Are you available on such and such a date and how much do you charge? Perfectly valid questions to ask when contacting a wedding photographer no doubt. I suppose you could leave it at that too, at least in the first instance.
Not so David.
When David first contacted me by email he and Laura had not yet fixed a date for their wedding. That first contact was made in 2010; the wedding would take place in 2011 or maybe even 2012. Laura had already bought her dress and David, being an avid photographer himself, had been on the hunt for the right person to photograph their wedding. Whenever it was to take place. And there was the venue to pin down too.
Laura & David scale mountains together. He’d proposed to her on the summit of Ben Nevis. Attached to that initial email was a photograph of them together, taken just after the proposal and Laura’s acceptance. David spoke in his email of the photographs being the only window that his and Laura’s grandchildren would have to peer back through onto and into their wedding day. Considering the fact they have no grandchildren, indeed no children yet to bear them grandchildren, this was a sentiment that struck straight to the heart of why I do what I do.
Talk about making me want to photograph a wedding. Had it transpired that I’d not been available on the date they ultimately settled upon I’d have moved mountains myself to line them up with the best possible alternative photographer for their needs but it all worked out perfectly which I’m especially happy of as I got to do that thing which I love doing and had a thoroughly enjoyable time of it too.
England came up smelling of roses on Laura & David’s wedding day. I’ll get my coat…
David spent the morning at his parents’ home watching the rugby with his groomsmen, his props one might say. Pursuing that analogy would leave David with a position to play the title of which wouldn’t really be fitting for a groom on his wedding day though. I’ll get my coat…
Paul must have forgotten his…
Laura had left a package for David, in the charge of his sister Helen…
You can never have too many socks I say…
Laura & David were to marry at the magnificent Chettle House. Something told me I should turn right though and head for the Castleman Hotel. Probably my carefully constructed itinerary for the day…
Laura…
I had that feeling that I was being watched…
No, hang on. I had that feeling that I was being watched…
No coat but he’d found his jacket…
There had been a bit of a disaster with David’s cufflinks it seems. On my way in I’d been passed by best man Jamie, hurtling off into the Dorset tree-line in cufflink-emergency mode. I think they’d spontaneously deconstructed, or maybe David’s initials were back to front. I’m not certain really. It was all heat of the moment stuff but Jamie was on top of matters…
David is led off upstairs to prove his identity to the registrars…
I’m still not certain though what was going on with those cufflinks…
Family friends with fantastic classic cars; always good to have…
And here comes Laura. Perfect, precise, positive cornering and eyes locked to the finishing line, the metaphorical finishing line I suppose, David. I like to see. I make it sound like car racing, It is of course a bridal processional. Shot with a 50mm lens on a ‘full-frame’ camera, the resultant framing goes to show how close, how intimate a space the ceremony room at Chettle House provides. It feels so spacious in situ yet is not so expansive as to feel sparse. A lovely venue. All that stuff about lenses is likely only of interest to those that are, well, interested in such things. I’ll leave it there for David’s benefit. Anyway… An intimate space with a feeling of spaciousness. Go Laura…
She’ll be happy to see you then David :~)…
I had to switch to my 24mm at this juncture. I’ll leave that out there for David again. I’d not photographed a wedding at Chettle House before and hadn’t realised quite how intimate my position would need to be to document the ceremony. I could have reached out and touched Laura & David during the ceremony itself. It’s a good thing I didn’t as that would have been a bit freaky I imagine. My thanks to Dorset Registrars (two of them, as there are many of them, Dorset being a sizeable county but whenever I come across members of the county service they’re always a downright pleasure to work alongside) for not merely being so accommodating but for not even batting an eyelid at my presence in the first place. No blinds or curtains across the window that Laura & David’s grandchildren would be peering back through into their wedding day. No blinds or curtains to rattle or swish while I had my back pressed up to the non-metaphorical window, for that matter.
One of those moments when you wish that you hadn’t used Superglue to repair your cufflinks…
I’ll make mention of the readings delivered by Laura & David’s friends, Jodie and Paul. In both cases because they were lovely, the readings that is. And of course the readers. I was especially struck though by the fact that Paul’s reading had been penned by David himself, clearly a talented writer. The words somehow seemed to enunciate a frequency that correlated with the base operational wavelength of my tear-ducts. Fascinating that.
If the batteries had run out in my camera I could have powered it throughout the day with Laura’s smiles. Not that the battery runs out in my camera during a wedding. Plus I always carry a fully charged spare. And back ups of everything. I shouldn’t have introduced the potential for doubt into the equation. Too late now I suppose. Laura. Very, very happy. Smiled a lot. No batteries required…
You know when you catch something through the corner of your eye…
So if he’s got the 50 on that one, what’s that on the other one? A 24?..
I’ll get my coat…
Mister Phill, perfecting the art of organised group photographs since, for a while now…
This week’s answer to the existential crisis of wedding photography…
And on we all headed for further celebrations in Part Two >>
Contact Dorset Wedding Photographer Phillip Allen : phill@misterphill.com : 07870 696248
