I deliberately don’t shoot many weddings at all. Yet, this one, I gently – at least I think so, Jane may tell you different! – persuaded Jane into having me there for.
Weddings are very personal affairs – some go all out, friends and family all around and planned for years in advance; others decide to go to a favourite place and gather an intimate selection of family and friends around them. Jane and Andrew had had to postpone their day because of Covid and had always planned a small, intimate ceremony.
Why did I talk them into have a few professional shots ? Because they were just going to have the odd phone photo or tw,o as it was just going to be a small event. And I felt that wasn’t right. Whatever the wedding, big or small, it needed to be marked properly. Emotions and memories are the same, no matter how many people are there and watching. Their wedding was filled with emotions and memories made that day, that will last in their hearts for a lifetime. But in order to share those special times with treasured family and friends who couldn’t be there, I felt they needed preserving through photographs, so a couple of times in the preceding months, I had popped down the corridor at work and nudged Jane (well, I may have just told her I’d turn up anyhow!) into having me around.
Phone photos are all well and good (and they will always have their place – they took some lovely ones too!) But professional, natural photos meant Jane and Andrew, and their daughters, could just be present in the moment during the ceremony, not thinking about capturing moments with anything other than their memories. And I could capture the emotions between them all, the glances, the smiles, the sparkles – with everyone in the frame, not one always missing behind the lens.
The grounds of the registry office in Newark lead straight onto the Castle – on a usual day, a perfect background for a few autumnal shots. The colour of the turning leaves and the stone work providing a beautiful background. Unfortunately, the council have an extensive network of metal fencing around it at present, but we discovered a couple of areas which we made the most of for a few minutes. Like me, the two of them usually run away when a camera is pointed at them, but a little wedding magic worked wonders.
So if you are someone who is planning that small, intimate ceremony, please remember that the size of the wedding doesn’t mark it’s importance – think carefully about crossing that professional photographer off your list – find someone you trust, whose style of images you love, who gets you and the fact you may not want a big fuss or to be the centre of attention or to have lots of images – and then grab an hour of their time to make sure your moment is captured.