A category full of blog posts and articles to do with wedding photography.

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How to Display Wedding Photos in your Home

You’ve received your wedding photographs and you absolutely love them. But now what do you do with them?

Your wedding photos are beautiful. They’re everything you dreamed they would be. And now you want to display them in your home so your family and friends can appreciate them when they come over. You may have got a wedding album included in a package from your photographer, but I’ve come up with some alternative ways you can display wedding photos in your home.

Create a gallery wall

You might be struggling to find just one photo from your wedding day that you love. You love all of them! How do you choose?

Well luckily, you don’t have to. You could create a gallery wall using multiple photos from your day, just like Lauren has done:

Gallery wall showing wedding photos

 

Lauren has printed her photos quite large (16″ x 20″) but it’s up to you how many photos you want to incorporate and how you lay them out. You don’t have to do them in a square, and they definitely don’t all have to be the same. Some of your favourites could be printed bigger than others, and you could put them in the centre of your gallery to make them stand out.

You could choose to put them all in the same frames or in different ones. It’s completely up to you. A gallery wall is so versatile and is a great way to showcase your wedding and your personality.

Just make sure you have lots of different photos from different parts of the day so you have a real variety.

Home Accessories

If you wanted to, you could use some of your wedding photographs to decorate your home.

You could have mugs made with your favourite photos on, or have a pillow created for your armchair or bed. There are lots of companies that will print your photos onto a chosen object.

If you’re using multiple photos on one item, just make sure they look right together, for example, check they were taken in the same lighting and include similar colours, otherwise the photos may look odd together.

Use Polaroids

If you’re a fan of polaroids, this is a wonderful option for you and it’s great for people on a budget. You can have your photos printed into ‘Polaroid’ form. Many photograph printers will now do this for you. You can then use the photos to create a Polaroid wall of wedding photos.

 

Polaroid wall for wedding photos

Photo credit: Elevator Musik

This style is great for those who had a more informal/quirky wedding.

Printed Canvas

The final way to display wedding photos at home is with a canvas. Canvases come in many shapes and sizes and can be hung nearly anywhere in your home.

Living room with large wedding canvas above fire

Photo credit: Dream of Home

Canvas on wall above sofa

 

There are so many beautiful and unusual ways you can showcase your wedding photos so have an experiment and see what you can do!

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Why I Love Wedding Photography

With wedding season almost in full swing and my calendar filling up fast, I couldn’t help but think about how much I love what I do. Thinking back to when I took the plunge and became a full-time wedding photographer actually gives me goosebumps. It was such a daunting time, but deep down I knew it was right and I’m so happy I did.

Over the past 16 months, my work as a photographer has developed from a passion in what I do, to an absolute love and I have to thank the amazing couples I’ve worked with for that. I find it such a privilege capturing those magical moments and giving them to a couple to treasure forever.

There are so many things about wedding photography that I love, but there are some things that truly stand out for me:

The Excitement

As a wedding photographer, I do get to miss all the chaos and stress that often comes during the build-up to the big day. What I love is being part of the excitement. I love to see the range of emotions that come when a couple’s planning finally comes to fruition, from love to pure joy it’s an amazing experience being in the midst of it all.

The Relationships

Since beginning my journey into wedding photography the relationships I’ve made with my couples is something I treasure. From the first point of contact to meeting the couple, engagement shoots and communication right up to the big day, I love how natural it feels capturing each and every moment when the wedding arrives., due to the relationships we’ve formed. From often being so closely involved a couple’s magical day, I must say I always take something special away on a personal level too.

The Challenge

Wedding photography is definitely a challenge I love. From the technical to the editing it’s these challenges that drive my passion. With every setting being different from weather to lighting I am always learning something new. I’ve also learnt how important it is to always be on the lookout for the emotions most will miss. Every wedding is unique and you never know when the most tender and emotional moments may come, finding those is a challenge I love and it certainly keeps me on my toes.

The Memories

One of the most wonderful parts of my job is that I am capturing memories to be adored for a lifetime, the I do’s, the first dance and the big family shots are always loved. However. it’s not just the notable moments I look for, I am always mindful that throughout a day the whole wedding party will go through a range of emotions, and being able to capture these often raw moments, give the best memories for my couples too, and their families. It’s touching to know what I do will be passed through generations for years to come, to be able to give that to a couple is something I will always love.

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Why Does It Take So Long To Get My Wedding Pictures?

One of the questions I’m asked most about the weddings around North Wales and Chester I shoot is, “When will I get the photographs?”

The thing is, there isn’t one specific answer. It depends on many factors, for instance, if your celebration takes place during the height of the season when I am out shooting back to back weddings, it can take up to 9 weeks to get your photographs. Couples often wonder why, so here’s my short guide to what happens to your photographs after the Big Day.

I shoot literally thousands of pictures of your wedding. That may sound excessive but remember, one photograph captures a tiny moment of the day.

Once I get back to the office I then have to download and view the pictures. I look at each frame in great detail and this can take hours. Imagine looking at 1000 pictures and you take 30 seconds to look at one image, that’s 8 hours of work alone! Once I’ve looked through all the pictures it can take another few days to decide which will make the final cut of around 600 photographs. This is often tricky as there are so many good shots.

Once I’ve chosen those 600, it’s now time to start editing them. Because I am so passionate about delivering each couple with stunning memories of their day, I don’t like to rush this process. I would never want to compromise on quality!

So, what does editing involve? And why does it take so long to do?

Editing photographs is a creative process that brings out the very best of the images taken. This can include things like:

 

  • Cloning – removing exit signs or the odd wine glass that’s been left lying around. At one wedding I had a beautiful picture on the Menai Straits but had a tree coming out of the groom’s head! It was such a good shot I really wanted to use it, so I spent a few hours editing that one image. It was totally worth it.
  • Dealing with colours – this is a bit difficult to explain but as an example, church colours can be quite yellow and difficult to work with as it can make everything washed out. It takes lots of time to reduce the yellow tones, so everyone looks a more natural colour.
  • Cropping – I may decide after looking at certain shots that are quite wide and include lots of background that they might actually look better as a close-up. Getting the right composition is really important on any photograph.
  • Black and white or colour? – should a photo be colour or black and white? It may seem like a simple decision, but believe me, it isn’t!
  • Saving a gallery – once all the photographs are edited and I’m happy with them I put them into a digital gallery for you to see. Each photograph is a big file and so this process takes hours.
  • Backing up images – I like to have 3 backups, one on my iMac, one on a hard drive and one on the cloud. This in itself can take a long time, a good 3-4 hours per back up.

I think we are so used to taking photos on our smartphone and instantly uploading them to our social media pages we expect that it will be the same with wedding pictures. Editing your wedding photographs is truly a labour of love – and you can’t hurry love!

 

Below, you can find some before and afters to see what I’m talking about.