The Menagerie Lifestyle Photography
Bucket list
16th February 2020 by maryann in Uncategorised 0 Comments

There are just a few, ok, quite a few things I would love to tick off my photography bucket list, I'd love to photograph them, you'd love a ridiculous deal on them

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The Menagerie Lifestyle Photography
60s Sirens: A retro styled shoot
2nd November 2018 by maryann in Weddings 0 Comments

When Michelle Lacey (aka Bumblebee Bridal) put the word out that she wanted to do a Sixties inspired shoot I jumped at the chance. I’m more than happy to indulge in anything with a retro vibe, and collaborating with fellow creative, Essex-based wedding suppliers is always fun! Michelle, Lisa Alger (ie. the dream team of makeup and hair), Rock the Day (an awesome team of wedding stylists and prop creators) and I gathered together with dresses from Rock the Frock bridal boutique and hair pieces by PS With Love. We grabbed some of the best models around and headed to Rock the Day’s studio, in Braintree. I chose a yellow backdrop for the studio style images, to give a modern day twist to a typically sixties set up. We also utilised Rock the Day’s glorious velvet sofa, and their signature peacock chairs, too. Michelle & Lisa styled hair and makeup to be seriously sixties, and we ended up with an alternative Charlies Angels vibe, with a cinematic edit – and we all love it. It’s so rewarding to have a collective of wedding specialists who love to indulge their creative sides – especially when they’re in need of an alternative wedding […]

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The Menagerie Lifestyle Photography
Calligraphy, camera & chickens!

Earlier this year I worked on a branding shoot for Wonderland Invites, a multi-award winning stationer, who create rustic, boho paper loveliness, from invites to table plans. Headed up by Jenna, Wonderland Invites were getting ready to launch their brand new website and wanted brand new imagery to go with it! The purpose was to show off their work and to convey the brand’s style to potential customers. The shoot was styled by Rock the Day Styling, with furniture from Anthology Vintage Hire and florals by A Vintage Wedding. Jenna’s hair and make up artist was the lovely Lisa Alger. The location? Well, just my garden, its a privilige to live in such a lovely place and it certainly makes it easier when scouting for locations!  Aside from that wonderful team, we also had a couple of visitors stop by… Jenna designs all of the stationery and creates bespoke designs, too! I just love the dark and moody pallate that Jenna requested for this shoot, mixing modern and vintage with dappled light and lots of contrast. Just beautiful!  If you would like to see more of Wonderland Invites’ work, head over to their website, I can’t recommend her enough – www.wonderlandinvites.com And of course, if you would like to book your […]

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The Menagerie Lifestyle Photography
Orange overload
15th July 2018 by maryann in Weddings 0 Comments

I recently worked with Lucy Can’t Dance on a shoot for their new accessories range, and I love the results so much I wanted to share some shots with you! LCD create quirky, colourful wedding dresses for non-traditional brides. Dip dye is their thing and they love to let brides create exactly the dress they want, offering every colour of the rainbow for dip dye and letting brides mix and match aspects of their wonderful designs to create exactly the dress they want. LOVE. They have recently designed their own range of accessories and welcomed Miss L Fire shoes to the studio, too! All the head pieces in the shoot were designed by Lucy – who models in the shoot – and made by her own fair hands. LCD are all about fun, and their studio is, to put a frankly, mad. They have a tropical theme in the main studio, dinosaurs everywhere and their newly decorated fitting room is covered – COVERED – in orange fur.  With this kind of setting we could only go all in – so we went for house-party-aftermath, with a touch of Austin Powers. We shot the whole thing in the brand new orange shag pile haven – Austin […]

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The Menagerie Lifestyle Photography
Get your tatts out?
19th April 2018 by maryann in Weddings 0 Comments

Something brides often talk to me about is their tattoos. Many of us have them now days – some of us are proud of our body art and some of us are embarrassed by the dodgy Chinese proverb we got that time in Malaga. But even brides who are proud of their tattoos can be keen to cover them up – many couples want their wedding to be timeless; they don’t want to look back at photos and say “what were we thinking?!” My point of view is this: If you’re proud of your tatts, get them out. (Please note, I’m thinking of arms, backs, that kind of thing – I’m not suggesting you wear chaps to the altar to make sure everyone can see your favourite bum tattoo!) There’s always a chance that in a few decades you won’t agree with some of your style choices, but so what? You might fall out of love with your back tattoo, but you also might go off your dress, your flowers, your partner! (Just kidding!) It’s all part of the day and if you love it on the day, I will capture it for you. Because that’s the whole point of photography – to capture the moment, as it […]

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The Menagerie Lifestyle Photography
Ceri and Craig. Colchester, Essex.
7th September 2017 by maryann in Weddings 0 Comments

I recently had the privilege of not only meeting these two (pretty amazing) human beings, but also being their photographer and sharing their special day.  Ceri and Craig married at the beautiful Five Lakes Venue near Colchester, Essex and had an unusual outline for the day – they had their meal before the Ceremony meaning we were able to capture the merriment that normally post-dates the ceremony, but in their case carried on throughout the entire day.  For me, some of the most touching moments, well besides that of two lives joined, was of the children and their great-grandparents. There was more than one touching moment that brought a tear to my eye.  They also allowed me to bring along my film camera to capture some analogue images, which for me is special, the images I feel were the most beautiful of the entire day, it means a lot to me to be able to give the couples I photograph something that I have created by hand, the entire process from start to finish is a product of my making, reflecting the love between the people before me.  Ceri and Craig – Thank you so much for allowing me to be your […]

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