I started the day documenting the bridal preparations at home.

Fiona and the girls.

Time to get the dress on.

Fee’s mum sees the dress for the first time.

All Saints Church Hannington on a picture postcard day.

Pete arrives at the church.

A simple classic portrait of the groom.

Fee arrives at the church.

Ambushed by  a small child :)

Village weddings are lovely when the bride and groom can walk from the church to the reception.

This image taken as all the guests had left the garden reception and headed into the marquee for the meal. Weddings can be a bit of a whirlwind for the bride and groom and it’s lovely to see them steal a few minutes for themselves. I like the depth in this photograph as well – the deserted chairs. The long shadows tell you it’s taken towards the end of the day as well.

The wedding wellies – essential for off-road brides.

Following the guests into the marquee for the wedding breakfast.

The marquee was beautifully decorated. It looked fantastic and had wonderful views.

A last minute confetti throw

Pete and Fee were waiting outside the marquee for a few minutes whilst the guests were seated. I love this little sequence of images.

Speech time.

When your father-in-law laughs at your jokes, you know you’re doing well.

Speeding puddings.

A photograph taken between the courses. The cake looked great.

The band starts and the dancefloor fills.

Thanks again Pete and Fee, I hope you have a fantastic honeymoon and I look forward to seeing you soon.

I’ve had the question more than a few times now – “my photographs are dreadful – there is so much missing – is there anything you can do with them in Photoshop?” Sadly the answer is always no – garbage in – garbage out and all that. I sympathised with the bride that it’s all too easy to economise on things in the run up to the wedding (when your bank account is emptying faster than Bondi Beach during a shark attack).

It’s also all too easy to forget that the photographs will have their greatest resonance decades after the wedding (trust me, I speak from experience here). It’s also easy, if you don’t think about it too much, to forget that there is a gulf between inexperienced snappers making a few extra quid on the weekend and established professional photographers who take their vocation very seriously indeed. It’s very wise investment in my view to put a little bit more money into the photography. Averaged out over the sixty or so years after your wedding it works out pretty cheaply :)

The situation reminds of the story I heard of the hairdresser who loved his job, was the best hairdresser in town and took great pride in his work. He was quickly being put out of business by new cheap, five dollar hair cut salons that were springing all up around him. He simply could not compete, even if he did drop his price to $5 which made him feel sick to think about. After a few days trying to come up with a solution and pondering various ideas he woke up one morning with a smile and went to work.

His business started to rapidly grow and very quickly he was back on track. In the hair salon window he had put up a sign, it read:

‘We fix five dollar haircuts’.

To state the obvious, there are no re-do’s with your wedding photography – you have to hire somebody who knows what they’re doing, right from the start. Someone who has seen everything that can happen on a wedding day and work around it. Bad weather, pitch darkness, cameras that break down (it happens), timings that go rapidly wrong, wedding emergencies of all kinds – these are the things and established professional will take in his or her stride and still deliver. Speak to friends, find out what they thought about their weddings. See at least 3 photographers, ask awkward questions.

Find someone you can work with on the day and someone you have confidence in delivering the photographs that you will come to treasure when you are old and when your babies have grown up and flown the nest. Find someone who can tell the story of your day in images so that if you show them to someone who wasn’t there – they feel as if they had attended the big day and shared the joy and happiness, the tears and the the love, the conversation, the socialising and the excitement of the wedding day.

Thanks for reading. Comments as always are welcome.

The beautiful bouquets.

North Street Caversham – Siann and Mum!

Andy get his tie sorted.

Baby Pippa raring to go.

A few finishing touches…

…and it’s off to St. Peter’s Church in Caversham.

The groom in the pub. Well, it’s traditional isn’t it?

Chris and the boys on the mean streets of Caversham.

Shiny brand new wedding rings.

A portrait of the groom.

A small wedding guest.

FOG (Father of the Groom)

Siann and her Dad arrive at the Church in this beautiful red MG.

No turning back now :)

Never miss a quick opportunity for a snog…

I love baby Pippa peeking out from between the bride and groom!

And it’s off to the lovely Crooked Billet pub in Stoke Row for the wedding reception.

Some favourite photographs of the bride and groom.

A few wedding reception photographs that caught my eye.

I love this photograph, shot into one of the mirrors in the pub dining room. I am a fan of images that have different things going on in the foreground and background.

Chris works the crowd.

Best Man Charlie in full swing against the setting sun.

The boys!

Off into the sunset :)

Thanks again Chris and Siann, have a great honeymoon!

Just recently I visited their office in Swallowfield to meet with Fiona and Mark who run the company and talk about some of their recent work and what they are doing this year. Amongst other things I was surprised to learn there are about 8 different ways to tie a bow :) and that you can choose from over 200 stock colours of fabric.

Mark and Fi have an almost obsessive attention to detail. I was interested to see how they  cut and hem the fabric in their workshop to ensure everything is lined up correctly and how the fabrics are assembled to sit correctly on the furniture at the wedding reception. On the wedding day, the Beau Events team will swing into action with military precision and transport your finished covers and accessories to avoid creasing and crumpling. Everything is installed in good time for the wedding meal (definitely no last minute panics) and throughout the whole process they liaise with you to make sure you are happy with your choices and the way everything is set up.

Fiona and Mark from Beau Events.

A ludicrous amount of colours are available off the shelf and failing that, Beau Events will custom manufacture your chair covers and sashes for you.

Mark in the workshop cutting fabric for an Olympics themed dinner celebration. You can see just some of the stock behind him on the shelves.

Fiona in the storeroom with hundreds more fabrics

A couple of photographs of the workshop, Mark (L) cuts the fabric on a custom made guide table which ensures straight, parallel lines. Margaret (R) the Beau Events seamstress hard at work.

It goes without saying that I can wholeheartedly recommend Beau Events to you for your wedding. Click here to visit their website or give Fi or Mark a call on 0118 9885655.

Eleanor and Anthony’s Crazy Bear Hotel wedding – our beautiful Italian Album, 14″ x 10″ in size and finished in black leather.

Here’s Laura and Ed’s Stoke Park Club wedding album. A 12″ x 12″ Art Album in scrumptious and soft leather. These books come in fabric bags and look fantastic.

There is more information on our beautiful one-off handmade wedding albums here.

Here are some images that caught my eye, if you were at the wedding and would like to know when Eleanor and Anthony’s complete gallery is uploaded, CLICK HERE and I will send you an email.

Some scene-setting detail shots at the Crazy Bear.

Eleanor and Anthony opted for one big long single table in the Moroccan Glasshouse for the wedding meal – looks fantastic, eh?

An unusual wedding bouquet for the bride and some beautiful shoes.

A few favourite photographs from the bride and bridesmaids preparations.

Often when I talk to brides, they remember being a bridesmaid when they were small – it’s always nice to see the little ones enjoying the pampering and the experience of the wedding day.

Meanwhile over in the Jet Black suite Anthony and the boys get ready.

The preparations are an interesting time of day – it goes really quickly of course which is one of the reasons I enjoy being around and photographing what’s happening. In years to come it’s going to be great to look back on and remember how you felt on the morning of the wedding.

Anthony the groom, ready to roll.

Eleanor and friends.

I love this image – a quiet few minutes before the wedding ceremony.

The Oak Room was beautifully decorated for the wedding ceremony.

The groom and the guests take their places.

The brand new Mr. and Mrs.

The beautiful bride.

Some favourite photographs from the reception.

The gardens at the Crazy Bear are great – as night falls the colours and the lights begin to show.

The wedding speeches are great to photograph, here’s a few from the evening that caught my eye.

Thanks again Anthony and Eleanor!

Hot on the heels of my English Wedding Blog publication (last post) I was again really pleased to see that momentjunkie.com featured a wedding photograph of mine from Ali and Matt’s wedding at Headley Park a couple of years ago. Moment Junkie is a website devoted to capturing those unique wedding day moments that happen in a split second and are gone. There are some great pictures from some superb photographers there, well worth a look if you have five minutes.

Wedding photojournalism is all about capturing moments at the right time. Often I hear that brides think the photographer engages the motordrive at warp speed and ‘machine guns’ every occurrence on the wedding day in the hope of getting a picture. They call it the ‘spray and pray’ approach :)

Nothing could be further from the truth. One of the benefits of being a highly experienced wedding photographer is that I have learned to anticipate images and pride myself on being in the right place at the right time. Photographing many hundreds of weddings has given me a sense of when things are going to happen and to be there when it matters.

Quality wedding photography is all about picking the right moments to shoot. I think it’s important for a wedding photographer to remain unobtrusive and low key during the wedding ceremony particularly but also at the wedding reception. It’s also important to not get in the way too much. If you get this approach right, I find people ignore you (in a nice way I am sure!) and this is invaluable in capturing those moments and those interactions that would otherwise go unrecorded.

If you would like to check out my photograph that they kindly published, please click here.

Claire sent me a questionnaire to forward to Caroline the bride and the resulting post makes interesting reading for a bride to be. If you would like a look, the English Wedding Blog post is right here.

As always, here’s a few favourite photographs from the wedding day – if you were there and would like to know when the complete gallery is uploaded CLICK HERE and I will send you an email. Comments, compliments or questions? Please let me know at the bottom of this post.

The radiant bride.

The Flower Distribution Meeting. Very important.

Steve and the boys arrive at the church.

Steve watches at the guests arrive at St. Annes’s Church.

The FOG arrives with a huge supply of confetti…

…and it’s a thumbs up from bridesmaid Nancy.

Ann-Marie and her dad arriving at church.

14:43

A great touch at the wedding was the piper who played during the register signing and on arrival at Pennyhill Park.

Ambushed :)

Some favourite photographs of the bride and groom at Pennyhill Park.

The beautiful bride.

That is one fruity wedding cake.

A couple of behind the scenes shots as the Pennyhill Park wedding machine swings into action.

Speech time!

I love photographing expressions during the wedding speeches – both the audience and the speakers, it’s great fun.

Ladies and gentlemen – I am pleased to present..the McDonogh/Maitland wedding photobooth!

Avert your eyes…

Steve throws some shapes during the bride and groom dance…

Thanks for looking! Have a brilliant honeymoon in the far east Ann-Marie and Steve – looking forward to showing you the photographs when you get back.