If you are getting married in Egypt, I’d be very happy to go back there again, wherever the location… See our international wedding page here.

This wedding hair and make-up specialist shop in El Minya, Egypt was a hive of activity when I arrived around 4pm to start cover of Afram and Mona’s wedding. One Muslim bride was almost ready to head off for her wedding and Mona was lying in a chair, her beautiful white wedding dress covered with a purple plastic apron. Mona’s hairdresser was busy plucking her eyebrows, thickly adding strong dark lines to make them really stand out. He then proceeded to add layers of lilac and sparkling white to her eyelids in a powerful pattern, before painting several matching pinky lilac layers on her lips.

Then another guy starts work styling the brides hair, using doubly hooked bent hairpins, black hair nets and a very hot set of curling tongs that have been heated on a one of the gas flames set on the bench – just like using a Bunsen burner at school!

After wandering round Cairo taking photos of interesting people and places – including a camel ride round the pyramids in Giza – my journey to Afram & Mona’s wedding takes me by train from Cairo to El Minya. Tickets sell out in advance but I was lucky to be rescued by a student from Sinai who happened to be studying at the university in El Minya itself so despite being told that there were no tickets at all, we boarded the second best train in First Class, claimed 2 seats and paid on the train itself!

Despite extremely dirty rain windows managed to get a few nice pics of the palm-lined little river that kept us company throughout alongside the train tracks.

I’m sitting in a top floor restaurant-bar with glass walls on 3 sides, looking out over the river Nile at night.It could almost be any river at night with a string of roadside amber lights reflecting into the water at regular intervals, but for the constant hum of traffic and manic horn-tooting as the drivers weave in and out precariously – clumsy as feet with shoes on in the shifting sand beneath them. Its cooler up here as my single room faces the untidy jumble of services into a tiny square of internal fresh air that seems to come only from a Mummy’s tomb.

Mona & Afram actually just did their civil ceremony tonight (while I sat in their family home doing emails!) – the paperwork only for their wedding really – without anyone there and dressed in jeans, but tomorrow have their Henna party, so the wedding celebrations proper start to get underway then, with their Orthodox Church wedding the day after, at 8pm.I’ll be covering it all, from start to finish, so that will be exciting!

View of River Nile from top of King Akhenaton Hotel in El Minya

Morning dawns to reveal the Nile in a totally different light: a hazy fat line split in the middle with a mile long island, complete with cows grazing and a little lake within itself too.The opposite side has a narrow fertile strip filled with banana trees and the odd palm, above which rise well-eroded mountain rocks in faded pink and blue hues.

Egyptian breakfast of soup of chewy brown beans, tomatoes, cucumber, cold potatoes mashed with fresh parsley, cheeses soft and hard, (had to pass on the boiled egg, bread, jam and spreading cheese and cold meat) and the ever present Egyptian tea will keep even the neediest body going all day.Time to wander around and explore, before the henna party gets going late this afternoon

See pics from that wedding here: http://weddingphotos-video.co.uk/blog/?p=535

If you are getting married anywhere in Egypt and would love to have your person UK-based wedding photographer who understands multicultural weddings and has 13 years experience as a wedding photographer – 6 as an international wedding photographer – then contact Elaine!  Visit our international wedding page too for more ideas on exotic weddings abroad.

The ferry crossing from Holyhead to Dublin sent our wedding photographer Julie crashing to her knees, skidding across the spray-sloshed deck like a rag doll, but in the end she made it safely down below: I had to stay on deck though, as didn’t want to waste the recent picnic by regurgitating it for the seagulls!

   Our first impressions of Ireland are happy ones, despite the driving rain, as we passed roadside stalls selling strawberries  and potatoes, 

discovered a home from home B&B – Hillside House in Gorey, County Wexford – and found everyone so friendly along the way.

View from Hillside  House B& B which is highly recommended by Reel Life Photos for service and location!

This dog seemed quite at home in his owner’s cab,

Love the colourful shops and houses – so full of personality! 

Its the Strawberry Festival this weekend in Enniscorthy so the wedding in the afternoon will be sharing the celebrations with all the strawberry lovers!

 We rounded off our first full day in Southern Ireland listening  and recording live music of a girl band singing and playing as a quartet at the delightful bar and reastaurant  the BANK in Gorey.

To all our brides and grooms looking for a wedding photographer or combined wedding and High Definition video team: hope you enjoy browsing this blog! We’ve got a wedding next week in Southern Ireland, so may be a bit slow to reply to any info requests. If urgent – try our mobile 07990 867058. xx Elaine, Jorge & Julie

  The quality of the experience sometimes outweighs the need be profitable every week, so last year Reel Life Photos started accepting International wedding bookings, the first of which was a wedding in the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden http://weddingphotos-video.co.uk/blog/?p=182  where indoor temperatures are a static minus 5 degrees Centigrade.

    At the opposite end of the scale, this was followed by a wedding in Tenerife http://weddingphotos-video.co.uk/blog/?p=24   and here http://89.200.138.14/~weddingp/online/verifycus.php?shoot_id=841 where the sun shone brightly, adding romance to the sunset wedding pictures. 

   In March this year we had a fabulous location 10,000 miles away – in Jacob’s Creek Retreat in the Barossa valley, Australia – http://weddingphotos-video.co.uk/blog/?p=248 .  We did of course tag on a holiday! 

  This month (May) our overseas wedding was in the Loire valley France http://weddingphotos-video.co.uk/blog/?p=286 and http://89.200.138.14/~weddingp/online/verifycus.php?shoot_id=887/view.php?flag=view§ion_id=1045 

Our next overseas wedding is on 28 June – in Southern Ireland.  That one is going to be particularly exciting as it’s the first of 3 wedding days – for the same couple –  as they are having the Catholic church wedding in St. Aidans Cathedral in Enniscorthy followed by the reception at Amber Springs Hotel In Gorey, Wexford, then the following week its back to the UK for a civil wedding at Luton Hoo, in Bedfordshire, followed by the final wedding ceremony the week after – a traditional Hindu wedding – in a marquee in St. Albans!  Phew!

The day was one of the nicest days all week.  While the bride and bridesmaids were out getting their hair done, I busied about taking behind-the-scenes shots and  making the most the the beautiful morning light.

If you are getting married in France, or anywhere abroad, please visit our international wedding page on our site

Well, my stay in Australia is nearly over. Lisa and Andy have their wedding pictures, and I have feasted my eyes on the most amazing trees and plants as well as been fortunate enough to have met with loads of wonderful people on my first ever visit to Australia. I will add more blogs later showing snippets of my eye-feasts but though it more important to share some of their wedding photos here.

If you are getting married abroad  – in Australia or anywhere in the world – Elaine travels oversees for lovely people’s weddings, unusual wedding photography and video, so get in touch via our site or call Elaine on +447990867058

  Not wishing to use this blog as a “me” space, but rather as a means of communicating a personal vision through the eyes of a camera, I hesitate to make grand announcements, but as we are keen to cover weddings in any part of the world with brides and grooms who have depth and a caring attitude to the people they meet in life, then I suppose it won’t hurt to share my excitement with the world!

I hope to upload snippets from the visit to Australia but may not be as quick as usual in responding to emails or phone calls, as your day will be my night!  Am stepping out into the unknown – for me anyway – but a beautiful couple in Jacob’s Creek (near Adelaide) have entrusted me with their wedding photos on 15 March,  so  two nights on a huge huge plane is a small price to pay for the experience!  I do get a day walking round Hong Kong between flights so my eyes will be flitting from one peak of excitement to another! 

We also have my first ever wedding in Ireland booked for the end of June –  a Catholic ceremony followed by a traditional Hindu wedding –  and yesterday had an enquiry from a lovely couple for their wedding in Ice Hotel in Jukklasjarvi,  Sweden, where I covered Colin and Sarah’s wedding about the same time last year too. 

Got a lot of work to do before I go though…

 xx Elaine