Well, I never would have thought that it would be August before I shot my first wedding of 2020, but such are the times!
I cannot tell you how happy I am, that despite everything , Sam and Suman managed to get married yesterday.
They were married at BCC Church in Bromley in front of just 30 people (2020 rules!) - although there were loads of people in The UK, India, Australia and beyond watching along on the live-stream, an idea which I just love!
Later we went to the extremely lovely Keston Ponds for Bride and Groom pictures.
It was gorgeous, it was emotional, it was fun - and it was very 2020!
Here are some shots and the stories behind them, from their big day:
Sam and Suman chose to add a highlight video to their package too. Feel free to contact me if you want to know more information about highlight videos.
A big thanks to everyone involved in making this day happen against the odds - and a huge congratulations to Sam & Suman.
If you were one of the lucky few able to attend this wedding or if you were one of the many watching along on the live stream, Sam & Suman will have all of their pictures in a few weeks and will be able to share everything with you.
In the meantime, I will post a few more shots over on the Instagram and Facebook pages as I edit them, so feel free to follow along over on those.
I thought it would be a good idea to write a post with the most frequently asked questions - questions I get asked all the time - by engaged couples.
The chances are at least one or two of these have crossed your mind too!
If we book an ‘all day’ package from you, how long do you stay at the wedding for?
All weddings are different and run to different timelines, so I deliberately don’t put a number of hours on my all day packages. All day will cover from bridal prep to around an hour or so after first dance.
How much is the deposit and how frequently are the other payments after the deposit?
The deposit is 25% of the total cost of your order. The deposit secures your booking, so as soon as that is cleared, you are booked in and your date becomes unavalaible to anyone else. After that, you can pay the remaining balance in as many or as few installments as you wish, so long as it is cleared at least two weeks before the day itself. Upon booking, you get access to your own online portal on my website. Here you will be able to see all of your payments, receipts and a balance update, so it’s really very easy to spread the payments however you wish and keep track of everything.
How many pictures do we get and are they all edited?
It varies from wedding to wedding but for a full day wedding, you can expect to get somewhere between 600-700 pictures. More if you choose a second photographer. I don’t limit the amount of pictures you get. If it passes quality control, you get it. All pictures are professionally edited and in high resolution.
Are we allowed to print our own albums etc from the pictures?
Absolutely. All images are high resolution and suitable for print - albums, books, wall art etc. While I will talk to you about the albums I professionally design and offer once you have received your pictures and had time to choose your favourites, you absolutely do not have to order your albums through me.
Are you insured?
Yes. Many venues require insurance and it would be entirely unprofessional to work at weddings without insurance anyway. You can rest assured I’m covered and happy to supply either you or your venue with a copy of my insurance.
Do you have back-ups in place?
Yes, I have back-ups on back-ups! First of all, my cameras have two memory card slots, so each shot is written to two seperate cards. So the initial back up starts in the camera. After the wedding, I don’t go to sleep until all pictures are backed up on both my external hardrive and the cloud. Just to be extra safe, I don’t delete your images from the memory card until you have received your pictures.
What happens if you can’t make the wedding for some reason?
It would need to be a very good reason. I haven’t missed a wedding yet and I don’t intend to start anytime soon. That being said, if I did find myself in a position where I couldn’t make the wedding, I have a network of myself and 3 other excellent photographers and we have agreed to cover for each other at short notice should one of us not be able to make a wedding.
How long does it take you to get the pictures to us after the wedding?
3-5 weeks. It rarely takes longer than 3 weeks but very occasionally at very busy times, it may take a little longer so I always say to 3-5 weeks. That being said, on the pre-wedding questionnaire I would send you a few weeks prior to the big day, there is a section that asks if I can share your images on my socials/website. If you tick YES to that question, you will get a ‘sneak peek’ added to my blog within two days of your wedding. A ‘sneak peek’ is somewhere around 10-15 pictures that you can enjoy and share with friends and family while I get to work on the rest.
Are we supposed to arrange a meal for you? If so, how does that work?
While it is most certainly appreciated when a meal is arranged for me, unlike lots of suppliers I actually don’t insist on it - and there is nothing in the contract regarding it. Should you choose to, mention it to your venue and they’ll be able to tell you exactly how it works there. Usually they have a seperate little room nearby for suppliers to eat, but they’ll let you know the details. It’s competely fine if you prefer not to supply a meal of course, but the only thing to be aware of there is that I will have to pop out to the car for a while to eat, and should something happen during that time, I won’t be there to capture it. It’s unlikely to be an issue though, as I’d most probably eat at the same time you do.
We love your night pictures but the reception will already be under way by then. Can we work something out with that?
Sure - actually nearly all of the night pictures you’ve seen on my website or instagram etc are taken after the reception has started. I would usually be there until about an hour after first dance. A little while before I leave I’ll let you know that I’m leaving soon and I’ll see if the two of you have 10 minutes to pop outside to get a few of those night pictures. If you like that idea, I’ll get things set up outside and let you know when I’m ready for you.
Hopefully that anwers a few of the questions you may have been thinking of, but if you have any questions I didn’t cover above, or if you want to discuss anything else with me, contact me here.
In this post I’m going to talk to you about why I decided to shoot highlight videos as well as photography for my couples, how I do it and why it may be something you would like to consider.
First thing is first, though:
What even is a highlight video?
A highlight video is a 4-6 minute cinematic video set to background music. It tells the story of a wedding day in a beautiful, romantic way. It’s long enough to capture all of the special moments but short enough that you (and you friends and family) can watch it again and again without getting bored. It’s a modern alternative to the old fashioned 2 hours+ wedding videos and it accompanies the wedding photographs wonderfully. To see a few examples of a highlight video, click here.
Why I decided to offer highlight videos to my wedding couples
Time and again I was finding myself in meetings with engaged couples, talking about their wedding plans and how I could photograph it perfectly for them. Time and again I would ask them whether they were planning on hiring a videographer and time and again I was hearing variations of the following answers:
- We would really like one but we just don’t have the budget for it.
- We like the idea but we’ve been to so many weddings where the video guy is in people’s faces all day or has loads of equipment in everyone’s way.
- We don’t want a 2 hour long video, we’d maybe only watch it one time ever.
After hearing these same points raised again and again, I couldn’t help but think there was an obvious solution here. I was already going to be photographing the wedding anyway, using cameras that are capable of recording HD video, I already had video editing software and so it just became clear to me that I needed to offer an alternative to the many couples that wanted a video to remember their special day but found themselves unable to have one.
How I shoot both photo and video at the same time
A question I frequently get asked when talking about my unique highlight video solution is ‘how can you do photo and video on your own?’
It is true that while I do offer packages that include a second photographer to work with me for the day, you can still get a highlight video even if you book a package with just me. How can I shoot photo and video coverage alone? Simply put, I know my cameras inside out. On a wedding day I have two cameras on me all day plus a spare in the car - all three are exactly the same make and model and I’m so familiar with them by now that I can switch settings and modes without looking. I can therefore be taking photos, quickly switch to video mode and record 4 or 5 seconds of video, switch back and start taking photos again, all without removing my eye from the view finder. It’s quite likely that you won’t even be able to tell if I’m taking photos or video. I do this throughout the entire day and so by the end of the evening, as well as all of the photos, I have around 300 little video clips. I load all of those clips into my software and make your highlight video from them.
Is a highlight video for you?
If you are looking for a traditional long-form video of your wedding, then a highlight video probably isn’t for you. You’d be better served hiring a dedicated videographer.
However, if you don’t want a full two hours+ video of your wedding but still want the story of your big day on video, then a highlight video may well be exactly what you are looking for. If you really want a video but don’t have the budget for (or don’t want the inconvenience of) a video team at your wedding, then a highlight video is a great solution for you.
To learn more about highlight videos or to talk to me about anything else at all, you can contact me here. I’d be happy to chat.
