Roland Turner

Happy New Lockdown!

on January 26, 2021January 27, 2021 By Roland Turner

Happy New Year!

You have to feel sorry for 2020, it was that promising year which was totally screwed over and dismissed by most of the world, the abandoned child of our Gregorian calendar.
Our 2020 was quiet but not one we want to forget and not just for the bad things…

Christmas was probably the quietest we have ever experienced…

With no end in sight at the moment, our wedding work is a little unclear for the short term. Enquiries are still very strong but we, just like everyone in our industry are starting to feel that weddings may not happen until later this year. Nervous couples are now wanting to change their dates WAAAYYY out of reach from the Pandemic this time, one recently asked for 2024!
Being self-employed, we have had to adjust and rethink our strategy for 2020/21. We’ve managed to keep relatively busy since June last year whilst working with our wedding clients to rearrange their celebrations, some we lost on the way unfortunately and we will probably lose a few more in the next 6 months but we are still keeping positive.

2020 (as cheesy as this sounds) was a massive year of reflection, we found out what was important to us as a family and business, we learned to slow down, not worry too much and most importantly, enjoy our time together. We were a wedding client once, we’ve been through the 7-year itch and like most, we’ve been locked inside with each other for nearly 12 months,
we’ll be OK 🙂

If any of our Brides & Grooms need any assistance during these weird and silly times, please don’t be afraid to reach out. We are really looking forward to a time when we can share the Happy Days with our clients but for now, thanks for reading

R&L x

Abbey + James: The Pre-Lockdown Wedding

on November 9, 2020November 9, 2020 By Roland Turner

Like most couples who were looking forward to 2020, Abbey & James have felt the pain of trying to organise and look forward to celebrating their wedding day. With only a few days notice that ‘Our Glorious Leader’ gave us before a second Lockdown, the future Mrs Mercer contacted all her suppliers and BANG!!!

The wedding day arrived…

Congratulations to you both, what a lovely ceremony. We can’t wait to spend ‘THE BIGGER DAY’ next year with all your friends and family there for One Mahoosive Party X

What to do when our ‘Glorious Leader’ stops us from working!

on September 26, 2020January 27, 2021 By Roland Turner

We don’t consider ourselves overly political, the above title is not a cheap shot at Boris and his gang, it’s simply a question we asked ourselves as weddings have been cleared from now until – (please insert date when we have a better idea).
We have been lucky enough to secure video work outside of the wedding industry. Commercial videography accounted for a smaller percentage of our yearly income but now it has bumped its way up to the top for the foreseeable future, but there is still a big gap in our lives. Usually we would be deep into the summer edits, late nights in front of the monitor, no social life and eventually taking a holiday later on in the year just to get away and absorb a little Vitamin D. With all this free time and the fact that our holiday had to be cancelled, we decided toooooooooooooooo…

BUILD A CAMPER VAN

We are big fans of StayCations, some of our best trips have taken place in Good Old Blighty and after spending months in Isolation, we are ready to get out into the world.

Boris has told us that we have another 6 months of this to come, we are not sure what is going to happen in regards to us filming weddings, the dates for all our weddings from now until February have all been moved or cancelled,

are we gonna moan? NOPE!!!
Are we gonna get out and enjoy ourselves? HELL YES!

Thanks for watching, Ro & Lisa x

Getting back to work after LOCKDOWN

on July 27, 2020July 27, 2020 By Roland Turner

At the beginning of June when the restrictions started to slightly lift, we decided to reach out to previous clients we use for our commercial side of the videography business at RTP Creative.

As of writing this (27/08/20) our next wedding so far is not until October, but, as we have come to expect since all of this kicked off and dominated our lives, things change very quickly. We know a many wedding suppliers that still think marriages will not happen this year and we can understand their concerns as there has been no official updates for the wedding sector.

For now, we are happy to be enjoying a 9-5 working week until weddings start again, who knows what our first one will look like. Will gloves and masks be the standard look in our footage? Will smaller parties make it easier for us to film?. Whatever happens we will just be glad to get back to what we love and do best.

Our time in Isolation: Part 2

on April 14, 2020September 26, 2020 By Roland Turner

We are into our 4th week of LOCKDOWN at home, luckily the weather has been good enough that we can sit out in the garden and sort of convince ourselves that this is a holiday (as much as that is possible with all the daily updates from this virus).

We have a fairly strict routine of…
Walk the dog – (a huge empty field for us), eat Breakfast, work out (homemade gym), sit in the garden (if weather permits), deal with any work emails (luckily the wedding cancellation/postponements have died down for now but we expect another round soon), make a few video calls to catch up with the outside world, maybe a bit of TV or a Film and finish the day off with supper and bed, THATS IT!
After 5 weeks of this, boredom has started to creep in a little so this week we have both decided to take up an instrument, god help the neighbours. We are not sure how long we’ll keep this up, as long as we are kept in doors to be honest so we’d like to make an appeal to Bojo, Mr Trump, W.H.O and anyone else who is working hard to fight Coronavirus, DOUBLE YOUR EFFORTS or we may get to a point when we unleash our musical abilities to the world and no one wants that.

Its not all Doom & Gloom though, i think we can all agree that there are many great things that have come out of this pandemic. Community spirit has gone in to overdrive, the amount of online chats, quiz nights, help groups, virtual bars, live entertainment streams we have witnessed over the past few weeks has been incredible. The NHS Thursday night claps have put our amazing national service to the front of our thoughts and hearts. Boredom inspires people to create or try something new whether it is a short TikTok dance with your family, creating works of art in your kitchen or simply learning a new craft. Once this is all over a great number of people will come out of this with a new outlook and set of skills which they would never have dreamed of without being forced to STAY AT HOME and take a break from their lives for a short while so make the most of this time we have.

Anyway, its Dog walking time now so we’d better leave this here for now, STAY SAFE EVERYONE X

Elisa & Aaron: Weddings at Middleton Lodge

on April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 By Roland Turner

Just on the cusp of ‘You Know What’, Elisa & Aaron celebrated their beautiful wedding and what an amazing day it was.

We started off early at Middleton Lodge and although she had a few nerves on our arrival, the BONKERS BRIDESMAIDS managed to keep Elisa calm all the way through the bridal prep’s with Kathryn Farington MUA and Elisa Grace Hair working their magic. Aaron arrived with the boys to finish off the last parts to his speech and share a few drinks before setting off to the church to await his bride’s arrival.

The ceremony was so much fun to watch, lots of loud singing from both the Groomsmen and Bridesmaids and their son George adding a few well timed drops and yawns for comedy effect. Arriving back at Middleton Lodge we were lucky enough to enjoy some welcome March sun after a very rocky start to 2020 and our wedding buddy Sam Fitton Magician was on double duties as Host and one half of the Best Men team who performed a hilarious song at the end of their speech and let’s face it, if you have Chewbacca involved in your speech, YOU’VE NAILED IT!

Hot couple, great weather, gorgeous venue, amazing crowd topped off with one of our favorite bands the Warning Tones, what a superb day to be part of!
Congratulations guys, lots of love x R & L

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9b7S0wBu-9/