STUNNING WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY FROM A NORTH EAST PROFESSIONAL WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER - NATURAL RELAXED PHOTOGRAPHS AT WEDDING VENUES ACROSS NORTH EAST ENGLAND

	Read my Wedding BLOG - all about recent weddings by Dirk van der Werff

	Check availability for 2010 / 2011 / 2012 DON'T LOSE YOUR DATE - RING NOW!!! FREEPHONE: 0800 804 7270 or 0778 715 0966

	Choosing your wedding photographer .....
			My most recent weddings

Hello! I'm Dirk van der Werff, a professional photographer based in the north east of England. I have a passion for photography - and a passion for weddings - the perfect match!
It's the hardest thing in the world choosing a wedding photographer ..... that's why I'm here, to help you choose.
When I was married almost 25 years ago, weddings were a whole different ball game.

Nicola's wedding in Durham

Victoria at The Crab and Lobster

Lynn's wedding at Lindisfarne Castle

Kate's wedding at Langley Castle

Parents paid for the wedding and generally, everyone who ever slightly knew you was invited to YOUR wedding, even if you hardly had a memory of them!

Nicola and Joanathan during their wedding in Durham - being passed by a Chinese student on a bike!

Nowadays, thank goodness, it's a celebration, more than 'just' a wedding. Couples get engaged and decide to make plans to marry at a much more mature age, late 20's or early thirties, often after a university education. You have your own careers, you have your own home, you arrange and book your own holidays ... so you want to have the wedding YOU want to have - and often you both pay towards it as well! You can invite the people YOU really want to invite. Your closest and best freinds and your nearest and dearest relatives - and, hopefully, me!

Louise at Jesmond Dene House Hotel

Amy's wedding at Ellingham Hall

Confidence

Karen's wedding at Crathorne Hall

Natalie's wedding at Gisborough Hall

Some couples are naturals in front of the camera.
Most are not.
So you need to feel confidence in your wedding photographer, and I will build that confidence with you. Hopefully, through my website pages and my BLOG entries of the most recent weddings I cover, you will get a feel for my skills as a photographer, of my passion for YOUR wedding and for my love of photography and people.
I'm a people person, and in my career in magazines and newspapers before I set up my own business in 2003 I photographed and mixed with royalty, celebrities, top rockstars as well as the general public, children and all sorts of family occassions.
I'm amiable, I'm nice. I smile a lot, and I'm very good with people. I won't be bullying anyone, I won't be shouting at anyone, NOTHING is a problem and I ALWAYS remember that it's YOUR day, not the photographer's!

Gill and Tim during their wedding at Bowes Museum and Teesdale

Rachel's wedding at Headlam Hall

Shelley's wedding at Langley Castle

Lucy's wedding at Seaham Hall

Catherine's wedding at Crathorne Hall

Building your confidence starts here, right now, by the way I present myself, my photography and my offers to help you along the way, every day if needs be for the next year, 2 years, maybe three years until your wedding.
I put my heart and soul into my weddings, I work very hard for six, eight, ten or twelve hours on the day of your celebration. Maybe two days or longer for Greek weddings, or Muslim or Jewish weddings.
I'm available to meet you anytime, day, night, weekend, just give me a ring, Freefone 0800 804 7270 or on my personal mobile, 0778 7150966. If we can meet at your chosen venue for coffee - that will be fine, otherwise I'll come to your home, and if you would like your parents to meet with me too (cause they're paying .... ) that's fine too. The more the merrier!
I cover weddings all across the north of England, but often travel elsewhere in Great Britain, and more and more brides want to take their chosen photographers on their destination weddings across Europe and further afield. If that's what you would like, no problem!
ALSO .... I won't keep anyone hanging around and waiting for hours on end for photographs to be taken ... all my best photographs will come from you all chillin' out and having a great day of celebration. Not that we will forget those groups needed by mums and dads and grandmas and grandads - it's just that generally I will do many of them AFTER the wedding breakfast, when folk have had a few drinks, they're more relaxed and amenable - and it will take just TEN MINUTES ! I will NOT take you away from your guests for ages .. maybe 15 minutes, usually after the wedding breakfast - just have a great day and I will record the fun!
I have limited dates available to cover weddings as most of my weddings from first meeting until the handover of an album take about 30-36 hours, or four to five 'normal' days work. So I rarely take more than 20 - 25 bookings in a year.
That's to keep me fresh - and enthusiastic, so that you're NOT just ANOTHER bride. I come to your wedding keen and enthusiastic.
What do I do the rest of the year? Well, I'm MD and Principal Photographer of Aquilegia Photographic Limited, my own company with cleints in PR, Marketing and Live Music, and I have a personal passion for wedding photography, but my fear has always been that I would lose that passion.
I've come across sooo many wedding photographers over the last couple of decades who, when I ask how business is and how life if going, shock me and say: "I hate doing weddings ..."
That's because it's a production line .... scores and scores of weddings, sometimes a hundred or more and three weddings in a day using part-time photographers to fill in .....
I would hate that too.
After our initial meeting and you decide to go ahead with booking your wedding date, our next meeting will be the important - the pre-wedding portrait session. This usually takes place about 6-10 weeks before the wedding. We get to spend an hour or two at the beach, or at a country park or womewhere special to you.

Louise and Iain during their wedding at Jesmond Dene House Hotel - see my BLOG

Rhoanne's wedding at Headlam Hall

Gill's wedding at Bowes and Teesdale

Kerry's wedding at Tynemouth

Leila's at Sunderland Glass Centre

Bridesmaids are an integral part of your day - the younger, the cuter! These are at Bowes Museum at Gill's wedding

Weddings in County Durham

Kirstey's wedding at Wynyard Hall

Weddings in Cleveland / Teesside

Claire's wedding at Redworth Hall

Amy and Fraser don their cowboy boots and a stetson after jetting in from Calgary in Canada for their wedding at Ellingham Hall

Weddings in Northumberland

Anne's wedding at Redworth Hall

Pre-wedding portrait photography

Kerry and Paul on the beach at sunset in Tynemouth see my BLOG

Yes, you get a beautiful framed portrait from out time together, but the most important thing is that we get to spend an hour or more together, walking and chatting about your wedding, taking some photographs of the two of you interacting and having fun.
So, come your BIG day, we're NOT strangers, you know the way I work and that 95% of your photographs are going to be natural and spontaneous.
There's no surprises, I'm there for you as well as for your parents and you can just get on and have a fantastic wedding, confident that I will capture all the fun and the ambiance and the details so that when you come back from your honeymoon you have a wonderful, relaxed record of the biggest day of your life!
Ring me on my personal mobile 0778 7150966, Free Phone 0800 8047270 or send me an email (Please make sure you send any e-mail to two addresses please, to make sure I receive it ! dirk@aquilegiagroup.com and add this address too dirkvdw@gmail.com

DIRK VAN DER WERFF 2010

Kate and Chris enjoy the snow at Langley Castle during their wedding on New Year's Eve - see my BLOG

Leila and Lewis enjoy a late night stroll on the beach at Whitburn, Sunderland during their pre-wedding portrait session, their wedding is featured on my website HERE

Kelsey puts the finishing touches before her wedding at The Crab and Lobster near Thirsk

Kate's shoes for her wedding to Chris

	.... and some lovely weddings from previous years ....from Tontine Restaurant North Yorkshire, The Crab and Lobster near Thirsk, Crathorne Hall, Langley Castle, Redworth Hall, Guyzance Hall, Doxford Hall, Judges Country House Hotel, Slaley Hall, Close House Hotel, Tall Trees Yarm, Hardwick Hall, Dissington Hall, Rockliffe Hall Chillingham Castle and Beamish Hall

Jo & Jez at Crathorne

Tall Trees Yarm

Lucy at Matfen Hall

Lindsey at Dissington

	ALL WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHS © Dirk van der Werff. Images cannot be reproduced without permission. © 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Aquilegia Photographic Ltd / website by Dirk van der Werff