Steve Fryer at FSM Photography

… with two new bookings this weekend. Lindsay & Scott confirmed their booking for April next year, and Lee & Hayley confirmed for their South Wales wedding in June 2013.

… Adele and Neil are not now getting married on Saturday 18th August this year so we have the date available again and can do a very good deal for anyone who hasn’t yet chosen their  wedding photographer.

… one from a personal recommendation.

Firstly, thank you to Tamsin and Rob for taking the plunge and booking us for your wedding this June. We have been emailing and talking on the phone for exactly a year, so it’s good that we now have your wedding date safely in the diary. We’ve not worked at your venues before, All Saints’ and Mill House in Basingstoke, so I’ll be going to take a look at them soon.

The second booking this week came from a personal recommendation – it’s always great when that happens! Thank you Jewlee and Martyn for choosing us, and thanks also to Brian for recommending us. We photographed Brian and Rachel’s wedding last August. All weddings are special, but their wedding was just that bit extra-special, and I’m sure Jewlee and Martyn’s wedding will be very special too. It’s at one of our local venues, The Hilton Hotel in Farlington.

I just have to say just how impressed I am with the Canon service centre in London. One of our camera bodies needed some TLC – the sensor needed a clean, not something I would tackle myself! I phoned them on the Friday before New Year and spoke to a very helpful chap by the name of Alex. Normally you have to ship the camera to them and wait up to 10  days for it come back, but I explained that we have weddings to photograph and other commitments, so we arranged that if I took it in on the Tuesday after the holiday they would clean the sensor pretty much while I waited. So, I was at Canon’s service centre in Elstree at 9:30 in the morning and at 12:30 I collected the repaired camera – total cost, just under £50. That’s what I call good service!

We spent a very pleasant afternoon yesterday when we met with Emma and Andy at Old Thorns to chat through their wedding day plans. It also gave us a chance to have a good look around Old Thorns, a venue we know very well as we have been coming here for over 20 years, but there have been a lot of changes recently. Sadly the Japanese teppanyaki restaurant has gone (there is now a Starbucks) and it is now a fantastic wedding venue. After Emma and Andy’s wedding here in February we also have Jane and Chris’s wedding to photograph in March, so looking forward to spending more time at Old Thorns this year.

Just had the most people at one time in our studio for a family photo session. Mary brought her children and their partners and her grandchildren in for one of our Mini Portrait Sessions, and with Diane and myself that was a total of 15 people. Time to look for a bigger studio ….

The last couple of weeks I seem to be just turning wedding couples away because we are already booked on the date they are getting married. Happened twice today -TWICE! Just, very, very frustrating, to say the least.

Back in March I was really pleased to take a booking to photograph Philip and Charmaine’s wedding at The Historic Dockyard in Chatham. This is a great venue, we’ve worked there a few times before, with lots of things going on during the day. Things like a real steam train, helicopter, submarine and a WW2 destroyer. OK, I admit, it’s more interesting for us guys than the ladies, but the venue for the ceremony is the old Commissioner’s House, and the ladies always appreciate the old-world charm.

Anyway, Philip has been poorly and off work, so they have had to move the wedding date back to December next year, which means we once again have Saturday 7th July available.

And I’ll have to wait another few months to photograph the steam train and the ships …..

The ladies at the Alverbank invited us to their wedding show a couple of weeks ago. I was intending posting about the show sooner, but things are really hectic at the moment. Cathy and Melvin came to talk to us about their wedding plans next May, and I am pleased to say they paid a deposit there and then at the show. Thanks, guys, looking forward to being with you on your special day at St Mary’s and the Alverbank.

Natalie and Gary have left this really nice message for us on our Facebook Business page. Thanks, guys- very much appreciated.

‘Hi Steve, Sorry we are only just getting back to you it has been a hectic couple of months since our wedding. We had an amazing day and the photos yourself and Diane took are beautiful. Thank you so much for being part of our big day you were both so helpful especially Diane with her handy scissors that just seemed to appear from nowhere right when I really needed them. I loved how you both faded in to the background with all of our guests but made sure you got every possible shot we could want in a very friendly and kind way. All of our guests commented on how brilliant you both were and how at ease you made them feel. We have finally had the time to sit down and look through all of our photos and we are so happy with them. We have picked out 90 – it was very hard to choose as they are all so lovely – and we can’t wait to receive our photos! Kind Regards, Natalie & Gary Drake.,