We realised we haven’t posted anything personal on here for quite some time so thought we would share a bit about the photos we got for our pre-wedding shoot at Sunderland Empire, one of our favourite theatres. We absolutely adore these photos by From The Smiths Photography and hope you like them too!
When planning our wedding we thought it would be a great idea to have the ‘order of service’ in a mock programme/playbill booklet that included a bit about our story, pictures of “The Cast” (our families and wedding party) and of course, some photos of us in a theatre! As Sunderland Empire is quite close to us and we have seen a lot of shows there, including our first show together, The Lion King, we decided it would be great to have the photos done there. We spoke to the team at Sunderland Empire (who are always so kind and accommodating) and had our besties Sarah-Jane and Simon (From The Smiths Photography) come along one mid-week afternoon after we both blagged some time off work.
We turned up on the windy afternoon, managed to get into the theatre in the wrong door and had people looking around for Pam who was hosting us. Once in the theatre we managed to get some time in the stalls and dress circle, with a chance to get some photos at stage door and outside the front of the theatre too. The building is incredible with such intricate designs around the structure, it was a real pleasure to be in there and felt really special to be in a place so close to our hearts.
We have done a few shoots with From The Smiths Photography which are always fun, this one being no exception. They made us feel so relaxed as we strolled down the aisles and sat in seats peering over our favourite programmes; their guidance to how we should stand, hold one another and look at each other felt really comfortable and totally natural. Those guys are so talented. They shoot weddings, couple shoots and even do mentoring sessions! Check out their info at the bottom of this blog post.
Unfortunately we weren’t able to get on the stage as there wasn’t anyone to supervise us to be above the pit. The theatre does do backstage tours some Saturdays though which look really fun and we can’t wait to return and have a full tour of the building. Just waiting until one of our favourite shows is in town to try and catch a glimpse of their set and any extra cool things!
After we got the photos back from SJ and Simon, we kept them secret from our wedding guests as we wanted to surprise everyone on the day with the programmes filled with happy memories. We created each page of the programme using Microsoft publisher (old school!), saved as a PDF we compiled a booklet online and got enough printed for our guests. This went down so well and people loved taking them as a keep-sake from the day. Look out for future blog posts about our wedding, there were quite a few musical moments we would love to share with you all! For now, have a browse through a selection of our favourite shots from the day.
Huge thanks to Sunderland Empire for having us, and as always mega thanks to our pals From The Smiths Photography (http://fromthesmithsphotography.co.uk/). You can follow them on Instagram too at @simon.fromthesmithsphotography and @sj.fromthesmithsphotography (they also have other side project accounts dedicated to food and home decor, @simonsays.eat and @homebythestation)
The Stagey Couple 