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  • Hello there!

    Welcome to Christian Ward Photography. We are Christian and Erica - a husband and wife photographic team based in Chesterfield near Sheffield but delivering high quality wedding photography throughout the UK and for destination weddings. Information and a price guide are available through the Info link at the top left of this page. Contact us now to enquire about our availability.

    We specialise in delivering seamless cover of your entire day, capturing relaxed, natural, and beautiful photographs. We're passionate about photographing your wedding and would love to hear from you. Please do leave your comments on our photos and tell us what you think!
    (Our bio photo by Swedish photographer Isabelle Hesselberg)

Caroline & Pete | Studio Portrait Shoot | January 2010

As you can see, we are trying to make up for our woeful lack of blogging recently by sharing a few more photos with you. Although the main wedding season is on the ebb (not for long!) Chris and I have been very busy developing our brand new website, designing wedding albums for 2009 wedding couples who have now chosen their photos, and of course out and about taking photographs. If you haven’t checked out the new website yet please take a look and let us know what you think – we love to get your feedback! Since the website allows us to showcase our latest work better than our previous website, we’ve decided to use the Blog more to give you some personal updates and non-wedding photography (although it will still be the place to see our very latest wedding images and get breaking Christian Ward Photography news too!) Chris will be posting soon about other future exciting plans for our Blog so please do come back soon! Oh and there’s one more wedding from 2009 still to come – we’ll be having our viewing session with the couple shortly, and they get to see the photos first, of course. But once we’ve had the viewing session I’ll be excitedly sharing with you some beautiful white wedding images.

On the ‘out and about taking photos’ side, one of our most enjoyable recent shoots was with Caroline and Pete in the studio. They are a lovely couple who look so happy and natural together in front of the camera. We managed to shortlist down to just under 75 photos for them to choose from (there were so many gorgeous shots, and as I’m sure you’ll agree, they are a very photogenic couple!) but here is a very small selection of my absolute favourites…

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February 10, 2010 - 9:37 pm

Denise (Caroline's Mum) - Really beautiful photo’s – very impressed! Difficult to choose one as they are all so lovely.

February 10, 2010 - 11:19 pm

Christian - Thanks Denise!

February 11, 2010 - 1:03 pm

Caroline - We absolutely love them all, thank you. We can’t wait for the end results!

February 13, 2010 - 5:15 pm

H - What gorgeous photos! You both look beautiful, as always. Caroline, your hair looks lovely ; ) . My favourite is the very top left black and white one.

Nerina Pallot at The Pigalle

Erica and I love music and we’ve got some great concerts lined up this year. We’ve already seen John Mayer once this year in Manchester, we’re due to see him again in Birmingham in May, we’re set to see Jamie Cullum in Sheffield in a few months, and then a few days ago we took a trip down to The Big Smoke to see another of our favourites playing a special gig in a very special venue. By sheer stroke of luck we managed to snap up 2 tickets to see Nerina Pallot play a one-off gig at The Pigalle; a small, 1940s styled cabaret club in Piccadilly. Having already seen Nerina Pallot in Buxton Opera House last year we knew we were in for a special evening and so we were very pleased when we got our own table for 2 right in front of the stage. If you’ve not yet discovered Nerina Pallot then consider this your wake up call! She’s on iTunes and Spotify so go and listen. She truly has the most extraordinary voice. Anyway, here are a few photos we took inside The Pigalle. Nerina was supported by Charlene Soraia (second photo down on the left)- also on iTunes and Spotify.

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Jane and Neil – Sheffield Wedding in the City | December 2009

Please note our blog has changed address to http://blog.sheffieldweddingphotographer.com
Please update your bookmarks accordingly! Or you can still access the blog from the link on the landing page of our new website www.sheffieldweddingphotographer.com. While you’re there why not take a look at the main site too? We’ve been busy setting up some beautiful galleries and lots of useful information so please stop by, and let us know what you think!

Now on with the wedding photographs!

I’ve been looking forward to posting more of Jane and Neil’s wedding photographs since the sneak peek a few weeks ago. It’s taken me a while to compile as we’ve been so busy, but I’m sure you’ll agree it’s been worth the wait! Jane and Neil were a great couple to work with – friendly and relaxed, and so clearly in love that it was a delight to capture all the special moments of their wedding day. To top it all off they had a lovely bunch of people celebrating with them – the wedding was an intimate affair with their closest friends and family – a cool city venue and some great winter sunshine.

Jane chose to get ready unobserved (by my camera lens!) so there’s just a few bridal morning shots before we move on to a fantastic set of images that Chris took of the groom and his best men outside Sheffield registry office before the ceremony. I’ve mentioned this before, but sometimes the groom’s preparations can get neglected. Chris always spends some time capturing relaxed images with the groom’s party before the wedding and they really do make a great start to the wedding album. But we start with the bride Jane, looking radiant with her lovely daughter and bridesmaid Ellie.

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The bride arrives!

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I love Jane’s expression in these ceremony shots…

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One day I’m going to do a blog post of confetti shots because I absolutely love Chris’s confetti shots. It’s such a fun moment, with some great expressions from the bride and groom (and sometimes some pretty manic ones from over-enthusiastic confetti throwers) and then there’s the beautiful colour and movement…Anyway, these must rank among my favourites…

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I can’t resist one more – especially with these happy expressions and this cool city backdrop…

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It was very busy around Sheffield Peace Gardens on a Saturday just before Christmas but we found this great location before we moved on to the reception…

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Jane and Neil’s wedding reception venue was the Hilton Hotel at Sheffield, which proved to be a great backdrop for photos, including these group shots…

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I am officially a huge fan of city weddings after this one…so many amazing locations for gorgeous couple shots…

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I never can pick my favourite from these next two…maybe I love them both the same!

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See what I mean about the locations?…

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What a cool couple…

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The beautiful table settings were created by Neil’s mum Jan. And what cute cakes!

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When Chris and I had come along to the Hilton Hotel in Sheffield to do our venue research before the big day we had scoped out some excellent spots for night-time photography, just in case the weather wasn’t kind during the day. We always like to have our contingencies worked out in advance, although as it happened it was a gorgeous (if cold!) day. We didn’t want to let the great night-time locations go to waste and luckily for us Jane and Neil were dream clients, braving the cold to come out for some beautifully atmospheric night-time shots. A recommendation for any couple having a winter wedding (and as photographers we do love a winter wedding – the light can be incredible!) is to bring some warm add-ons to your wedding attire, like Jane’s cute furry jacket. There is no doubt that in winter you WILL be cold, and there’s also little doubt that if you’re too cold to have your photo taken outdoors in the great venue that you have chosen for your wedding, you will regret it. Anyway, that’s enough of ‘Erica’s tips for brides!’ Enjoy these last few images…

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Thank you Jane and Neil for choosing us to photograph your special day – you were a joy to work with we had a great day.

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January 20, 2010 - 3:12 pm

Sarah - I’m glad you found me on thebschool and thank you so much for stopping by my site! You have beautiful work!

Alana and Paul’s White Wedding | December 2009 | Sneak Preview

Alana and Paul were married on a beautiful winter’s afternoon at Ringwood Hall in Chesterfield, which was decorated for Christmas complete with a log fire to keep us all warm on the coldest day of the year so far. We start this sneak preview of their wedding photographs with Alana and her bridesmaid Sara getting ready in the pretty Renishaw room, which made a perfect backdrop for the bridal preparations…

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Chris and Paul braved the cold to capture these cool images before the ceremony. No evidence yet of the fact that this was a white wedding (some superb snowy shots to follow in the full Blog post!)

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Some more of the groom’s preparations and a beautiful portrait of the bride. Because Paul and Alana didn’t get married until 3.00 p.m. and we were only 3 days off the shortest day of the year it meant there was very little natural light available, which gave us a great opportunity to work with the artificial light at Ringwood Hall, together with our own lighting, to create some beautifully dramatic images.

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The final shot is one of my favourites. Chris and I were keen to put our lighting to full use in the nighttime darkness after dinner. Paul and Alana were a wonderful couple to work with, braving the chill while we worked quickly to set up the shots…

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Thanks to Paul and Alana for your hospitality on the day (especially for including us in the delicious meal) and to Paul’s mum Pauline for your warm welcome. We had a great time photographing this pretty wedding and look forward to sharing more images with you soon!

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December 31, 2009 - 11:57 am

Paul - After looking at these samples, I can’t wait to see the final result. Chris and Erica you captured our special day by what looks like surpassing our expectations. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you both. I look forward to seeing the final product and to seeing you both again.

January 4, 2010 - 1:33 pm

Sara - The photographs loook stunning! I can’t wait for Alana and Paul to show me the others. Hope you’re both happy and well and had a lovely Christmas and New Year.

Sara

January 10, 2010 - 6:52 pm

Erica - Thanks to both of you for your kind words and I’m glad you enjoyed the sneak preview. Happy New Year! Erica x

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