Your wedding photography

It’s about the journey as well as the destination

Planning for a wedding can be hard work. But there’s no reason why we can’t have some fun and enjoy the anticipation. If I have anything to do with it—from now on—everything to do with your wedding photography will be enjoyable and stress-free.

Before we begin

Unlike most of my competitors, I don’t have credit card or PayPal booking mechanisms on my website. Why?

I wouldn’t spend most one of the most special and important days of my life with someone I didn’t know and trust. I don’t think you should either. So, no matter how much you like the images on my website, and no matter how highly someone has recommended me, sorry, but you can’t book me until after we’ve met.

We’ll have an as-long-as-it-takes meeting at your place or at your favourite cafe where the three of us can talk at length about you and your perfect wedding day. One of the things we will discover is if we have the right chemistry to make a great wedding photography team.

Active listening, respectful advice, personalised wedding photography

I don’t offer the usual “Platinum, Gold, Silver” type wedding photography packages. Why? Because I don’t yet know what you want and why you want it.So, I’ll ask questions and listen. When I think I am beginning to understand what you and your ideal wedding day are about, I’ll talk about how I can help contribute to and record the joy of a delightful day. I’ll offer some leadership and advice here—because I’ve been to a few weddings lately—while I watch out for feedback from you. By now we’ll all begin to know whether or not you want me on your team. I’ll understand completely, perhaps even encourage, a decision to look around some more before you decide.

Yay! You chose me! What’s next?

During the build-up to your wedding I’ll be in touch frequently. I’ll be taking an interest in your wedding plans as they develop and ready to offer suggestions and advice if asked. I’ll report back after photography reconnaissance visits to your venues and talking to venue managers and celebrants.

Pre-wedding photography session

A couple of weeks before your wedding day, I’ll meet you at one or more of your wedding venues, and perhaps at another special location where we’ve decided to do some informal portraiture.

The aim of the pre-wedding photography session is for you to be familiar with and comfortable with being the centre of photographic attention and how to look natural and even more beautiful in front of a camera. There’s plenty of evidence that these pre-wedding sessions make for a more natural, relaxed and enjoyable day.

The big day

Preparations

In modern wedding photography it is normal and fun to document the preparations from quite early in the wedding day. This is the beginning of the story. It is also useful in helping to ease any remaining nervousness about being photographed. Not only that, it can be handy to have someone around who has recently been to a few weddings: to put things into perspective and remind you to pause, smell the flowers and enjoy yourselves.

Ceremony

All day I’ll be capturing special moments candidly. I’ll be taking the informal “formal” shots that you have asked for as well as others that present themselves. At the ceremony, because I will have liaised with the celebrant or registrar, I’ll be capturing the best shots possible while respecting any religious rules or civil protocols.

Informal portraiture

After you’ve had time to hug and be hugged and congratulated by your friends and family, we’ll usually take off somewhere significant for some informal, intimate and fun portraiture. This can take about 20 minutes not including travel time. Although I am happy to take more formally posed shots, the best images are usually more natural: walking, or sitting and chatting together. If we are in the mood, we can try some less conventional images that reflect your personalities.

Reception and evening festivities

At the reception I will capture speeches and the emotions and reactions they produce. Documentary-style photography is usually perfect for this part of the day and I often find black and white images work best.

After the speeches, I’ll usually leave you to enjoy your meal while I back-up and secure all of the images captured so far.

If you have asked me to photograph the evening festivities, I am ready and willing to help stage-manage cake-cutting, bouquet throwing, and the first dance. From then on I’ll be capturing the fun, laugher and intimacy on and off the dance floor. And, if there happens to be a wonderful sunset outside, I may coax you outside for an impromptu portrait.

After the wedding, preparing your memories

A week or two after all that celebrating, I’ll have somewhere between 150 and 200 great individually-processed images to show you. If that isn’t as many as you are expecting, especially if you’ve read about “a disc with more than 500 photos” on other wedding photography sites, please read this blog post.