I can assure you of two things - nobody cares about your wedding day
as much as you, and nobody cares about your wedding photography as much as me!
To contact me, click here.
Please note - This website is still under construction, so please forgive any glitches or incomplete pages.
So now to business - I am a female photographer based in Bromsgrove, covering areas within the West Midlands. Over the years, I've worked in the following areas and at the following venues (not including churches) photographing weddings and receptions:
Bromsgrove - Avoncroft Museum (if you want to know more about some of the buildings at Avoncroft, click here), along with Redhouse Barns, Manor Hill House, Grafton Manor, and Bromsgrove Registry Office.
Droitwich - St Andrew's Hotel.
Kidderminster - Hogarth’s Stone Manor.
Redditch - Bordesley Park Wedding Venue.
Birmingham - Birmingham Registry Office, Westmead Hotel, The Oratory, Highbury Hall, Shustoke Barns (if you want to know more about Shustoke, click here) and Kings Norton Golf Club.
Solihull - Hampton Manor, the Registry Office, The George Hotel (now a Ramada Wyndham Hotel), Hogarth’s, The Limes Country Lodge Hotel and The Strawberry Bank.
Warwick - Ardencote Manor and the Warwick Registry Office.
Stratford on Avon - Wootton Park and The Grosvenor Hotel (now called the Villare Hotel).
Worcester - Curradine Barns.
Tenbury Wells - Cadmore Lodge Hotel Watermill.
Coventry - Nailcote Hall
Cotswolds - Charringworth Manor.
We are always happy to travel further afield, but this will invariably come at an additional cost. For more about my photography pricing, click here.
I photograph with my partner Martin who is my second photographer (sometimes referred to as a second shooter), crowd herder and 'general' assistant, helping me with anything and everything on the day of your ceremony to make sure I concentrate on getting your photography done with the minimum amount of fuss and distraction to you and your guests. He has been told that he has quite a calming effect on Grooms (or anybody for that matter) who might be a little nervous with all that their wedding day can entail, so if you have a nervous Groom, Best Man or Usher(s), Martin will do his best to steady them on the day.
Martin’s presence is included in any price I quote to you: he is very useful at gathering guests for any formal pictures. With the many ceremonies we have photographed together, we work like a finely oiled machine during any formal pictures, he has a list (usually supplied by you), calls out the names on said list, assembles the relevant people together, I tweak their pose or more often, move everybody a little to the left or the right, and I take the pictures. Ever mindful about timescales for the day, formal photographs are all done in the quickest possible time. Coupled with the fact that not all your guests will be required to be in your formal photographs, so we don’t want to detain you and keep you away from them any longer than we need to.
During your marriage ceremony, we don’t just concentrate on you and your partner. While you are both very important (and the two people we are all there to see), we also look around at your guests: who’s wiping a tear (usually a parent), or is there a child who is doing something they shouldn’t be or looking particularly cute, is there a grandparent interacting with a grandchild or anything worth photographing that you won’t see because you are occupied elsewhere.
With two photographers, you get two angles of your ceremony covered – me at the business end where the ‘I do’s’ are being said, but also Martin behind you, practised in waiting for the moment to take pictures when you turn to each other to say your vows, place the ring on a finger or have your First Kiss.
If you are in a venue with a balcony or elevated space, one of us will do our best to get to that vantage point so you will have some pictures of your ceremony from a different angle or viewpoint. We do all this with the utmost respect for the ceremony that is going on - respect within a church for the religious ceremony but also respect in a civil ceremony for the legal ceremony that is being performed. We always ask if we'll be able to take photographs during the ceremony – most people who perform the ceremony say yes, but occasionally we are given very strict instructions to stay in one place – if this is the case, we will let you know so you can manage your expectations regarding the pictures you might expect to get from this part of your day. Sometimes, space is tight if the venue or church is small, so we are limited to how much moving around we can do, but no matter how small the venue, we never stand in the same place, so you are always guaranteed pictures from two angles.
We also like to try to include you in wider pictures of your venue while the ceremony is going on, while up close of either of you is great, we also try to place you in the centre of a 'big' picture that shows the majesty of a church or the beauty of a room for a civil ceremony. As stated above, if space is tight, we might not be able to do this, but where we can, we will.
I am happy to chat with you about anything, offer advice about the time of day for your ceremony, venue, or time of year. If you’d like to see if I cover any of your questions in my advice about times of year etc, click here. If the answer you seek is not there, get in touch and I’ll see if I can help.
Often, this is the first time you've had to contact someone to photograph your wedding and you might be a little confused about all the terms we use - I can help you with that, click here to see my advice about selecting a photographer.
Be assured that no question is too silly or unimportant... and if I don't know the answer, then I'll find out. Sometimes, you won’t even realise you have a query until you speak with an experienced photographer: we might tell you about things you hadn’t considered and then tell you how to resolve them.
In general terms, we have three cameras between us, which means that I have a back-up if one fails (it’s never happened, but who’s to say it wouldn’t?), having two cameras allows me to use two different lenses during your marriage ceremony. Different lenses will also give you different results to your photographs. We have two flashes (and one constant light) and while I don’t always use them, they are always at hand if a set of pictures need a little more light.
We don’t just take pictures during your ceremony or your formal picture requests, we’ll do pictures of bridal flowers or grooms corsage, any flowers in the church/venue, pictures of the venue itself – inside and out. Pictures of your cake, table decorations, table favours – in fact, anything that you have spent time on, thought about (sometimes agonised over) and spent money on. In truth, I don’t know how many of these pictures ever make it into an album, but we supply them with your other photographs and it’s up to you what you do with them. I usually share them with vendors, who always like to see their work on Instagram or Facebook. We’ll also take pictures of all the other things you’ve chosen to make your day special, such as your wedding car (if you have one) throwing your bouquet (assuming you want to throw it), cutting the cake, your first dance – every little aspect. We’ll continue scouting for candid pictures of you interacting with your guests, your guests with their loved ones, little ones – children are usually dressed up and looking lovely and let’s be honest, more than happy to have their photograph taken.
With that in mind, if your guests want us to take pictures of them, we are more than happy to do so. We always tell our couples to let the guests know that they shouldn’t be shy about asking us to do pictures of them. For most of us, a wedding is a time we see the relatives (or friends) we haven’t seen in a while (especially with recent Covid restrictions) and when we are dressed up, looking good and feeling OK about having our picture taken. Plus, all pictures taken of guests will be available for them to see and download for free, so why not encourage them to ask us for a picture or two?
While we are on the subject of guests, I don't mind guests with camera phones taking pictures at times, but having a guest with a DSLR following me around all day, just over my shoulder, can be a little distracting for all involved - who do the bride & groom look at, me, there paid to do the job or a guest with a camera? So, while I can't stop guests with cameras taking photos (nor would I want to), just be mindful that it can be off-putting for those of you having your picture taken.
I carry a stash of biodegradable confetti in my camera bag just in case a few of your guests have forgotten to bring some. I find the confetti pictures are the ones that bring the most smiles to everyone involved. They do take a bit of setting up and usually we are instructed at a church ceremony to take the confetti pictures outside of the church grounds, but we are used to that… the biggest issue is stopping excited guests from throwing it too soon, before me and the rest of the guests are ready.
So, you can see from all that we do for you on your wedding day, you might be thinking that you'll likely get loads of pictures and yes, you will get loads of pictures – I have sometimes taken more than 2,500 pictures during a wedding day, then went on to deliver over 1,000 to the couple. Some people might think this is too many, and I agree it might be, but with over 1,000 digital pictures fitting onto one USB, why delete pictures of a day you probably took ages to plan, no doubt went over on any budget you had set yourself and then felt that it passed you by in the blink of an eye.
I supply all those pictures, put them on a USB and let you decide what you use and what you don’t. Once a picture is taken it can always be deleted, but if the picture is not taken, the moment is lost forever. Coupled with the fact that you can’t be everywhere on your wedding day, so lots of pictures help you see what everyone else was doing while you were enjoying your day.
In my camera bag, I don’t just have camera equipment, I carry ‘lady items’ - because mother nature sometimes has a cruel streak, scissors – you have no idea how many times I’ve seen people hunting for scissors during the bridal prep. I have a small sewing kit that includes safety pins – who knew those little things could be so very useful and in such demand? All this comes from years of experience photographing weddings and remembering what was required for one day and making sure I have it next time. People are stressed enough on their wedding day; I consider it a necessity to help people out where I can and try to lessen that stress.
I realise that looking for a wedding photographer can be quite daunting, and it might seem that there are lots of choices, with everybody offering something that appears to be similar but for wildly differing prices.
I know that I was (probably still am) no good at taking advice off anyone: I always think that I know better, and you will no doubt see lots of advice about how to choose your photographer and might choose to disregard all of it or only choose the advice that resonates with you. But one thing I would stress is the need to try to set a budget and stick to it. You can see some ideas on how to reduce expense in some aspects of your day here.
Even when you plan an 'inexpensive' wedding, it can still be stupidly expensive (let's face it, 'cost' is a relative term) and the desire to cut costs here and there can make it a stressful experience, especially if you’ve had some ideas for a long time but never realised exactly how much they were going to cost, so I hope to help you with your photography requirements by offering to attend only for as long as you need us. Above is a link to see some of my ideas to cut costs on your wedding day or you can look at suggestions on how to cut costs in your day-to-day life to try to save towards your day here.
So, if you are lost in a sea of advice and don't know where to turn, drop me an email, text or call me and I can tell you what 9yrs of experience has taught me... and the best bit is that all advice comes free.
If you’ve had a look around my website, you will see that I also do quite a lot of travel photography with long/night photography being a particular passion. If you want to see what that all looks like, click here.
If you’ve got this far well done, it’s difficult to explain all that we do with a few hundred words, plus Google likes a lot of words which is why you’ll see so much text on my site and other websites you look at!
Got some questions - get in touch - what have you got to lose?
