Capturing the Day

Our photographer was an easy book, too. My good friend Mrs H is a photographer I met whilst at Uni. We made a pact that one day, when she got married – I would do her wedding cake, which I did. In return, she’d do my wedding photography. I didn’t even look anywhere else, I knew Mrs H would be fabulous and make me look fabulous, too. We snapped her up instantly. (See what I did there..? I’m sorry. The relevance of this quote will become apparent later on…) And of course, mates rates came into play both for the cake and the photography. It’s what friends are for, I guess! (Mrs H is my best customer hands down. I have made her wedding cake, her daughter’s 3rd birthday cake, her other daughter’s christening cake, her cousin’s kid’s christening cakes, her best friend’s baby shower cake, and I’ve just made her sister’s wedding cake – phew!) 

So within three short weeks, we had booked our ceremony and reception venue. The registrar was booked, and our honeymoon deposit had been paid. Our photography was sorted years ago, but we had at least confirmed Mrs H would of course be there. She would, right?? Wrong. 

Me, A and H getting ready on the morning of the wedding!

A happy surprise occurred – she became pregnant! She would be about 8 months gone by the time our wedding rolled around, so of course I said to her she could bow out at any time – hers and the baby’s health was all that mattered! And I knew she would recommend me to an equally fabulous photographer elsewhere. But no – she’s stubborn like me – and so on with the show she went! Devastatingly though, a few months into her pregnancy, complications arose which put the baby in extreme danger. OF COURSE, I didn’t expect her to carry on with our booking – I was worried frantic for her!! But she left me in the hugely capable hands of one of her best friends, Georgina at Panache Photography. She captured some of the most beautiful and artistic shots I couldn’t have dreamed of, and I could see why Mrs H had sent her my way. And in a beautiful turn of events, Mrs H gave birth to the most gorgeous, healthy little girl (who am I kidding, I can’t be biased – all of her children have genes sent from DNA heaven) two days before our big day. I couldn’t have been happier for her! 

J and his lads before the ceremony began - I love how casual this is!

Studying Media since my high school days, I was always in tune with good wedding photography and videography. You know when you log onto someone’s website, and it’s just so shit wonder how on earth they’re supposed to be capturing your big day with a crap online hub? Ugh. So my standards for a videographer were high. Unfortunately, so were their costs.  

I searched high and low for an affordable videographer that would be willing to provide us with a highlight video (perfect for sharing on social media sites!), stay for the best part of the day (from morning prep to the speeches), and was actually pretty good and creative with a camera! Initially, I didn’t want a videographer, but as time went on I realised that actually there would always be parts of our wedding I’d miss while we were off faffing with whatever. Don’t settle! That’s what I keep saying! If you want it – have it! You’re only supposed to do this once, so make the most of it.  

Finally - married! 

I eventually found a videographer recommended by our local newspaper – Life Video Productions. After contacting him and telling him about my quandary, we agreed on a price between us that kept us both happy and in budget/pocket. This is a good thing to do! If you’re honest with your suppliers and are happy to compromise in some way, you’re entitled to a bit of discount. I even bartered with our wedding ceremony venue about our chair covers. They had the most ghastly chairs for the ceremony that looked like they had been pulled out the 17th century, yet would only let us hire chair covers if it was through them. I reasoned that it was out of order that they would charge us the same as a couple who were spending their entire wedding day there, and we were only using them for 20 minutes. We wouldn’t even be spilling food or drink all over them! So they whacked £1.50 off each chair cover. That was a saving of £120 – winner! 

Steve at LVP was amazing. He was so great with his camera that it made our wedding day look like something out of one of my Hollywood films. Unfortunately, we only met on the day – as the day we had arranged to meet up suddenly became busy for him – he became a father that day! Babies were determined to try and stop someone capturing our day, I’m sure! (I can laugh about it now, but back during the week of my wedding I was slightly panicked that no one was going to show!) 

Through bargaining and using mates to help out, we managed to save an awful lot on two things that should have cost us around a grand each. However, we did have to compromise, so see what you’re happy with doing. If you can get a decent photographer, but they’ll only supply the images on a USB stick – I say go for it! Wedding albums can be massively expensive (into the hundreds!!), and with so many websites like Photobox, Snapfish and Vistaprint providing sites to upload your snaps, edit and arrange them into your own album, you can save an absolute fortune! That’s exactly what we did, and our A3 hardback album with over 50 pages of photos printed on high-quality paper cost us around £45! We tailored our video package so that Steve would be present from the bridal prep, right through to the speeches. You may want more, or less, depending on what’s important to you, but I knew that after the speeches it could get rather messy – as in drunk guests, and my make up! So long as they capture you at your best, that’s all that matters. We also managed to get a 5 minute highlight video, and 3 copies of our main video, which had the ceremony and speeches in full, plus other lovely footage.  

KEB x