Wishing Francesca & David and their two gorgeous daughters very many congratulations on their wedding last Friday.

If you're looking to pair two stunning historic venues in Windsor, then you can't go far wrong with the Windsor Guildhall for your ceremony followed by a reception in the chapel at the De Vere Beaumont Estate. This lovely pair and most of their friends and family had travelled from up north to come to these two wonderful venues, and they weren't disappointed.

After a very touching ceremony, including a reading by their daughters, their guests enjoyed a drinks reception at the Guildhall whilst we headed to the Castle and Long Walk for photos. This was followed by more drinks on the lawn at Beaumont, then dinner and dancing the night away in the chapel. As a Windsor wedding photographer it's always a pleasure working at these two gorgeous venues!

As always a wonderful supplier team created an awesome day:
Ceremony & drinks reception venue: Windsor Guildhall
Ceremony: Royal Borough Registrars
Reception venue and accommodation: De Vere Beaumont Estate
Florist & event decor: Seventh Heaven
Dress: Maggie Sottero
Photography: Photography by Abi Moore
Videographer: CKS Productions
Bus: Berkshire's Big Red Bus Company
Cars: Christopher's Wedding Cars

What a joy photographing the wedding of childhood sweethearts Eleanor & Jonson yesterday!

It was a relaxed day filled with lots of love and laughter. The York Club looked stunning decorated by family and friends based on Eleanor's daisy theme, including hand-made decorations and flowers grown by Eleanor's grandmother.

As always, the Windsor Guildhall provided a beautiful backdrop for a lovely ceremony by the Royal Borough Registrars.

Eleanor looked absolutely stunning in an Alice Temperley dress from The Bridal Gallery in Windsor and a headpiece of daisies!

No one wants rain on their wedding day, but the showers cleared leaving us with dramatic skies and puddles for reflections.

Congratulations to you both - thank you for choosing me to capture your wedding day memories!

As well as all the hand-made touches, it was lovely working alongside the following wedding suppliers:

Ceremony & drinks reception venue: The Windsor Guildhall

Reception venue: The York Club

Wedding dress: Alice Temperley from The Bridal Gallery

Flowers: Sonning Flowers

Hair & makeup: Jennifer Fogerty

Photographer: Photography by Abi Moore

Videographer: Carlton Films

Entertainment: Jam Duo

Huge congrats to Jodie & Jeff whose wedding I photographed at The Royal Berkshire in Ascot on Saturday!

When you plan an outdoor ceremony in a walled garden then this is the kind of weather you dream of, sunshine with a warm breeze floating through. It was a lovely ceremony (as always) by Royal Borough Registrars

Followed by a drinks reception in the garden with ice cream and lawn games - can we take a moment to give respect to Jodie for bouncing on a spacehopper in her wedding dress and heels?!

Speeches were followed by a fun game of his and hers, and I left the guests dancing the night away with some choreographed moves to the Macarena, Oops Upside your Head, YMCA and the Time Warp!

Amazing to work alongside this lovely team of suppliers:

Photographer: Photography by Abi Moore

Venue: The Royal Berkshire

Ceremony: Royal Borough Registrars

Flowers & cake: Jeni's Cakes and Flowers

Lawn games & ice cream: Victoria's cart

To book me for your wedding photography, get in touch.

We live in a world dominated by social media, and if you're in business, it's more important than ever to show your face online - your customers and prospective employers want to know who you are.

Should you show your face on your profiles? It's a resounding yes!

Do you need a professional photo? Yes!

Do you need a studio headshot? Maybe not!

Lifestyle-based on-location images are becoming more popular than ever. For entrepreneurs, freelancers and individuals seeking career progression, there is a choice - is a studio portrait or a lifestyle image more appropriate? How will these two styles impact your professional image? And when is a longer personal branding shoot needed?

Headshot or brand photoshoot windsor berkshire 1Classic professional studio headshot photoshoot Windsor Berkshire 1. Studio Headshot: Classic Professionalism

The studio headshot has long been a staple in corporate circles, offering a clean, polished image that conveys professionalism and reliability. However, it is starting to feel more formal, particularly in an era when home-working and smart casual are becoming more common-place.

This style is ideal for situations where a formal, standardised appearance is crucial - particularly corporate websites where a number of individuals need consistency across images.

It's also important important to consider industry standards and expectations. Professions like law, finance, and executive roles often still demand the classic headshot to maintain a traditional and conservative image.

If you're expected to wear a suit and/or tie for your role, or it's going on a corporate website, then a studio headshot may be right for you.

Headshot or brand photoshoot windsor berkshire 2Lifestyle and location professional brand photoshoot 2. Lifestyle Photos: Letting Personality Shine

In contrast, lifestyle location photos have become increasingly popular, reflecting a shift towards a more personal and approachable brand image. These photos are taken in environments that resonate with the individual's personality and profession, whether it's a coffee shop, your working space, or even outdoors. Lifestyle location photos capture individuals in a more natural state, showcasing their personality, interests, and work style.

For entrepreneurs, creatives, and those in more dynamic industries, lifestyle photos can be a game-changer. It humanises the professional image, making you more relatable to potential clients, collaborators and employers. It's especially effective for those in creative and service-based fields, showcasing not only your skills but also your unique approach to work and life.

Headshot or brand photoshoot windsor berkshire 3A branding photoshoot gives you a variety to of images to improve your sales and marketing whether you're a coach, marketing consultant or own a business 3. Beyond the Headshot: Personal Branding Photoshoots

While a headshot (studio or lifestyle) has an important role, a longer personal branding photoshoot offers a more story-telling approach. This type of photoshoot goes beyond the constraints of a single image, allowing individuals to showcase various facets of their personality, work environment, and even hobbies.

If you run a business, you'll know that you need to be posting regularly to social media. A personal branding shoot gives you a variety of images that illustrate your personality and skills in your business. By showing up regularly with different images, your clients get to know, like and trust you, ultimately increasing your sales.

A personal branding shoot is essential for anyone wishing to establish a strong online presence and connect with their audience on a more personal level.

Conclusion: Choosing the Right Image for Career Success

So, how do you decide which is right for you? Ask yourself:

• do I need a single image or will I be posting regularly?
• does my industry have formal/professional expectations?
• would I like images that tell a story?
• how much of my personality and skills would I like to demonstrate?

While the classic studio headshot continues to have its place in certain professional spheres, a single lifestyle shot offers a fresh and relatable alternative. For a more comprehensive approach, a personal branding photoshoot gives you the flexibility to tell a story about yourself and your services and skills over time.

If you're still unsure which is right for you, then please book a free discovery call, I'd love to chat about your business and which is most suitable for you. Find out more about headshots and branding photoshoots here.

wedding photographer Windsor Berkshire Surrey 1 Perhaps you’ve been dreaming of your perfect wedding dress since you were a child, or maybe you’ve no idea which style would suit you best. Either way, when it comes to finding ‘the one’, there’s some key steps to consider to help take the stress away. As we approach busy engagement season, I've spoken to a panel experts to get their top tips on choosing a wedding dress that’s right for you.

1. Trust your bridal consultant
Scouring bridal magazines and online platforms and falling in love with a specific style of dress is a great starting point, but when you attend your bridal salon, trust the consultant. This means keeping an open mind if they suggest a different style, neckline or fabric than you had envisioned – you may find you absolutely adore it.

As professionals who help hundreds of brides find their perfect wedding dresses, bridal consultants know which dresses look best on people of various shapes and sizes. They’ll consider your skin tone, hair colour, unique body shape and personal style to help you find a dress that will take your breath away.

wedding photographer Windsor Berkshire Surrey 3 2. Shop true to size
Many brides vow to lose weight or tone up before their wedding days, but in reality only 18% manage to do so. Rather than adding another stressor to your wedding planning, trust that you look beautiful just as you are and resist the temptation to buy a dress that’s a size or two smaller than your regular size.

If living more healthily is a long-term goal, and you do change your body before the big day, you can always have your dress taken in. But bear in mind that it’s much harder to make a dress bigger – if in doubt, size up, not down.

wedding photographer Windsor Berkshire Surrey 2 3. Consider your venue
Depending on your venue, you may lean towards a particular style of dress for either practical or aesthetic reasons. For example, wearing a multi-layer princess dress if you’re tying the knot on a beach may leave you hot and uncomfortable. You should also consider whether you plan to wear your wedding dress for the entire day and reception, or if you’d like to change as evening falls.

Some dresses come with removable trains and overskirts, which make lovely options for brides who want a fairytale-esque dress for their ceremony but want to be able to dance freely come evening. Matching your venue to your dress will go a long way to ensuring your entire wedding look is utterly seamless.

wedding photographer Windsor Berkshire Surrey 5 4. Keep your theme in mind
Similarly, it’s wise to bear your overall wedding theme in mind when dress shopping. If you’re prioritising sustainability, why not look for a second-hand dress? With a few tweaks, vintage dresses can look stunning and you’ll be cutting the carbon footprint of your wedding down even further. You could also hire a wedding dress to save both cupboard space and money.

Again, considering how your dress ties in with your other decorative aspects is crucial. If you’re planning a casual, intimate wedding, you may be better looking for delicate lines and subtle lace dresses over glistening, diamante embellished ball gowns. On the other hand, if your formal and lavish wedding is pulling out all of the stops decoration wise, you need a show-stopping dress to match.

wedding photographer Windsor Berkshire Surrey 4 5. Don’t forget your budget
It’s no secret that new wedding dresses are expensive, so be sure to ask the right questions when it’s time to shop for yours. Discuss payment plans, alteration options, and accessory choices with your bridal consultant to ensure your chosen dress is not only perfect, but realistic too.

When first browsing and trying on dresses, it’s a good idea to start at the lower end of the price bracket. That way, you can work your way up if you haven’t found something suitable, but you may also walk away with a bargain.

6. Take your time
Whilst it can be equally exciting and stressful finding the perfect wedding dress, these top tips should help you get a head start on the most important things to keep in mind. Take your time and trust your instincts, as much like with your partner, when you find the right dress for you, you’ll know.

Add a comment to let me know how you chose your dress... what was the most important consideration? where did you find your dream dress? And if you're looking for your wedding photographer, I'd love to chat!

I recently got talking to the lovely Kirsten, Hypnobirthing specialist from Bumps & Beginnings. I asked her to share her top tips for staying calm during your pregnancy. These are great tips for any point in your pregnancy and will help keep you nice and calm in readiness for the ‘birth-day’.

It doesn't matter what type of birth you plan to have, you can use these Hypnobirthing tips at any point to remove stress, fear and ultimately make you feel much calmer about your pregnancy and upcoming birth. Here are Kirsten's top 5 tips...

Tip One: Start at the top - your mind!

bump maternity photographer windsor - birth tips 1Kirsten Verma, hypnobirthing teacher shares her top tips for calm during pregnancy and birth with maternity photgrapher Abi Moore Start by working on feeding that mindset all the positive affirmations that surround birth. You can find these online or buy your own set of birth affirmation cards.

“My body knows exactly what to do'' - these birth affirmations feed into the subconscious thoughts that surround labour and birth. Thoughts that we don't even know they are there.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of our media, and horror stories we’ve heard over the years our bodies have consciously been conditioned to fear birth by the dramatic nature that TV dramas have been edited (for example 'One Born Every Minute!').

So a lot of the ‘keeping calm’ during pregnancy comes from rewiring our thought process. When you feel thoughts like, ‘it’s going to hurt so much’ try to re-frame with ‘it might be intense, and painful, but it’s absolutely nothing I cannot deal with’.

Surprisingly enough birth is actually more of a mental thing rather than a physical thing. Still all the way through our labour we have to believe that it's possible, we can and we will give birth. No matter how you decide to give birth, working on your mindset will help you feel calmer during pregnancy and more empowered during labour.

Another thing that can help you is reading plenty of positive birth stories (of all different types) - you can find them very easily on podcasts, youtube and websites. Another one of the techniques that can help you feel super relaxed is listening to a self hypnosis audio. These work on just taking you to that sleepy space in your mind (totally relaxed!) nothing to do with hypnosis, but again helps remove that fear from the subconscious thoughts. I have a fair few of these, so feel free to email me if you want to try listening to one.

Tip Two: Breathing

A calm breathing technique enables you to completely relax. It may surprise you that once we master this technique we are likely to have all these benefits:

• Lowered the stress hormones in our body
• Make more rational decisions (especially in pregnancy and labour)
• Enable contractions to feel less painful, distraction
• More likely to have oxytocin present again, and remove adrenaline
• Helps relax your muscles, remember the uterus is just one big muscle (one that we need to be working effectively)!

This technique can be used during labour, pregnancy and actually just in everyday life! I often used it when I felt sleep deprived, and getting the buggy out of the car with a crying baby - it felt really hard some days!

If you fancy giving this one a try, I’ve created a 10 minute simple tutorial on my website.

bump maternity photographer windsor - birth tips 2Abi is an experienced maternity/pregnancy photographer based in Windsor Berkshire Tip three: Talk to your birth partner

• How are you feeling about birth?
• Do they know your fears?
• Have you discussed your birth plans? Have you written them down?
• What do you want from them?

Having that support network is going to be absolutely key in helping you address any potential stresses before you even give birth. These don’t have to be formal conversations, can you go for lunch? Go for a walk together? Be open with how you feel so that any niggles can be free from your mind. Once we’ve removed those niggles, labour is actually more likely to progress, start and move in the direction we want.

During my hypnobirthing courses we look at specific frameworks in order to support your birth partner so they know how to advocate for you during your birth and pregnancy. Once your birth partner is equipped with all the knowledge you’ll be able to feel much calmer, and again those fears of the birth partner being sat on the sideline like a lemon can be pushed to one side as they know how/what you want.

Also, I also always suggest to my clients, pack the hospital bag together so they know where everything is (another stress removed)!

Tip four: Make a plan for 40 weeks or more…

Unfortunately, there is not really such a thing as a ‘due date’ or a time when we know the baby will arrive (unless you are having a planned caesarean birth or induction) so consider making a plan for what you will do during this time. If you can remove any stresses away from the ‘40 week’ time period (for example lots of texts or calls about ‘is baby here yet!) this will also help you relax and enjoy those last few weeks or days with your bump.

Little walks, time together, cinema trips, lunch dates, or just making your favourite meals together. These things ultimately help you feel calmer, happier and realise the hormones that we want to kick start labour.

Tip five: Movement

We all know exercise is a strong form of calmness for our mental health. In fact, one doula in America works solely on training women for birth by using physical exercise. The midwives would attend her births knowing that they were always half the time of other births! She works on using an interval training method (a bit like a contraction) a period of work, followed by a period of rest. She encourages squatting, and allowing you to train for your birth.

Now, this is not me suggesting that you suddenly join the gym if you haven't exercised much before, but keeping active will also help move the baby into that optimal position, but fundamentally keep you really calm because you’ve got that body moving and helped removed any stress.

Thank you Kirsten for your top tips! Please add in the comments any tips you have for relaxing during pregnancy.

If you feel you want that gentle nudge in the right direction with HOW to relax, join Kirsten on Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm online, where she teaches pregnancy relaxation to all her mummies to be. And if you enjoyed reading the blog, she also runs group and 1:1 Hypnobirthing courses from a cosy home in Winkfield. Prices, course content and more info can be found at www.bumpsandbeginnings.com. You can also email Kirsten on [email protected] and find her on Instagram.

bump maternity photographer windsor - birth tips 3For your maternity photoshoot choose from a studio shoot or outdoor shoot. Other family members are encouraged to join your shoot.

Huge congrats to Laure & Rhys whose wedding I photographed at the weekend. I ask every couple to describe their wedding day in three words. Why? Because it helps me understand what's important about your day and what your photos should reflect. Laure & Rhys said these three words summed up their day: Franglais, friends and family. And it delivered on all fronts!

Their day was filled with love and laughter with their family and friends. Despite heavy rain during parts of the day, we managed to get to the Castle for photos both during the afternoon on the Long Walk and under a floodlit castle in the evening.

I've been photographing weddings for nearly a decade now and know how to handle rain (I have to say 2023 has been the wettest wedding season I've experienced!!). We'll be in touch in advance to agree contingency plans - this might be popping on wellies and bringing brollies and heading out in it, it might mean juggling timings on your day to ensure we get the shots you'd like during any dry spells, or it could be finding some indoor locations for your photos. The Windsor Guildhall is a great rainy day venue - not only are the interiors stunning, but you also have the pillared corn exchange when you exit, so you can be outside, but still undercover! If you're happy to head out in the rain, then investing in a clear umbrella that will look good in your photos is a good idea, something like this is perfect,

Back to Rhys & Laure's wedding day... they had a double cake cutting - the French side being a selection of cheese, and the British being an amazing cake made by Rhys's mum! Then they danced the night away to French jazz band Oh La La!. Wishing them both every happiness together!

Ceremony venue: Windsor Guildhall

Reception venue: Macdonald Hotel Windsor

Photography: Photography by Abi Moore

Flowers: Stems of Windsor

Band: Oh La La!

Cake of cheese: Pangbourne Cheese Shop

Wedding creche: Tinies

I had so much fun photographing Saturday’s wedding. It’s always lovely photographing weddings where I’ve watched a family grow. In this case, Amey & Liam are my lovely neighbours and I’ve photographed both their children as newborns. As soon as they were engaged, they got in touch and said 'we definitely want you to photograph our wedding'... before they had a date or a venue.

As it happens, their reception venue turned out to be the Berystede where I’ve been a recommended supplier for 8 years, so I know it very well. The ceremony was held at St Andrew’s Church, Clewer, which is on my doorstep, but I have never photographed a wedding there!

Their day was all the more fun due to several special touches, including a horse and carriage ride through Windsor to take photos with the Castle (as an aside, if you’re wondering where the best vantage points for Castle photos are, please get in touch for a chat, as there are various great options including this one!).

They also had surprise entertainment in the form of Takeaway Singer Ben, who arrived with a ‘Deliveroo’ for Amey’s dad - cue lots of surprised faces as he walked through the wedding breakfast asking them to point him out, then suddently broke into song.

It was a joy to photograph two people so very much in love, wishing them a very happy future together!

As always, behind every wedding there’s a great team:

Ceremony venue: St Andrew’s Church Clewer
Reception venue: The Macdonald Berystede, Ascot
Photography: Photography by Abi Moore
Venue dressing: AB Event Hire
Flowers: Louise’s Flower Boutique
Horse & carriage: The Ostler
Rolls Royce: London Travel Partners
Dress: Pronovias from Windsor and Eton Brides
Entertainment: Takeaway Singers
DJ: DJ Mista Mojo
Cake: Aurora's Kitchen
Toastmaster: Toastmaster John
Hair & Makeup: Go London