30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 27 | The First Dance

The first dance is often the last "formality" of a traditional English wedding day, although some first dances are far from traditional!

Usually, family and friends gather in a group around the dance floor to spectate the happy couple having their first dance together as husband and wife. If the couple have kids, it's not unusual to see them on the dance floor too!

Couples decide on a mutually meaningful song to sway to, then family and guests tend to join-in after a minute or so. Before you know it, the dance floor is packed!

The first dance speaks for itself. There's nothing I need to do or add, I am simply documenting this moment, from different angles, as it happens.

Some brides and grooms often dedicate a song to dance with parents or loved ones too, which is always a lovely moment to capture.

30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 26 | The Ceremony

Argueabley the most anticipated moment of the wedding, the marriage service! 

This is the part of the day where I have to be the most "discreet" I can be, trying to capture the key moments of the service without disturbing anything or anyone!

Some ceremonies are easier to shoot than others. The first thing I observe is the light. You really can't control this, but you can approach it differently if you have time to look around!

After looking at the lighting situation, I then try to establish a good relationship with the service conductor, whether that be a registrar or vicar/priest. Some conductors are more lenient than others when working with photographers. Some wish for you to stand in a certain position throughout the service, whilst others allow you to move freely to get the best shot, with the trust that the photographer won't interrupt or disturb the service. I'd say most civil ceremonies have a more laid back approach when working with photographers, but it tends to be a bit more inconsistent when working in religious premises.

My approach to a wedding day is simple, to capture it as naturally and authentically as possible, so I'm always careful to hang fire when capturing key moments!

30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 25 | Tears

Tears of joy, tears of pride, tears of remeberance. Sometimes it's hard to hold it in. 

There's so many emotions I observe on a wedding day, and crying isn't uncommon! 
It's easy to see why. Couples and their respective families work and plan for a massive day, with so much meaning. When it comes to the big day, it can be quite easy for the bride, groom and close family to have a little cry, wether it's due to the happiness of the day, and everything coming together, or just the release of stress building up to the wedding! 

There's lots of "popular" moments when the tears show themselves! The brides parents and family, seeing her in the dress for the first time. The groom, seeing his bride for the first time at the alter and visa versa. The speeches, when speakers share their fun, sad or hilarious anecdotes, or sometimes when glasses are raised, remembering loved ones, who have sadly passed away. 

The majority of the time, my photography is instinctive. I will shoot almost automatically when I see a moment. But it tends to be different when tears are at present. Sometimes I have to make a conscious decision to either go ahead and photograph the sadder moments, or back off and respect the people involved. 

It is my job to capture the day as it happens, as authentically as possible, but sometimes I feel it's important to respect people's space and feelings.

30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 24 | Guests

Wedding planning may always seem to be about the venue, the dress, the table decorations, the flowers and the entertainment. To a certain extent, it is. But what couples come to realise, is that it all boils down to the people there, the family, and close friends who each individually make up a massive part of your lives and relationship.

Wedding guests are often overlooked in wedding photography, often being put to the "bottom of the list" in priority of family photos. To me, they're just as important as the wedding party and I feel it's my duty to document them as much as possible too!

I love meeting and chatting with friends of the bride and groom. I love hearing about how they know/met the bride or groom and what their story is with them. As you can imagine, I hear plenty of hilarious tales about the couple at this point!

It may be a family friend, distant relative, work colleague, university mate, or a childhood legend. All of these people invited to your special day have massive relevance and it would be a damn shame not to capture them!

The people make the wedding!

30 Days of Wedding Photography | Day 23 | The Relationship Process

Being a Lancashire wedding photographer is so much more than just photography to me. I enjoy so much more, as well as taking the photos. I love meeting new people, being present on such a meaningful day, bundling life long relationships with each couple, and just genuinely having a great time with what I do.

When I photograph a couples wedding, I feel invested in them. After getting to know the couple, it's hard for me to do anything but my very best effort, as I feel it's so so important for them to have amazing memories to look back on. I just absolutely love the process of getting to know a couple and their story, and then being able to take them through a fantastic experience.

I feel it's important for me to meet with every couple I photograph. Some photographers tend to chat on email, and then show up on the day, but my philosophy is to head into the wedding day as friends rather than "the photographer". 

In a professional manner, I love finding out about the couple. How they met, when they got engaged, what they're planning and what they do with their time together. It's this process which allows me to mould my approach to each couple, as every pair is different.

As discussed in previous blog posts, I put all the effort into my relationship with each couple so that it's easy in front of the lens. I utterly love this process and showing people how beautiful they are in their natural and authentic selves.