We love photographing weddings and this makes up most of our photography work. We have tried to write in here some answers to the questions we are most frequently asked and hope that this is helpful to you. Obviously, our best advice would be to look at the images in the galleries section and on the blog to see if this is the style you’re looking for – if they are, please get in touch.
What's your style?
When dipping your toe into the world of wedding photography you may have heard the terms ‘traditional’ and ‘reportage’ (as well as many others) to describe the style of photography on offer. We thought rather than describing our style to you by just using these phrases we’d try to give you our personal interpretation of the two photographic styles and where we think we fit in with it all.
Traditional Photography?
To us, traditional photographers would take lots of formal shots and many variations of group shots in a line-up style. Whilst this suits some couples and is exactly what they want this style of photography does have some drawbacks, some traditional photographers can spend hours setting up shots depriving you from spending time with your guests for long periods of time, whilst long sessions of group shots can require guests to stand around often in uncomfortably hot and/or cold conditions.
We do not shoot like this, your guests have come to spend time with you both on this special occasion and we want to keep it that way. We are not interested in making you smile directly at us for hours – we’d much rather you just enjoy your day. We fully appreciate, that this approach will not suit everyone and if you are looking for a mainly traditional approach to your day then we would advise you to look at other photographers who would be happy to accommodate this.
Having said this we do understand that most couples want a few traditional shots to keep everyone happy and we will take a handful or so of these for you. We tend to limit these group shots to approximately 8-10 groups (where possible) which takes approximately 20 minutes out of your day, and we will work quickly to capture these for you with the minimum of fuss. We can cover these groups either in a true line-up fashion, through informal style groups or a mixture of both depending on what suits you.
Reportage Photography?
To us, a reportage photographer would cover your day in a journalistic fashion recording events for you exactly as they happen with no interference. They would not interact or direct you but just let events take their own course and photograph them as they occur. Again, this is not really our style although we are closer to a reportage photographer than we are to the traditional ones. Whilst most of your day we would record exactly as it happens, we will take the two of you off on your own at some point for some informal photos. We would like to emphasise that we do not control your day although we are happy to help with things such as organising guests for confetti, groups etc if you would like.
What style are we then?
Ok, so here goes – we would describe us as natural photographers. We photograph in a relaxed and informal style capturing your day as it happens. We work effortlessly to make sure we record everything for you down to the smallest of details which you have doubtlessly spent a long time planning and which often seem to get overlooked. We encourage your guests to interact with us if they want to. We are often asked if we can just take a photo of this or that and we are happy to be approached and work like this. The most frequent feedback we receive from couples after their day is that they have had lots of positive comments from guests about us as well as that they hardly noticed us at all on the day. Our rapport with couples and energy and enthusiasm allows us to capture beautiful photographs for you with the minimum of fuss.
How else can we help you?
We have been photographing weddings for several years now and have captured over a hundred weddings. With our experience we have gained invaluable knowledge of planning the big day in relation to timings i.e. time it takes to do speeches, travel between church and venue, how long formal photos will take, what to do when it rains etc. If you have any questions like this don’t be afraid to ask us as we may be able to help
Q: We love your work and what you do but can’t seem to see your packages and prices on here – so, how much do you charge?
A: The reason our packages aren’t on here is simply that they are tailored to your requirements and this makes up your overall price. You can choose everything from the parts of your day you would like covered right the way through to your finished product and any extras. This way you can have exactly what you would like for your day and hopefully this gives you a little more control of your budget.
Here are a few current starting prices for 2010 to give you some ideas, further details and a full price list are availble on request:
• For Weekday Weddings (between Monday to Thursday) prices start from as little as £645 for a prints package, £745 for an album package and £1245 for a book package
• For Weddings falling between Friday and Sunday prices start from:
£895 for a prints package, £995 for an album package and £1495 for a book package
The above prices include:
*Coverage from the ceremony through to your wedding breakfast,
* Either prints, an album or a book depending on what you have chosen
* A proof book which is yours to keep
* Your images online (which is password protected)
* Re-touching on any of your chosen images if required
* Your images in black and white, colour, multi-tonal or with various effects depending on what you’d prefer
* Our time (as specified), travel costs (within East Anglia) and all applicable taxes
Q: If we choose you, who will photograph our day?
A: We work together for the majority of weddings (for very small numbers if you’d prefer you can just have me although you will still be offered two of us). By both of us attending we can be in two places at once making sure we are seeing all that is going on. It also allows me some time to spend with the couple on their own whilst David can stay with the guests capturing what’s going on whilst you’re gone. It also means that we can cover both of you getting ready if you’d like and generally capture more of your day for you. We don’t charge any extra for both of us to attend and this does not affect your price in any way. Occasionally, David is unable to attend a wedding and in this case I would work with one of my two other assistants who are both fab!
Q: We love the photos but we don't like some of the high contrast and different finishes - can we have 'normal' colour?
A: Being completely digital you can have all sorts of different finishes to your photos. You will see all of your images in 'normal' colour. We then change a selection of them to black and white, colour mixes, various finishes and high contrast so you can see what your images look like with these effects on them. How you choose to have your final images is entirely up to you and if you don't want the effects you don't have to use them. If you love our work then don't let an effect that you don't like put you off as your final images will always be in the format you want.
Q: Are you insured?
A: Yes, we are both covered by professional indemnity and public liability insurance which protects us should something go wrong. However, we always strongly advise couples to take out their own wedding insurance as the majority of suppliers would require payment in full should unexpected circumstances mean that you have to postpone or cancel at short notice. Whilst many suppliers (including us) would try to carry forward the fee in exceptional circumstances to a new date, it is not always possible that every supplier would be available for your future date which could be costly to you if you don’t have your own insurance to cover you.
Q: How many weddings do you take on each year?
A: In any year we try to limit ourselves to 25 weddings. This allows us to give each couple the attention that we think they deserve. We could take on many more weddings than this and whilst it is sad to turn couples away once our diary is booked we do feel this works best for everyone in not spreading ourselves too thinly.
We want you to feel important to us throughout the whole process rather than thinking you are just a job and in a long ‘to-do’ list for us. By limiting our numbers we can ensure we can give everyone the attention they deserve!
Q: How soon after the day can I see my photos and how long before the finished album or book is ready for us?
A: In general, your photos will be online for you to view between 3-4 weeks after your wedding. Your proof book takes slightly longer to come back (approximately 4-6 weeks after your day). We then get cracking on your book or album (we go through album designs and finishes with you) as these take again on average a further 6 weeks to be ready as they are all handmade and individually designed. We try to complete all weddings within 16 weeks of your day (where possible) and appreciate you promptly getting back to us to finalise your choices so that we can meet this time scale for you.
Q: You mention weddings a lot, does this include civil ceremonies?
A: Absolutely, we love photographing people and sharing in special occasions. In recent years we have photographed a number of same-sex ceremonies.
Q: How do most of your couples find out about you?
A: We are very fortunate that the majority of our work now comes through recommendations and this is our preferred way of working as it says a lot more about us than randomly being selected from a large long list or the Yellow Pages! For those couples who don’t get our details through recommendation they often either meet us at The Suffolk Wedding Show or find us through a venue we’ve worked at.
Q: When can we book you and where do you work?
A: We do book up months and years in advance so the short answer is once you have some dates in mind if you love our work and think we’d fit in well with your day please enquire as to our availability. We only ever take on one wedding per day and once the date is gone we will not offer it to anyone else. If we are available for your date I would usually arrange a meeting with you both (David can come as well if you want to meet him too) to make sure the rapport is right. We feel that personalities should enter into your equation before booking a photographer as if you get on well together the photos will always be better. Hopefully you’ll see in our photos that people are enjoying the day, feeling relaxed and are at complete ease with us around.
Whilst the majority of our work centres on East Anglia we can and will work anywhere in the world if you’d like us to
Q: What venues do you work at and what if you haven't photographed at our venue before?
A: We work at many venues all over the country. Naturally, we have some venues that we work at a little more than others. Every year we work at Spains Hall (Finchingfield, Essex) and Yaxley Hall (Eye, Suffolk) which are two gorgeous venues we love working at.
We have worked at numerous other venues including Ickworth House, Bedford Lodge Hotel, Castle Hedingham, Otley Hall, Dove Barn, Barrandov Opera Barn, Thornham Walled Garden, Elms Barn, Braxted Park, Cley Windmill, The Old Rectory, Sussex Barns, Thurning Hall, Congham Hall, Butley Priory, Orwell Park, Layer Marney and Leiston Abbey to name just a few!
We do not sign up exclusively to any venue and although we are on many 'preferred suppliers' lists we enjoy working at lots of different venues each year. This helps to keep our photography fresh and allows us to see all the best bits of a venue without falling into a pattern of templating (which happens to some photographers who always work at the same venue - it basically means that for each wedding they just use the same area and poses for photos each time rather than seeing each wedding individually and tailoring the photography accordingly).
So, in short if we haven't worked at your venue before that really shouldn't be a deterrent - we love photographing at as many venues as we can each year.
Q: We love everything so far, what should we do now?
A: This is entirely up to you but if you like what you’ve seen and we sound as though we’d fit in well with your day please go to the ‘Contact Us’ section and get in touch as we’d love to hear from you.