Not As Much As You Might Think…

This is something we tend to get asked on the day, and it’s really something that you’re best to know about beforehand, especially when talking to your venue and organising your order of the day. Just to say, this is how we personally work and other photographers have different ways of planning their shooting for the day.

Bridal Preparations

Going from experience, the early morning time is probably the more chilled out part of the day. It isn’t until after, for the bride anyway, that you’ll have the arrival of your Make-Up Artist, Hairdresser, flower delivery and other things that can’t be sorted until the day. Kimmy usually arrives about an hour and half to two hours before your ceremony, it’s usually prime time, most people have their faces on, some people are starting to get ready, and people are more happy to be photographed. It’s a good time to capture the morning highlights, they tend to all happen at once! Depending on the location of the venue, we will usually leave 10 minutes before you to beat traffic and make sure we are at the venue ready for your arrival. We don’t like to dictate any part of your day but we definitely think a good 45 minutes before you’re due to leave is a good time to get your dress on and let everyone ‘oo’ and ‘ah’ at you and then they can totter off to the venue. We can sometimes take a few minutes just to get some nice natural shots of you and your flowers and other small personal details.

Groom Preparations

Our grooms tend to be pretty laid-back guys, they like to have a little beer and a bacon butty. Ant will be there getting all the shots of that basically! Depending on where Kimmy is, Ant will usually follow the groom to the venue or he can sometimes pop by to bridal prep to pick Kimmy up! Again, we don’t usually take much time from you here, it’s all very natural and candid!

Ceremony

Now this is where we are at our most ninja like, you won’t know we are there really, it’s all about the wedding and the emotion and the real butterfly moments.

After the Ceremony

Now this is where we start to want some of your time. All of your guests will want to just love you! So we let that happen, everyone says their hello’s and congratulations and then it’s time for confetti (if you want it!) and group shots. Now, here’s a heads up about groups shots, they are time consuming. For some people they’re a very important part of the day, and we respect that but we definitely want to make it clear that once people disperse, its hard to get them back for photos. So we advise to keep these to one big full shot and some smaller family/wedding party ones, the rest we can capture naturally throughout the day.

Couple’s Portraits

This is our thing. We know you need time with your guests but it’s such a nice time to get some pretty, funny, cute shots together (think Facebook profile pic!) Depending on where we are, if we are moving to another venue for the reception we may grab you for 5-10 mins at the ceremony venue and then another 5-10 mins at the reception venue after you’ve arrived, had a drink and mingled a little bit (timing permitting). If we are all in the one place then having a little wander around for 15-20 mins is always perfect!

Speeches

Again, we won’t steal you, we will capture the speeches in their entirety, if they are before or after the meal (this varies a lot), and we will leave you to eat in peace while we back up, recharge our batteries (and ourselves)

The Middle Bit

We might try and steal you again here for 5-10 mins for some moodier sunset or night time photos depending on the time of year, we like to say this optional, but we might urge you to reconsider (you’ll thank us later). A lot of our best couples portraits are done when the light is just pure perfection and if you can spare a few minutes at that point we will try and milk it!

Cake Cutting/ First Dance

Again, super natural, these are some of our most romantic natural images, everyones had a few drinks and wiping their tears behind you while you’re gazing into each others eyes and belting ‘I will always love you’ into each others faces. We head off not long after this but we will pop over to ask if there’s any more shots you want and we will give you a big squeeze, wish you the best night, and head home to get started on your sneak peeks for in the morning!