Wedding Day - Samantha & Samuel - A day with plenty of opportunities
Samantha & Samuel - A day with plenty of opportunities
Gatwick Europa Hotel
April 2014
Samantha and Samuel held their wedding ceremony and reception at the same venue in Sussex. Any situation has its pros and cons for a wedding photographer. Remaining in the same place removes a lot of practical concerns about transferring between venues and gives the photographer a bit more time to work with fixtures such as the decorations, table arrangements and (fingers crossed ) the wedding cake. The challenge can be to find enough locations to keep the photography fresh throughout the day.
As it was a Sussex wedding I was able to arrive even earlier than normal, which gave me time to work with the wedding rooms. Starting with the reception room and some shallow depth of field work, then moving on to the empty ceremony room.
To me it's all part of capturing the pre-wedding atmosphere and the start of the storytelling. My time with the couple began with Samantha's preparations in her room with her flowergirls and family. As we were in the same building I was able to run back to the ceremony room to shoot Samuel, his best man and guests before going back for some formal portraits of the bridal party. Sometimes wedding photography does help you to keep fit!
The ceremony passed without a hitch, and the exchange of rings was particularly emotional. Afterwards we were able to use the various locations within the hotel to good effect for both formal and reportage photography. The lounge area used for the drinks reception, the outside patio and fountain, an additional water feature, garden and main reception suite meant that there was plenty of variety in the style and subject of the images. We had a real story to tell :)
Have a look through my wedding gallery for more of my work, or have a look at my weddings page.