Well the last few weeks have seen me busy with weddings with a few portrait sessions inbetween. 
The wedding work has included pre-wedding and post wedding meetings along with a couple of wedding shows and events. The weddings I’ve photographed have been in and around Edinburgh and at venues I’ve worked regularly. These have included Melville Castle, Craighouse campus, The Point Hotel and Dalhousie Castle. I’ve also met back up with some of my newly weds back from honeymoon. Whilst they are away I prepare an initial draft design of their wedding album or book and we meet back up and go through it discussing any changes or alterations. I’ve also been out delivering finished albums too which is something I love doing. Seeing the delight on my clients faces when they go through their album brings a lot of satisfaction and is another reason why I love my job so much! 
Something new for me brought me back to the Queensferry Hotel. The Queensferry Hotel has recently started hosting wedding evenings and open days. These are very relaxed informal affairs allowing couples to come along and discuss any aspect of their wedding with the experts on hand. This a great opportunity for a show round of the hotel as well as enjoying a glass of wine and watching the sunset behind the Forth Bridges from the panoramic windows. Mary and Elaine, the hotels wedding and event planners, are able to answer most of your wedding related questions, and then in addition there is Adele from Finishing Touches who can advise on wedding stationary, decoration, chair covers, etc and then myself on photography. I really enjoyed this evening and I’m looking forward to being a regular feature here from now on. I took along several sample albums and books and had nice chats with many prospective brides and grooms over the course of the two hours answering a range of diverse and interesting questions.
One of the first couples I met were there with the brides parents who as they were paying for the wedding wanted to make sure they were going to get the best of everything. I had a nice chat with the father who’s first question was, who will be taking the photographs on the day? This arose as he’d recently been to a relatives wedding and the photographer they thought would be photographing their wedding was not the one who turned up on the day. For me this an easy question as it is ME who will be taking the pictures on the day, lol. Normally this scenario can arise if you have booked a studio for your wedding photography and then on the day it can be one of a number of photographers who gets assigned to shoot your wedding. Of course it can be disappointing if you have been shown photographs prior to booking taken by the studio’s best and most experienced photographers and then find you get assigned a junior on the day. I was also asked what happens if it rains on the day, too, which if you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll already know the answer to.
Another interesting question was from a couple who had already booked their photographer but had a concern about their timings. Their ceremony was scheduled for 2.30pm and would be around half an hour. The wedding breakfast was to be at 5pm with their line up scheduled for 4.45pm. However, their photographer was saying he would need two hours to get through the formal group shots and then some time for a set with the bride and groom alone and they were worried that this was obviously going to upset the timings quite considerably. They had asked the photographer if he could work any faster (which of course was my first thought lol) but he was insistent he couldn’t. Anyway, I was able to help with a few suggestions. Firstly, if the photographer was not able to work very fast then one option was to cut down on the number of group photographs you have him take.
To ensure you don’t leave out any important family members or guests from the wedding pictures have the photographer do what we call the Big Group, a photograph of all the wedding guests. I’ve included a few examples here. Another option we discussed was after the ceremony their would be the usual drinks reception. During this the newly weds get to meet and greet all their guests as they exit the ceremony room. This can consume quite a bit of time. If you have say 100 guests and they all take 20-30 seconds giving you their congratulations that can run anywhere between half and three quarters of an hour. The same thing will happen later with the line up. So a possibility is to not have both. You could cut the line up and simply have everyone seated ahead of you, perhaps when you are finishing up the bride and groom photography, and then you can have a bride and groom entrance for the start of the wedding breakfast. 
Alternatively, if you’re going to go with the Big Group you can have everyone immediately take their drinks outside, or to wherever the photographer wants to do the shot, and go straight into the photography. The Big Group can be done first, and then while everyone enjoys their drinks the photographer can run through some family and bridal party groups whilst everyone is to hand. I think the couple are going to go with the latter suggestion as they didn’t really want to drop the line up from their proceedings. Table shots at the end of the wedding breakfast are also a good alternative and often produce more relaxed and fun images. If he has good communication and people skills, ask the photographer to do a circuit of the dining room getting a photograph of each table.
Other questions were album and venue related. Having a range of different of albums allowed me to show the difference between a modern Coffee Table Book and a traditional album, as well as an Image Book that’s sits between the two. Being a wedding photographer in Edinburgh is a perfect base for traveling all over Scotland. One couple had narrowed their choice of venue down to three options in various locations throughout Scotland and having worked at all three I was able to help make a final decision.
Anyway, the next open evening is Wednesday 21st October if you fancied coming along. If you can’t wait until then I’m at the newly redecorated Melville Castle wedding show on September 27th. I have back to back weddings again this weekend so I’m looking forward to that. If I can get time I’ll try and blog at least one of them for you.
The wedding work has included pre-wedding and post wedding meetings along with a couple of wedding shows and events. The weddings I’ve photographed have been in and around Edinburgh and at venues I’ve worked regularly. These have included Melville Castle, Craighouse campus, The Point Hotel and Dalhousie Castle. I’ve also met back up with some of my newly weds back from honeymoon. Whilst they are away I prepare an initial draft design of their wedding album or book and we meet back up and go through it discussing any changes or alterations. I’ve also been out delivering finished albums too which is something I love doing. Seeing the delight on my clients faces when they go through their album brings a lot of satisfaction and is another reason why I love my job so much! 
Something new for me brought me back to the Queensferry Hotel. The Queensferry Hotel has recently started hosting wedding evenings and open days. These are very relaxed informal affairs allowing couples to come along and discuss any aspect of their wedding with the experts on hand. This a great opportunity for a show round of the hotel as well as enjoying a glass of wine and watching the sunset behind the Forth Bridges from the panoramic windows. Mary and Elaine, the hotels wedding and event planners, are able to answer most of your wedding related questions, and then in addition there is Adele from Finishing Touches who can advise on wedding stationary, decoration, chair covers, etc and then myself on photography. I really enjoyed this evening and I’m looking forward to being a regular feature here from now on. I took along several sample albums and books and had nice chats with many prospective brides and grooms over the course of the two hours answering a range of diverse and interesting questions.
One of the first couples I met were there with the brides parents who as they were paying for the wedding wanted to make sure they were going to get the best of everything. I had a nice chat with the father who’s first question was, who will be taking the photographs on the day? This arose as he’d recently been to a relatives wedding and the photographer they thought would be photographing their wedding was not the one who turned up on the day. For me this an easy question as it is ME who will be taking the pictures on the day, lol. Normally this scenario can arise if you have booked a studio for your wedding photography and then on the day it can be one of a number of photographers who gets assigned to shoot your wedding. Of course it can be disappointing if you have been shown photographs prior to booking taken by the studio’s best and most experienced photographers and then find you get assigned a junior on the day. I was also asked what happens if it rains on the day, too, which if you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll already know the answer to.
Another interesting question was from a couple who had already booked their photographer but had a concern about their timings. Their ceremony was scheduled for 2.30pm and would be around half an hour. The wedding breakfast was to be at 5pm with their line up scheduled for 4.45pm. However, their photographer was saying he would need two hours to get through the formal group shots and then some time for a set with the bride and groom alone and they were worried that this was obviously going to upset the timings quite considerably. They had asked the photographer if he could work any faster (which of course was my first thought lol) but he was insistent he couldn’t. Anyway, I was able to help with a few suggestions. Firstly, if the photographer was not able to work very fast then one option was to cut down on the number of group photographs you have him take.
To ensure you don’t leave out any important family members or guests from the wedding pictures have the photographer do what we call the Big Group, a photograph of all the wedding guests. I’ve included a few examples here. Another option we discussed was after the ceremony their would be the usual drinks reception. During this the newly weds get to meet and greet all their guests as they exit the ceremony room. This can consume quite a bit of time. If you have say 100 guests and they all take 20-30 seconds giving you their congratulations that can run anywhere between half and three quarters of an hour. The same thing will happen later with the line up. So a possibility is to not have both. You could cut the line up and simply have everyone seated ahead of you, perhaps when you are finishing up the bride and groom photography, and then you can have a bride and groom entrance for the start of the wedding breakfast. 
Alternatively, if you’re going to go with the Big Group you can have everyone immediately take their drinks outside, or to wherever the photographer wants to do the shot, and go straight into the photography. The Big Group can be done first, and then while everyone enjoys their drinks the photographer can run through some family and bridal party groups whilst everyone is to hand. I think the couple are going to go with the latter suggestion as they didn’t really want to drop the line up from their proceedings. Table shots at the end of the wedding breakfast are also a good alternative and often produce more relaxed and fun images. If he has good communication and people skills, ask the photographer to do a circuit of the dining room getting a photograph of each table.
Other questions were album and venue related. Having a range of different of albums allowed me to show the difference between a modern Coffee Table Book and a traditional album, as well as an Image Book that’s sits between the two. Being a wedding photographer in Edinburgh is a perfect base for traveling all over Scotland. One couple had narrowed their choice of venue down to three options in various locations throughout Scotland and having worked at all three I was able to help make a final decision.
Anyway, the next open evening is Wednesday 21st October if you fancied coming along. If you can’t wait until then I’m at the newly redecorated Melville Castle wedding show on September 27th. I have back to back weddings again this weekend so I’m looking forward to that. If I can get time I’ll try and blog at least one of them for you.
