All Amy and Grant’s wedding plans nearly ground to a halt with a massive snowfall the evening before.

Photographer Guy Collier, who shot their big day, says, “Things were a bit touch and go the night before, but we made it in the end. They’re a great couple and we had great fun.”

The chilly weather bomb made for some great bridal photos. Here’s their 14×10 album…

To see more images from Amy and Grant’s wedding, check out Guy’s blog.

Cheers, Nigel

This week’s feature album comes from French photographer Mathilde Magne who captured Barbara and Ludovic’s big day.

Mathilde shares the couple’s love story explaining, “Barbara and Ludovic first fell in love at the age of nine before moving away from each other. After 21 years apart, they met again several years ago and both felt like nothing had ever changed between them. They married on 25 June 2010.”

This is their 18×10 Duo album complete with matching 7-inch copy…

Click here to view Barbara and Ludovic’s entire album.

Cheers, Nigel

Three weeks after first meeting, Hollie and Richard had chosen the ring. Nineteen months later, on 13 February 2010, they married.

Binky Nixon photographed their UK wedding at St Mary the Virigin Stotfold church followed by a reception at Wrest Park, Silsoe. A traditional but personal affair.

They’re now expecting their first baby and have Binky lined up for a pregnancy shoot in a few months.

This is their 14×10 Duo album . Enjoy…

Click here to view a slideshow of Hollie and Richard’s album.

To view more of Binky’s work check out her blog.

Cheers, Nigel

PS Binky tells us Hollie recommended her to one of her bridesmaids, Anne, however she was a little over their budget. Hollie pleaded with Anne to go and see Binky’s albums and after an appointment, ended up booking with her. The simple power of a beautiful sample album

UK photographer Simon Whitten of Firehorse Photography shot Emma and Ben’s wedding in the heart of winter on 9 January, 2010.

Simon says, “This was my fourth wedding in a row this winter with snow on the ground, but it didn’t stop us spending 20 minutes shooting the couple in the ruins of the neighbouring Bolton Priory… complete with Emma’s grandmother’s fur coat.”

They married at the New Life Church in Bradford, Yorkshire followed by their reception at The Devonshire Arms in the Yorkshire Dales.

To view more of Simon’s work check out his blog.

Cheers, Nigel

This week’s featured album comes from one of our neighbours across the ditch – Leah Kua in Australia.

Rebecca and Steve married in early August last year and Leah took them out the day after their wedding to specifically concentrate on portraits of the two of them and showcase Rebecca’s dress.

Leah used their ‘day after’ session as the basis for her latest studio sample album set – an 18×10 feature album accompanied by both a 7-inch and 5-inch copy album.

Enjoy!

To view a slideshow of Rebecca and Steve’s album click here.

To view more of Leah’s work check out her blog here.

Cheers, Nigel

Like many good things, and all great albums, Musée begins with a story.

In fact it begins with three stories, and the real magic is how they weave together…

The first begins several years ago with a traveller on a bus in Spain, who strikes up a conversation with the woman sitting next to him. They like each other enough to introduce themselves.

He’s a wedding photographer from the far side of the world, in Spain on a scholarship.

She’s a paper conservator living in England, home to visit her family in Barcelona – and as it turns out, later, in love.

The photographer and the conservator like each other enough to swap email addresses … and that’s it.

Until one day five years later the photographer gets an email.

Virginia is to marry Richard, her Irish lover, in the Salo de Cent in Barcelona, and she wants him to photograph the event.

Every fibre in the photographer’s being wants to do this. The serendipity, the connection, Spain, the opportunity to shoot in a magnificent space.

He and his wife Jo travel to Barcelona, shoot the wedding, assemble a magical collection of images … and the photographer wonders what to do with them.

§

But Johannes is not just an artist and storyteller, he’s also competitive. How to create something original to do justice to the Barcelona images is one thing, but another challenge is gnawing at him…

For the last two years he’s won the New Zealand Wedding Album of the Year award, and he wants to win again. He knows how good his colleagues are … he knows he’ll use Virginia and Richard’s Barcelona images … but … is that enough?

He picks up the phone and calls a friend.

Can you make me a very special album, he asks her?

I want something small and jewel-like, he says. I want it to feel precious and intimate, like the memories it contains. He cups his hands as he speaks … not that she can see … like those photos of the father holding his newborn.

I want it to be of leather. I want it to have that feeling of authority that the family Bible has.

I’d like it if the leather had laughter lines, like an old couch, as if it had absorbed the wisdom and memories and conversations of the people who had sat in it…

Is that possible?

§

Conversations like this can be very awkward because they can so easily lead nowhere…

You’re not a sole craftsman, you’re creative director … so many demands. How much can you give to other people’s dreams? Do you really understand what’s in the other person’s head? Will they like what evolves in yours?

Can you even get the materials to realise their ideas?

But in this case Heather knew exactly what she would do.

She was already dreaming of a new album.

Strange perhaps that people can dream of albums, but really, no stranger than people who dream of wedding photography.

For years Queensberry had been building a system for designing beautiful custom albums, but now she wanted to do something that took her to a new level, something that took her back to her artisan roots.

She and her design team were already at work on a concept.

In fact Johannes’ album sounded like their album … and how fortunate to have his photographs for it.

She even had the brown vegetable tanned leathers in the studio. She’d bought them for her dream, but she knew they would age to fulfil his.

With a feeling of certainty she made the book and sent it to him just in time for the judging.

I saw it just before it shipped, and I was much less certain than Heather. Not because of the book – I thought the photography and the setting and the binding were beautiful – but because I did not know whether this was Johannes’ dream…

§

But he loved it. He won.

He photographed the album, unfolding the elements to get to those intimate pages and the memories they will keep for generations. Then he made a slide show and set it to a song I thought was perfect.

We showed it to a few audiences, who loved it, and the tactile experience of the actual album, and I could tell Heather it was a success.

Virginia loved it too. Of course she did. She loved the images, but art and paper are her profession, as they are Richard’s – they’re both conservators, he at the Victoria and Albert, she at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich – and she adored how they were presented.

§

The postscript is another story, and as I write I don’t know how it ends…

Gino, one of our account managers, was talking to a Manhattan photographer whose work we’d featured on our new website.

You know my clients, he said. They want the very best, and they can afford it. I need something very special for them. What can you do?

When Gino called Heather about the conversation she was in the process of designing a second album, black this time. She wanted to fill it with beautiful black and white photography and she felt she’d found the perfect images … In fact she had the Manhattan photographer’s images on her screen when Gino called.

It was such serendipity that she called me in disbelief.

She doesn’t know whether Christian will like the album yet because he hasn’t seen it … but we think it looks stunning, and we hope he will.

Best wishes, Ian

First published on Queensberry Connects, 4 March 2010.

Postscript: We finally did catch up with Christian, and he loved the album. And Johannes’ album of Virginia and Richard’s wedding won at WPPI.

Thank you for reading the Musée story. Check out the photographs on our website.

Fiona and Joey’s Valentines day wedding was shot by Gino Demeer of Cactus Photography earlier this year at Woodlands Homestead in Gordonton, New Zealand.

Gino designed this 14×10 Duo and added a 7-inch copy album to complete the set for the couple. He also had another set made to for his own client sample collection. Carry case and all.

Here’s a few shots of his Graphite Leather album…

Click here to view a slideshow of Fiona and Joey’s wedding album.

To see more of Gino’s work check out his blog here.

Cheers, Nigel

Meet one of Justine Ungaro‘s brand new client albums – a Mint green Queensberry Duo she shot and designed for clients Kristan and Steve.

Justine met Steve while scouting for bands for her own wedding. He played in the band she eventually hired, and he booked her as his and Kristan’s wedding photographer.

Justine says, “We each had a real vested interest in the overall success of each other’s weddings. It’s been a pretty special relationship ever since.”

Kristan and Steve married on 30 May 2009 and when their album arrived, wrote to Justine to say…

“We totally love this album! The photos look absolutely stunning and the layout and design really tell the story of the day.  We love that it’s not like any other wedding album we’ve ever seen, and we’re really happy that we had the option of the Duo album.”

Justine’s been using Queensberry albums since she got into the photography business back in 2003 and says, “The craftsmanship of these babies is just unparalleled in this business as far as I’m concerned, and the printing is exquisite.”

Take a peek at Justine’s blog to view more of her work.

Cheers, Nigel

Several weeks ago, engaged couple Janet and Chip hit the streets of New York and the Museum of Natural History with their photographer Parris Whittingham for a pre-wedding engagement session.

After seeing their proofs of the shoot, the couple decided to commission two 9×9 matted albums as wedding gifts for their parents.

Parris says, “With the support of Queensberry, we were able to custom design and receive these exquisite parent albums in record time…”

Our congratulations and best wishes to Janet and Chip as they wed this weekend – 8 May, 2010.

To view a slideshow of Janet and Chip’s album click here.

Cheers, Nigel

New Zealand photographer Sharisse Eberlein shot Jessica and Tavita’s Martinborough wedding in the spring of 2009.

The ceremony was held at the Riesling Retreat vineyards and followed by a reception at the local Martinborough Town Hall.

Here’s a snippet of their Ivory leather Duo album we spotted on Sharisse’s blog…

To view a slideshow of Jessica and Tavita’s album click here.

Cheers, Nigel