Guests arriving

I try to arrive at your ceremony location before the majority of your guests arrive. The groomsmen are settling into their tasks and for now at least, taking them seriously. At this point the groom is front of stage and everyone falls upon him with warm wishes. It may well be raining but it’s all worth documenting.

Ceremony, Hugs and kisses and Confetti

It goes without saying your ceremony will be captured. If we’re lucky we’ll have a registrar or minister that is obliging and there won’t be any restrictions.

I don’t expect anything from you when you leave your ceremony room. I do like to capture all of those beautiful hugs that naturally come next. Everyone wants a piece of you, you haven’t seen some of your guests for years so let them get a hold of you.

A confetti moment is orchestrated, confetti will have been distributed and I’ll ask your bestman to count you in. Ta dah! I do maintain, the more ta dah moments we can give your guests the better.

Chill out

Here’s an opportunity to capture those candid moments between you and your guests; the shots that everyone asks for. We must make time to achieve this. Depending on if you’re creating your own time line; maybe your wedding is at home so your sechedule isn’t too strict. Or perhaps you’re at a venue where you follow their timeline. Either way when we sit down together to plan let’s schedule time for these images to be taken…if they’re important to you.

Formals

This is your call entirely. If you want six different group shots or twenty six I’ll do them, perhaps not all at the same time though. I can usually achieve ten different group shots in thirty minutes; three minutes per shot. After ten I lose you both. You lose interest, become stiff and begin to cross names off the list.

We can achieve VIP’s before your wedding breakfast and your Uni friends after your meal, just a suggestion. 

Here’s the thing about group shots, they’re a social document of your family. I find most people, in the beginning don’t want any, I then receive a list of ten and they’re all printed. I won’t force any formals on you, this is your decision entirely.

Just the two of you

Once all of your friends have squeezed you and they have a drink in their hand they won’t miss you whilst we step away from the celebrations for a while. The appropriate time for this depends on the time of year. If we’re in June and sunset is at 9.30pm we’re laughing however if we’re in November the sunsets at 4pm. It might be that we’ve already stopped on the way back from your ceremony to accomplish your “just the two of you” shots so you can carry on chatting until you get called to sit. Documentary or directed? Ah., that’s a whole different blog.

Speeches

Food for thought. If you didn’t want me to stay with you until your first dance but wanted the speeches captured you could bring them to the beginning of your meal. Some folk suffer with nerves and would much rather get their speech over and done with so they can enjoy their meal. Whilst some folk warm up beautifully during the meal and will give a fine performance. Your call entirely. They are fun to capture though and without a doubt more women should give them.

Cake Cut

It used to be that the signing of the register and the cake cut were ‘hero’ shots thank goodness those times have changed. I enjoy it most when friends and family have brought cake for a cake table. There’s a lovely performance as everyone coos over eachothers offering. Of course I’ll take the cake shot, we can make a ta dah! moment of it. It could be on the dance floor for everyone to see, including your evening guests and then you could go straight into your….

Party Time

I love a full dance floor, those fabulously fearless guests who take over at this point.  It truly is time to let your hair down. A first dance? I take still images so a huge choreographed number is not necessary. If you plan on doing something spectacular do tell me.  If your partner raises their arm the other will go under it and voila you’re dancing. I love a twirl or two.

With all that said, which parts of your day would you like me to photograph?