networking, I’ve made so many great connections, like Britain’s Next Top Model judge, Louis Mariette. Women Unlimited, in partnership with the British Library, organised last night’s Extraordinary Entrepreneurs Evening in honour of Women’s Enterprise Day. A well-known female entrepreneur headed each of the eleven tables, including Karen Hanton (founder of Top Table), Saira Khan (past Apprentice and founder of Miamoo), Kanya King (founder of the MOBO Awards) and Laura Tenison (founder of JoJoMamanBebe.co.uk). I was lucky enough to sit at Rachel Elnaugh’s table. Rachel was the woman behind Red Letter Days and a former dragon from Dragon’s Den.

Rachel’s story was fascinating and I couldn’t help but admire her as she told it to us. She started Red Letter Days, which was a great idea that caught the imagination of the public. I remember going into WH Smith and seeing the Red Letter Day boxes neatly packaged on the shelves, with the offers of scenic balloon rides or racing days. The idea for Red Letter Days sort of took off at a gallop, leaving the marketing team to catch up. Without even a business plan, Red Letter Days grew to over a £100 million pound turnover business. Then Rachel and her team decided to expand. Within a few years, the company was in £7 million of debt. The company turned insolvent. This all happened, of course, just after she had been on the original series of Dragon’s Den, so the media really dug into her. She had also just had a baby.

It takes a lot of strength to claw yourself back mentally from an episode like this, but Rachel has done it admirably. Now Rachel is a highly successful business coach, mentor and speaker in the SME sector. From the advice she was dishing to the female entrepreneurs at our table, I could see this was a woman who really knew her stuff. She had an uncanny ability to see what each person’s underlying business issue was and suggest a way forward. The markings of a great business coach indeed!

You can read further about Rachel’s story in her book, Business Nightmares. Also, read Rachel’s blog on an evening with Sir Alan Sugar.

If you are a female entrepreneur, I highly suggest signing up for the Women Unlimited newsletter. It’s full of great hints and tips, as well as stories and advice from others.

In my efforts to be a good blogger this week, I am doing a post per day. Do you know how much time it takes to blog? The answer is a lot! First you have to write all the content; then you need to choose pictures, cut them to size and then upload them into the post. I’m feeling masses of respect right now for people who blog all the time.

Anyway, today’s subject is little girls. I find little girls so fun and easy to work with. They love playing dress up, which is great because I have an ever-expanding closet full of cool props and costumes.

As the Mother Goose nursery rhyme goes:
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails,
And puppy dog tails,
That’s what little boys are made of.
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice,
And everything nice,
That’s what little girls are made of.

I seem to be going through a sepia stage with children right now. I like how it softens the image, makes it more timeless and really focuses us in on the subject, instead of the colours and other distracting details. Here are today’s blog starlets:

These are a few images of the girl who recently won our Merton Abbey Mill’s Kidsfest photography competition. Each child was given a disposable camera and sat through a quick lesson in photography. After getting them developed, they had to choose an image to put into the competition and explain why they thought it was a good picture. The prize was a shoot in our studio.

To see more, go to www.juliaboggiostudios.com.

Having a wedding photography business isn’t about just photographing weddings. I often get a phone call exactly three months after the Big Day to tell me that they’re expecting a little bundle of joy. I love photographing the babies of my wedding couples because I feel like I’ve already been on such a journey with them; it’s great to stay a part of their lives.

With our new studio now in full swing, we’ve got LOADS of babies in here. My laundry bill has increased due to the fact that they tend to wee on all my blankets. I’ve had a few blanket casualties, due to failing to follow the washing instructions correctly. I bought some sort of singing dog at CostCo over the weekend to entertain the little bubbas and it’s already had one ear chewed off. But I don’t mind any of that because they are just so darned cute and really brighten up our days whenever they come into the studio.

In my opinion, the best age to photograph a baby for the first time is within the 2 weeks of birth; the next is at 3 months followed by 6 months (or when the baby is sitting up) and finally at 1 year. Each shoot will be completely different from the last one. They change so much in that time period, it’s almost as though it’s a different person. We do a Watch Me Grow package for anyone interested in seeing the change in pictures over the first year.

Here are a few images that we’ve taken recently, which aren’t up on the website yet. Enjoy!

For more information or more images, go to www.juliaboggiostudios.com.

Sometimes I look at pictures of women from the 1940s and 50s and think, “How in the world did they have time to look like that every day???” I’ve always wished that I had the time to spend making myself up to Stepford Wife standards, but, if the truth be known, most days I’m lucky if I have a minute to slap on a little mascara.

Perhaps that is why I’ve always been fascinated by design, fashion and styling from that era. With that in mind, earlier this year I started to explore the wonderful world of pin-up photography.
Pin up is so much more erotic than a lot of modern boudoir, which often shows too much. Pin up is all about tantalising the viewer with what’s being covered up, but saying ‘I’m cheeky and sexy’ in the expression. And it’s a hell of a lot more fun!

Our pin up, or Vintage Boudoir, experience has been created to give women that beautiful 1940s feeling without the need of a time machine. My team of hair and make-up professionals will create the classic pin-up look for you and then I work with you in front of the lens to get the right expressions and poses. We have the ‘oops, I caught my dress’ look, the ‘surprised & naughty’ look, and the ‘innocent seductress’ look, to name a few. Together, we figure out which one works best for you and away we go.

While a lot of women do get this as a gift for a partner, I actually think this is a great thing to do, whether you’re single, married, engaged or whatever. It’s an empowering and fun experience for everybody and our new Wimbledon photographic studio has plenty of Prosecco on hand to ease any nerves!

Here is a behind-the-scenes video of the Vintage Boudoir experience and then some images:

And finally, here is one of me and James.

To see more, go to www.juliaboggiostudios.com.

On Thursday evening, I had a bit of an adventure. One of the delegates on my upcoming Shooting Day course specialises in underwater photography, so I asked if I could come to her to try it out. We were using a David Lloyds pool, where she normally shoots babies and children underwater. I turned up with my model and friend, Susan, as well as my stylist, Kate, who tried valiantly to salvage the dress we had used at our fountain shoot at Somerset House (see last month’s issue of Photo Pro magazine. It was on the cover).  I stopped at Boots on the way to pick up a small selection of waterproof make-up; it’s surprisingly easy to spend £50 on crap!

Depressingly, it took two people to help hoist me into my 10-year-old wetsuit. Time to lay off the…well, everything, really! Nicola showed me how to put the camera in the casing. She has a Nikon and a plastic underwater housing unit for it that she bought secondhand (£3000 on ebay. Gulp). All the buttons on the outside of the housing correspond to the buttons on the back of the camera, so that you can still control aperture, exposure, and look at the images to see if you’re getting the shots. We then put up a white vinyl background down the side of the pool and weighted it down. All that was left was to climb into the water.

Susan was a very good sport and a fabulous model. Nicola said that a lot of people can’t emote underwater, but Susan handled it really well. Poor thing, by the end of the session, her eyes were all red from opening them in the water. There was no deep end, so the space we had to work in was pretty shallow, which meant we couldn’t do any big body movements. But it was perfect for my first time.

Here are a few examples from my very first attempt at underwater photography. It was loads of fun, but it would take a massive amount of investment into equipment to do it all the time. I did enjoy it loads and I’m glad that I’ve tried it now. Enjoy!

And finally, me and Susan at the end of the shoot!

If only I had a bigger pool, I could do these.

I didn’t realise this was possible in the UK, but this wonderful couple, Charlotte & Chris, got married in his parent’s garden. They already had a license for performing ceremonies there from when his sister got married the year before. In the US, people can pretty much get married anywhere; in fact, my father and step-mother got married in our living room (even though the reception ended up in the hospital due to an untimely asthma attack). But I digress.

Chris and Charlotte moved to Australia last year, just after our fabulous pre-wedding session. He is a forensic computer guy. Yes, I believe that’s his official title.

These are a small selection of the images from their day. Thank you to his sister’s husband, who just happened to have an old Cadillac sitting around for us to play with. Charlotte was wearing Ian Stuart.

As promised, here are some images from a recent I Do Redo session that I photographed. When the bride told me she wanted to get wet, I knew that would mean I’d be getting wet, too. And I did. It wasn’t the warmest of days either, but one does what one must to get the shot.

The bride turned up in beautiful heels, so I had to lend her a pair of my more functional wellies. Like I always say, you can never have too many pairs of wellies! The groom was laughing on the river bank until I made him get in, too.

We had a great time and, just as the bride started to turn blue, I called a wrap. Thank goodness for Photoshop and the Hue/Saturation function.

Anyway, enjoy this small selection of images.

(Make up and hair by Lina Cameron).

For those of you who haven’t been following my columns in Photo Pro, Julia Boggio Studios is now open for business! Based in Merton Abbey Mills, Wimbledon, we’ve got a great spot right in the middle of a creative community on the river Wandle.

Aside from photographing babies, kids and teens, we are offering 1940s-style pin up photography, which I’m really excited about. Everyone who knows me knows I have a penchant for all things retro, so this is the perfect outlet for my creative juices.

Our new site isn’t 100% complete yet, but you can check out our images in the galleries: www.juliaboggiostudios.com. Get in touch if you’d like to enquire about coming in for a shoot. Christmas is coming up…