My first wedding shoot.

I was asked by a friend if I would be the photographer for his wedding, I refused. I told him that I am not a wedding photographer, he said that him and his partner like my photos and think that I would be good. I explained the photos I normally take are easy… hills and waterfalls don’t move. I passed him some contacts of photographers I knew that are great wedding togs and told him if he was desperate to get back in touch. A few months went by and we got talking about it again and he explained why he asked me and he would still like me to do it. I agreed mainly because he is a friend, but I know my capabilities and again told him I have not done this before or even been a second photographer to someone, but I would give it my all and do the best I could! We arranged to meet up and talk it through properly with them both and I began researching as much as I could alongside asking friends for advice. When we met up we went over the basics and standard photos, timings, any photos they would prefer and talking about areas at the venue they would prefer. I wanted to make sure I had everything covered! The matter of cost came up, I told them just cover my expenses. They offered to pay more but I could not justify charging more than this as it was my first wedding and especially as they paid for a room for me to stay at Linden hall with the wedding party, so I could join in with the celebrations after I had finished. We chatted a bit more about how they wanted their photos presented before we arranged to meet closer to the date then said our goodbyes. We met up again a week before the wedding after they had been to stay at the venue and they had a couple of ideas of photos they wanted, I had to be honest and say one of them would be difficult for me as I didn’t have the correct equipment, but I would try and get a borrow from someone, if I couldn’t I would make sure I would get a photo that made up for it. I told them how nervous I was, not to unsettle them but to remind them that I thought I was out of my depth. My biggest fear was letting them down on their big day……. You only get one chance at a wedding! As ever they were supportive and said it was me doing them the favour. It was the night before the wedding.. checked, double checked, triple checked everything!! Batteries charged, spare batteries for speed light, memory cards empty, lens hood, everything packed up ready, shoes polished… I still felt ill with nerves! I had a quick chat about it with a friend who reassured me and off to bed I went. Up at 5 am checking everything again before setting off to the venue where the bride and bridesmaids were getting their make up and hair done. I arrived at 7.45am and the they had already started. I knew the hairdressers and makeup artist, so I felt a bit more at ease, fired off shots here and there as they were getting ready. We were all laughing and having a good time, the nerves had almost all disappeared! After a while it started to snow, the bride was going to get the white wedding she wanted! And the grounds of the hotel looked beautiful covered in a few inches of snow, also this gave me a chance to get some more creative photos which helped a lot (thank you mother nature!). I heard the groom and best men were about to arrive, so I headed off to meet them. I got downstairs for them arriving, we had a chat and went to get a few shots in the snow. We got a few staged photos as usual and then decided it would be fun to have a snowball fight which made for some great shots! When we started to feel the cold we had a couple of photos of the rings and went to meet with the registrar. He was very relaxed and helped a great deal when I explained it was my first wedding. I told him I knew the rules about the signing of the register but was there anything else I needed to be aware of? He gave me some tips about where to stand and said he would step aside for placing of rings and the kiss which I was going to ask him to do anyway, and to finish off he made a joke about kicking me in the shins if I got in front of him… at least I hope it was a joke… I got the shots I needed through the ceremony and now it came to try and get everyone for the group shot. I was warned about this so used the help of the groomsmen to help me round everybody up.. now as I have said it had been snowing and I thought a great group shot would be everyone standing in the snow and me up on the balcony of the hotel shooting down.. well I thought it was a balcony! I asked reception for the room key and explained what I was going to do. The happily gave me the key and I climbed the stair, entered the room and looked for the balcony doors… there was none! There was however a window and at the other side of that window was the canopy of the hotels entrance…. Not a balcony! but by this point I had to commit to the photo so I gingerly lifted the window up and proceeded to climb out in the snow onto the balcony/canopy for the first group shot, much to the amusement of the guests. Once back in through the window I made my way downstairs for 2 more group shots before doing the family and wedding precession shots, I tried to keep the snow and cold in mind so not to keep everyone waiting around. There was a shot I wanted with the bride and groom with a snow-covered tree, I thought it would look beautiful and they were only too happy for to have it done. After a few more miscellaneous shots here and there it was time for the meal and speeches. They had very kindly added me to a table to have a meal (which was absolutely amazing!) so in between sittings I made my way around the room grabbing shots of the top table and the speeches as well as natural shots of people enjoying themselves. After the meal there was a little lull before the night time doo which gave me time to freshen up, change cards, batteries and double check equipment. This also gave me an opportunity to set up my stand and backdrop for the night time, I had taken along some props to have a makeshift photo booth that everyone enjoys at parties. Once set up I had a quick shower, by this point I had already been shooting for roughly 7 hours so thought it would wake me up a little as well as freshen up. Once sorted I headed back to the main room where everyone was slowly starting to converge and the night time guests started to arrive as well. Everyone was having a great time! I wandered the room snapping away getting as many natural shots as I could along with people wanting to pose, the first dance came on and they made it so easy to get some good photos of them together but then one of the best men took the limelight much to everyone’s amusement. During the night there were a few people using the props for the photo booth and they loved it, after that I tried to get as many photos as I could of people dancing and having fun.. it was around about 1130pm I knocked off, I had been on the go nearly 16 hours and was feeling a little tired. having a few drinks with the guests and the couple to wind down it was an excellent day. By this time I was ready for bed so called it a night and slept like a log in a bed that felt like I was sleeping on a cloud! All in all, I had a fantastic day. I think the nerves helped me make sure I was prepared. I am glad George and Carly asked me to be a part of their day and had the confidence in me to capture the memories of their day. People have said it must have been easier because I knew most of the guests but although it made the interaction a bit easier it did make it a bit more difficult because I put expectations on myself, I started comparing my ability to photographers that shoot weddings for a living instead of trusting myself.

Linden hall was a lovely venue and George and Carly are a fantastic couple, I am really pleased for them now it’s the task of going through and editing the photos while they are on their honey moon, I only hope I have done the day justice!