Blog Archives

How to ask guests not to take photos at your wedding

In a time of mobile phones, social media and the internet, it takes mere seconds to publish something online. Around 300,000,000 photos are uploaded to Facebook every day, as well as over 300 hours of video to YouTube PER MINUTE. This is a lot of online content.

Would you care if someone posted a photo of your wedding before you’d had the chance to? Maybe you wanted to do some kind of social media reveal and a guest has ruined that moment for you. Or what if they tagged you in a particularly unflattering photo? It’s likely that you want the photos that are published to be the ones taken by the professional photographer and published on your terms.

It can be hard to control what your guests put out on social media, but how you ask them to not take photos of your big day and to not publish them online? You want to ask them politely without being seen as a bridezilla.

If you want to ask your guests to not take or publish photos of the day, you’re not alone.

Tell them in advance

The best way to stop your guests from taking too many photos is to give them plenty of notice. This is the kind of detail that could be included in your invitations so that guests are aware of the rule before the day. You could include a short poem on the invite that politely requests the only photos are the ones taken by the photographer, such as:

There’s a photographer here,

We asked her to come,

So put down your phones,

Our wedding only needs one.

You should also let them know whether the rule applies to just the ceremony or the whole day.

Remind them on the day

If you sent your invitations out a few months before the day, it may be worth reminding your guests of the no photos rule. Use a sign that can be hung outside the ceremony rule or put it in their order of service. If you’re having a church wedding, it’s likely that the priest or vicar will remind your guests of this anyway. Some churches are very strict and the officiant may even have rules about the official photographer taking pictures.

Alter your privacy settings

It’s likely that your guests will still be tempted to put some photos of your day on social media. If you’re worried that this will be the case, you could change your privacy settings so that you can’t be tagged in any photos without pre-approving them first. Alter your settings on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to prevent anyone from seeing the photos appear on your timeline.

Post sneak peek photos

If you want to be the first to announce your wedding day on Facebook with a few photos of you and your new husband and wife in your beautiful outfits, you could ask for a sneak peek from your photographer. This works well if you don’t want to wait months for your wedding photos. They could send these to you to publish on social media shortly after your day. At least these will be published on your terms. And why not change your Facebook relationship status while you’re at it?

March 12, 2020

Blog, Real Weddings

Wedding at the Grosvenor Pulford Hotel, North Wales

North Wales is my home, and so I love photographing venues all over this area. Last March, I shot a wedding at the beautiful Grosvenor Hotel and Spa, based in Pulford.

About the Grosvenor Pulford Hotel and Spa

Situated in North Wales just a few miles outside of Chester, Grosvenor Pulford Hotel and Spa is a 4* venue that boasts 73 stunning bedrooms, a restaurant, bar, piano lounge and spa.

Built in the 18th century, the building was originally a hotel as well as a working farm, where ale was sold to workers. In 1874, it was known as the Grosvenor Arms. There have been many owners of this historic building, including the Duke of Westminster. Now it’s run by the Nelson family (hence where the name of Nelson’s Bar originates), who have lovingly restored the building and added exceptional facilities, such as additional bedrooms and full leisure facilities.

The wedding of Hazel and Craig

Hazel and Craig’s wedding took place on a beautifully crisp and sunny spring day in North Wales. The Grosvenor Pulford is the perfect place for a dramatic arrival as you can walk down the stunning staircase and into the ceremony room, making for a picture-perfect entrance.

As avid travellers, Hazel and Craig chose to adorn the ceremony room with centrepieces of globes, suitcases, books, cameras and magnifying glasses. These looked really beautiful and were quite different from the traditional flowers that many couples opt for. The globes really stood out during the signing of the register against the white tablecloth and showed the couple’s true personality.

The main colour theme for the wedding day was blue. The groomsmen wore blue ties while the groom wore cream to make him stand out. The bridesmaids wore navy and the bride had a bouquet made from white and blue roses that were specially dyed.

Hazel wore a stunning white dress that was both simple and elegant. The lace sleeves combined with a chic up do made her look beautiful and was a very classic look. The belt accentuated her waist and her shoes added a bit of sparkle to the outfit.

One of the most beautiful aspects of this venue is the bridge that spans over a small pond. The large willow trees combined with the blue sky make for some truly stunning images. I love finding nooks and crannies at a venue that makes for beautiful photo opportunities, and this venue has plenty of those. Discover the daffodils in spring, the many bridges and water features as well as the stunning aspects of the building itself.

It’s for this reason that I visit a venue multiple times before doing a wedding there, particularly if it’s a place I haven’t visited before. It’s so important to see what photo opportunities there are and for me to get to know a place properly.

The travel theme continued through the wedding day. The name cards on the tables were mini suitcases and their wedding cake was three suitcases stacked on top of each other, topped with mini bride and groom. It’s these small details about weddings that I absolutely love and haven’t seen a theme used as creatively as this.

As a photographer, I love taking wedding shots but I also love experimenting with some different techniques. For Hazel and Craig, we tried using smoke bombs and lighting to create stunning pictures like these:

These would look incredible over your fireplace or framed on a table. I always provide a USB containing all of your photos as well as a link so you can download the photos via my website. Downloads are unlimited, so you can go crazy and send them to friends and family, get them printed on mugs, cushions, anything you want!

March 5, 2020

Blog, Photography

How to choose photos for your wedding album

If you’ve decided to book a professional wedding photographer for your wedding day, you’ll likely want to flaunt the finished images anywhere you can: in your home, on your Facebook page, as your background on your work computer. But there are so many beautiful images to choose from, where the heck do you start?

How many photos does a wedding photographer give you?

First, we’ll start with how many finished, edited images you can get from your photographer. Each wedding photographer will differ, however it’s usual to receive any amount from 300 to 1000. Obviously you can’t put 1000 wedding photos into one album, so how on earth do you choose your favourites?

If you’re based in North Wales or Cheshire and would like to book me as your photographer, you’ll receive access to an online gallery so you can download each image as many times as you like. You’ll also receive a USB that contains EVERY image I’ve taken on the day. This means that you need to create an album yourself using your favourite images.

How do I choose my favourite wedding day pictures?

When it comes to creating an album and choosing the photos to go in it, there are some suggestions I have that you should keep in mind.

Memorable moments

Are there any particular aspects of the day that really stand out to you? Maybe you loved the car ride from the church to your venue, dropped a piece of wedding cake down your dress or a bridesmaid did a drunk impromptu speech at 1am. These moments, the ones that really stand out to you, should be included in your wedding album.

For example, if you loved the car ride, find an image of one of the wedding cars. It is these memories that made your day, so they have every right to go into the album.

Being attacked by an owl is surely one for the photo album.

People you love

The people that were a big part of the day should feature in the album somewhere. It should include at least one photo of every bridesmaid and groomsman. If you had any flower girls and pageboys, these should be featured somewhere too. You’ll need a photo of your parents/grandparents in the book and of course at least a few of you as the happy couple.

Making sure that all of the best people feature in the book will make it that much more special.

An overview of the day

Aside from your favourite moments, the album should also include a photo of each part of the day. You’ll likely want some photos of the bride and groom getting ready separately, the bride getting into the dress, leaving the house to go to the church/venue, pictures of the ceremony, and then the wedding breakfast/speeches. Don’t forget any crucial moments like cake cutting, bouquet tossing or midnight dancing.

How you arrange these is up to you, but chronological order tends to work best.

Your favourites of YOU

After getting caught up trying to include all of the above, don’t forget to include the photos of you that you love or the ones where you look your best. These photos are just as important as the other ones we’ve mentioned.

If you have a favourite of you and your new husband or wife, definitely include it (and maybe download it so you can save it everywhere else too. Hello, new Twitter profile picture).

February 22, 2020