They had been at the Point Hotel’s stand and fell in love with the pictures they saw of previous weddings at The Point and booked their wedding on the spot. The showcase album the hotel uses is one of mine so when Gillian and Barry enquired who the photographer was they were pointed in my direction and after looking through a couple more different albums at my stand they booked me to photograph their wedding too. 
By the time of the wedding day we’d met up a couple of additional times as well giving us opportunity to get to know each other better and forge a nice relationship.For about 60-70% of the weddings I photograph I have the opportunity to do this. But being a wedding photographer in Edinburgh I also get a lot of bookings from couples coming up from England and Wales and over from Ireland, and also overseas too, who are getting married in Edinburgh but aren’t able to fit in a meeting. That’s an additional reason why I have plenty of wedding photographs in my wedding galleries on my website and also details of my pricing and packages so that it is easy for visitors to compare and assess the quality of my wedding photography. For most of these couples that book without meeting me I will still endeavor to have a pre-wedding consultation with them whenever they visit Edinburgh ahead of the wedding. 
However, with some couples even this doesn’t always work out and therefore the first time I actually meet them is on their wedding day. Sometimes this can throw up a pleasant surprise, like when I turned up for a wedding towards the end of last year and discovered the bride and groom were television personalities! In all our communications they had used their real names instead of stage names so I never twigged on, lol. Anyway it was a nice compliment when they said they knew as soon as they saw the images in my wedding galleries that I was the perfect photographer for them and so didn’t feel any pressing need to meet me ahead of the day.
However, with some couples even this doesn’t always work out and therefore the first time I actually meet them is on their wedding day. Sometimes this can throw up a pleasant surprise, like when I turned up for a wedding towards the end of last year and discovered the bride and groom were television personalities! In all our communications they had used their real names instead of stage names so I never twigged on, lol. Anyway it was a nice compliment when they said they knew as soon as they saw the images in my wedding galleries that I was the perfect photographer for them and so didn’t feel any pressing need to meet me ahead of the day.
I know most of the bridal magazines say how important it is to meet your photographer before booking to see if you gel and have a rapport, but to be perfectly honest a good photographer will take good photographs no matter what the circumstances. The bridal magazines tend to offer this advice due to the large number of Saturday photographers operating and the risks involved with booking them but if you have booked a bona fide full time professional who’s taking photographs day in day out you’ll be fine.
When we are booked for something like a high end fashion shoot or a magazine shoot very often we never know who we are going to be working with until we arrive. It is part of the job to gel with and establish a rapport with whoever we are photographing. If I went back to the editor or commissioner and said “I’m sorry but the images aren’t too brilliant because we just didn’t gel on the day” I’d never get another shoot again! So if you are an engaged couple perhaps getting married some distance away from home and not able to meet with a photographer ahead of booking just make sure you do a good analysis online and get to see plenty of photographs. I strongly recommend you ask to see the online galleries of the last couple of weddings photographed which will let you assess the consistency of style and quality. 
Gillian and Barry’s wedding was for 1pm with me being booked to start at 12.30. You’ll know from previous posts that my routine is always to arrive ahead of my start time so I can do a quick check round of the venue even if I have carried out a recce previously or have worked the venue many times in the past. Today was an example of why I like to do this. I’ve shot several weddings at The Point hotel and one of my favorite locations is the 4th floor corridor that runs to the Penthouse. The lighting along the corridor is very low and atmospheric making for creative and dramatic photographs.
You’ll recall from my blogging of Lucie and Ryan’s wedding back in May how I love to make the most of the funky pink lighting at the far end of the corridor. However, today the lighting had all been changed! The usual overhead spot lighting normally used was not in place and therefore there was no way I was going to create the oozing pink wrap around light that I normally enjoy. I would still use the corridor for the back of the dress and a couple of quick bride and groom shots as there was some distinctive lighting at the far end, but I planned instead to work in and around the main lobby after we’d finished in the Penthouse. The day itself ran beautifully and we ended up with about 160 photographs from the three hours I was booked for.
I’ve included five pictures from Gillian and Barry’s wedding and four images from a previous wedding at the Point just so you can see the difference in the lighting. If you haven’t already done so check some of the photos from Lucie and Ryan’s wedding at The Point too from my May blog posts.I’ll meet up again with Gillian and Barry when they are back from honeymoon and show them my initial draft design of their PhotoBook which I’ve just finished and discuss any changes and alterations before we go ahead and have it produced. 
Their photographs are already prepared on their DVD so they’ll get that straight away. I’m not sure if they’ve had opportunity to look at some of the pictures in their private online gallery before heading off on honeymoon but its had plenty of visitors from their family and friends so either way they’ll be eager to finalize the finishing touches to their album so we can have it sent off to print.
Their photographs are already prepared on their DVD so they’ll get that straight away. I’m not sure if they’ve had opportunity to look at some of the pictures in their private online gallery before heading off on honeymoon but its had plenty of visitors from their family and friends so either way they’ll be eager to finalize the finishing touches to their album so we can have it sent off to print. 
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