January - what a busy start to the year...

Well we've started 2011 as we finished 2010...very busy!

January saw the completion of the University Centre Blackburn College generic video...



...as well as Blackburn College 6th Form video.

I've also had a couple of days filming at Arla Foods in Settle ready for a video that I'm producing for them and then I teamed up with Graham Baldwin to put together a quote for a charity video for the Federation of Jewish Services in Manchester.

January also saw some more bookings for weddings in 2011 - so all in all it's been a great start to the year.

We've also moved across to an electronic diary having invested in an Apple Mac Pro and an iPad at the end of 2010. Must say I'm loving both...and have found it such a bonus being able to sync up all the calendars for the Mac, iPad and PC via Mobile Me...even to confirming appointments with clients when I add it straight into the iPad calendar. If I wasn't a gadget freak before I certainly am now...and yes Steve (Ashton Photography) I agree Macs are the best!

Julie has also been busy setting up a new Facebook page for our weddings (ABC Video Weddings) which is now separate from our corporate Facebook (ABC Video Facilities Ltd) page. Gradually over the coming months we will start to fill it up with snippets from the various weddings that we produced last year and also look forward to some of the ones in the diary for 2011. The corporate page we'll keep up to date with all the other work we do. So if you want to keep up to date with what we're up to then use the links in the side bar and follow us!

Leanne & Tom's Wedding Highlights...

Just had time to upload one of this years weddings to our Vimeo web site... It was filmed at the end of May on one of the few sunny days we had this year.

Leanne and Tom Wedding Highlights from ABC Video Facilities on Vimeo.

The service was held at Inglewhite Church followed by a reception at Stanley House.

Wedding Fair Reminder...Beeston Manor

Just a quick reminder that we will be at the Beeston Manor Wedding Fair on Sunday 20th September. The doors open at 11.00am with catwalk shows at 12.00noon and 2.00pm.



Why not come along and have a look around Beeston Manor and see for yourself the The Ribble Valley's newest venue for Weddings, Conferences and Events.

Built out of trees recycled from Beeston Wood, stone extracted from the Beeston Quarry, even the wardrobes in the bedrooms have been built from timber recycled from tumbledown farm buildings.

You can also chat to all the different exhibitors there and pick up one of our sample DVD's as well.

See you there...

Wedding Fayre dates for 2010...

We've just confirmed 3 more Wedding Fayre dates in the diary and these are at some quite exciting venues.

The first venue is Concorde which is now housed in its own hanger at Manchester Viewing Aviation Park.
In fact, not only will you get to visit the Wedding Fayre and Bridal Show, but you can also book to have your Wedding Service on Concorde itself, as it is now a licensed Wedding Venue. This is a truly spectacular venue for your Wedding Ceremony. For more details on this visit Manchester Airport Weddings. This is the first time that the venue will have held a Wedding Fayre and Bridal Show.

The Wedding Fayre will take place on

Saturday 6th March 2010, 11.00am - 5.00pm
and
Sunday 7th March 2010, 11.00am - 4.00pm

The 3rd date is at The new Hilton Hotel in Liverpool 1 which looks to be another exciting venue for weddings. That Wedding Fayre is set to take place on
Sunday 28th March 2010
12noon - 4.00pm

We hope to see you there...

Wedding Fayres in the North West...

'Tis that time of year again, as the evenings start to draw in but we're not quite ready to think about Christmas, that we spend our evenings and Sundays exhibiting at various wedding fayres throughout the North West.

So, why not come and have a chat to us about your wedding, have a look at our wedding films demo disc and even take a sample DVD home with you to view at your leisure?

We look forward to seeing you at one (or all) of the following...

Sunday, 13th September 2009
Thornton Hall Hotel & Spa Wedding Fayre
12.00noon 4.00pm

Wednesday, 16th September 2009
Garstang Golf & Country Club Wedding Fayre
6.30pm – 9.30pm

Sunday, 20th September 2009
Beeston Manor Wedding Fayre
11.00am – 4.00pm

Sunday, 11th October 2009
Farington Lodge Hotel Wedding Fayre
11.00am – 4.00pm

Sunday, 18th October 2009
Arley Hall & Gardens Wedding Fayre
11.00am – 3.00pm

Two great weddings...

Friday 31st July 2009 was the date for Nicola & Glen's wedding at St Mary's in Chorley followed by a reception at Farington Lodge. How lucky were we with the weather? The rain stayed away until everyone was sat down for the wedding breakfast...phew! After the last couple of months that in itself is a miracle...

Here's a few pics Julie took on the day...



The little flower girl twirling in her dress...doesn't she look gorgeous!





Then yesterday, we where at St Andrew's in Longton followed by a reception at Bartle Hall for Nicole and Chris. And what can I say about the weather...hooray...finally a proper summers day!

They had gambled on the weather by having a horse and carriage...but it was worth it as it really looked fantastic. I don't think I've seen a pair of horses quite so good looking as those pulling the carriage yesterday. So that topped with the lovely colours of the dresses and the fine weather...it really set the scene for a beautiful occasion. I've shot some fantastic footage and what a treat at the reception. We had been told that they were going to put some food on for us but little did we know we were actually having the full wedding breakfast! It was hard work carrying on with the filming afterwards.

Waxworks, Blackpool and other work...

Today was spent filming at the Louis Tussuad's Waxworks in Blackpool. We are putting together a short video which will also contain some footage that we shot last year of Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Ricky Hatton modeling for their wax works.

Earlier in the week we spent some time editing a short DVD for Beaverbrooks and also catching up on lots of little jobs that had come in. These included transferring telecine to DVD, DVD duplication, that sort of thing. It's actually taken a couple of days to catch up on them - it's surprising the time they take.

As well as that we have been adding some more content to the website and hope to have some additional pages up on that next week. We've introduced a couple of additional covers for our wedding packages. The Essentials (as named by Steph Ashton) which is our budget cover coming in at £695 and also our Premier Plus at £1450 which has lots of extras in it such as a video diary room. The idea being that we want to be able to provide a variety of packages to cater for the differing requirements of our customers.

In addition to that we have had a few sleepless nights...as our new cat, Trinny, seems to have her body clock in reverse. She has been sleeping all day and comes alive at night - running round, bouncing on and off the bed etc... As much as I love her running about, I need my beauty sleep and have decided she'll have to 'rough it' in the kitchen tonight!

A hectic couple of weeks...

I've finally managed to find a bit of time to blog. It's been a really busy couple of weeks...

We filmed the wedding of Leanne and Tom back on the 29th May - that wonderful weekend of sunshine!

The wedding took place a Inglewhite Congregational Church (how small is that!) followed by a reception at Stanley House. Inglewhite has to be the smallest church that I've filmed in for many years and it would have to have been, one of the hottest days of the year so far! That said though, I did manage to get some fantastic footage and Leanne and Tom made a really lovely couple.

The first photo is of Leanne walking into church with her Mum. I'd already gone in to get set up at the front. Julie was able to snap this, as she had to wait until everyone was inside before she could set up to film from the doorway with our second camera...space was so limited.


Leanne and Tom coming out of church into the sunshine after the ceremony looking absolutely radiant.



The dress code for the day was actually black tie (although I hadn't been specifically asked to conform, I did partake, as I would much rather blend in, than stand out!)...however, I must confess to not actually putting my bow tie on...I was just too hot!



It really was a lovely wedding and you could tell that Leanne and Tom were really happy...it will make for a fantastic DVD!



The last couple of photos Julie has taken are at Stanley House. I am quite taken with this venue, especially now that the grounds have started to mature...and on a beautiful day, it's another world...


Leanne doing a quick twirl for the cameras. The photographers on the day were Caroline Holden and her husband. It was lovely to see Caroline again and work with her on such a great wedding.


And finally, one more snap of just Leanne and Tom...I can't wait to edit this wedding with all the wonderful footage that I filmed...watch this space!


After having had such a wonderful day on the Friday we did come down to earth with a bit of a bump on the Saturday, as our dog Tess became very poorly. I have to say a big thank you to the wonderful vets and nurses at Hillcrest Animal Hospital for getting Tess back on her feet again, literally (we had to rush her in to the hospital at about 9pm on Saturday night as her temperature was sky high (41 degrees +). We spent a tense night at home waiting for news and thankfully the vet rang us first thing Sunday to say she was able to stand again and that they had her temperature under control. We're still not sure what caused it, but the most likely thing was some sort of flu virus. Still, she has bounced back and is her normal self again, thankfully.

After such a scare, we decided that we would get another cat. Ebony, our other cat had sadly passed away just after Easter and Tess has been missing him.

So, we decided to take the plunge and get another one...her name is Trinny and she is a British Short Haired Lilac Torte. She's very shy at the moment and finding it hard to get used to our busy family...but she's getting there, although I don't think she has ever seen a dog before so Tess has come as a bit of a shock.

and another one...

This clip is taken from Suzanne & Ben's wedding DVD and was filmed at Blundellsands United Reform Church followed by a reception at Rufford Old Hall.

Suzanne & Ben Wedding Highlights from ABC Video Facilities on Vimeo.

Just added some more video clips...

...onto our Vimeo site. These are taken from some of last years weddings...finally managed to find the time to get them onto Vimeo!

Sharon and Nick at the beautiful Ashton Memorial in Lancaster and then onto the reception at Stanley House

Sharon & Nicholas Wedding Montage from ABC Video Facilities on Vimeo.

...and then Claire and Chris at St Stephen's Church, Banks followed by a reception at the beautiful Meols Hall

Clare & Chris Highlights Sequence from ABC Video Facilities on Vimeo.

We will actually be at Meols Hall on Wednesday 1st July for their wedding fair evening. The doors open at 6.30pm. I'll be posting some more details nearer the time but in the meantime you can visit the Meols Hall website here.

Just some of the positions you can get in to...

...when filming a wedding!

Saturday was Sarah and Dave's wedding day and the service was held at St Mary's Church in Penwortham. As usual we were made to feel most welcome by the vicar, Chris Nelson. The weather was dry although slightly overcast but everyone breathed a sigh of relief that the rain held off...especially after some of the downpours we have had these last few weeks.


Whilst filming though, I was spotted (by Julie with camera!) lurking amongst the bushes...




...and then crouching on the floor.




However, I did take up some of the more usual positions as well... although it seems Julie managed to get herself amongst the bushes for this one!

The most precarious positions though where at Barton Grange Hotel which is where Sarah and Dave had their reception...


to begin with I climbed on the wall as one of the cars drew up...





and then a bit later climbed onto the roof (with camera) to get the group photo being taken. All was going well until Rob (from Barton Grange) decided to sneak up behind me...

...to say I jumped would be an understatement! You'll notice on the photo though that Rob has made a hasty retreat...I wonder why!


That said however, Rob and Tom did look after us (as always) and kept me informed on what was happening when...which is much appreciated, as it makes my job a bit easier.

The final shot Julie managed to squeeze in was of Rob 'striking the gong' to get everyones attention...if you are thinking of booking Barton Grange then I would highly recommend that you book Rob as well as he really does make the day proceed smoothly. On the day though, he did rib Tom as he had just managed to get himself (at great expense!) some tickets to watch Burnley play Shefield United in the playoffs at Wembley...given that a lot of the guests were Wolves fans, this was found to be quite amusing. Although, I guess in the end Tom has had the last laugh, given that Burnley won and gained promotion...even managed to do me out of a job! I had been booked not once, but twice in anticipation of Shefield winning to go and provide a camera feed for their celebrations...they perhaps should have learnt the first time round...not to jump the gun. Oh well, there is always next year!