Wedding stories
Stories are important, they start conversations, bring back memories, bring people close together
One thing I dearly hope of all the pictures I take is that at some point they’re going to spark a conversation, an ‘ohhhh do you remember that, wasn’t it…’ kind of conversation. Could be a couple, a family – 3 or 4 generations of the same tribe all round the table at Christmas and a picture on a wall, in a frame or wherever sparks a collective trip down memory lane, that’s my job as a documentary wedding photographer.
Helen and the gang walking to the church - rural wedding, Bourne, Cambridshire
It’s nice to know it’s within my gift to do things like that, it’s very important to me.
Can’t do that with pictures of people stood on a hill really, there’s not a lot to say. Can do that with pictures of little things happening though – could be as daft as granny eating a canapé and pulling an eurghhh face, or a flower girl doing cartwheels in a church, the shoes someone chose to wear, a pair of pants splitting, people on shoulders in the evening, uncle Kevs kilt (despite the fact he’s not one bit Scottish), a cake falling over, a whole bunch of people gathered together laughing at an unknown joke etc etc it’s all those little bits fitting together that make the wedding what it was.
They’re the sort of pictures, seemingly unimportant things happening but in years to come they actually become the important things – people being themselves, a photo memory of who they were, caught in a moment.
Kid pooped, Dad pretty pooped too - Greenwich Yacht Club wedding, London
Go stand in a field if you want but trust me, the aesthetically appeasing pictures will be ok for a short time, it’s the ones with character and moments, the ones that make the day spring back to life that are priceless.
Cutting the cake, surrounded by family and friends - A Cheshire wedding at The Belle Epoque in Knutsford
““Humans, not places, make memories.” ”
Dad waiting during the interview with registrars - A Kendal wedding, Lake District