Hi, I’m James. I’m a Nottinghamshire wedding photographer specialising in natural, relaxed and documentary-led wedding photography.

Kelham House is particularly local to me, sitting just outside Newark-on-Trent, and having photographed a wedding here I know how well the venue works for a relaxed wedding day.

If you’re looking for someone who’ll capture the atmosphere, people and all those little moments happening around you — without spending your wedding day constantly posing for photographs — that’s exactly how I work.

Kelham House Country Manor is an Edwardian country house wedding venue in Kelham, just outside Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire.

Built in 1903, the manor sits within nine acres of private grounds, landscaped gardens and mature woodland. Weddings can take place indoors or outside, with the Garden Room licensed for civil ceremonies and a purpose-built gazebo providing an outdoor ceremony option. 

One of the things that makes Kelham House particularly appealing is that the whole wedding can take place in one location. From getting ready and the ceremony through to the wedding breakfast and evening celebrations, there’s no need for the day to be broken up by travelling between different venues.

There are also 12 ensuite bedrooms across the Manor House and Coach House, which means close family and friends can stay at the venue too. 

For couples wanting a Nottinghamshire country-house wedding without it feeling overly formal, Kelham House offers a really nice balance.

From a photographer’s perspective, one of Kelham House’s biggest strengths is how much of the wedding day can happen in and around one relatively compact venue.

The house, Garden Room, formal gardens, mature trees and grounds give us several different settings for photographs without needing to disappear from your guests for ages.

That suits the way I photograph weddings perfectly.

I don’t want your couple photographs to become a photoshoot that takes over your drinks reception. We can head outside for a short walk, get some relaxed photographs together and then get you back to the people you’ve actually invited to spend the day with.

The gardens also give us the opportunity to keep an eye on the light. Rather than forcing all your photographs into one part of the day, if the evening light looks particularly good we can head back outside for another ten minutes.

Kelham House also works particularly well for documentary photography because guests can naturally move between the house, Garden Room and outside areas.

Those transitions are where lots of the moments I look for happen — conversations, laughter, children running around, drinks being poured and people simply enjoying the wedding without thinking about the camera.

And if you’re hoping for an outdoor ceremony, Kelham House has a licensed gazebo in the grounds, with the Garden Room available as the indoor alternative if the weather has other ideas. 

I’m James, the photographer behind 3rdEyeImages, and my approach to weddings is simple — I want you to actually experience your wedding rather than spend half of it being photographed.

Most of my couples tell me they aren’t particularly comfortable in front of a camera.

That’s completely fine.

You don’t need to know how to pose, where to look or what you’re supposed to do with your hands. When a little direction will help, I’ll give it to you. The rest of the time, I want things to happen naturally.

We’ll get the family photographs that matter to you, and I’ll help organise those so they don’t take over your drinks reception.

We’ll also spend a little time getting relaxed photographs of the two of you around Kelham House.

But those photographs are only one small part of your wedding story.

For most of the day I’ll be watching what’s happening around you — the reactions during your ceremony, your guests talking over drinks, the laughter during the speeches and all the little interactions that you may not even realise happened until you see your photographs.

Because I’ve already photographed at Kelham House, I know the venue and how the day flows. I know there are plenty of photographic opportunities without dragging you away from everyone for an hour.

But that doesn’t mean I’ll simply recreate photographs I’ve taken there before.

Your Kelham House wedding should look like your wedding.

Your people, your personalities and everything that actually happens are what make the photographs different.

I’m relaxed around guests, happy to have a laugh and I don’t want anyone feeling as though there’s a photographer constantly watching them.

The more people forget about the camera, the more genuine the photographs become.

So if you’re planning a Kelham House wedding and you’d rather spend the day celebrating with your family and friends than constantly posing for photographs, we’ll probably be a very good fit.