Gorgeous Wedding Photos

Photos to Remember

As a lasting picture memory of your wedding, wedding photos are essential. My tips will help you to get your wedding photos right first time.

Don’ts

Don’t forget the details. Wedding favours, flowers, table crystals and confetti, boutonnieres, even your shoes! You’ve spent all this money and time to create a beautiful wedding, remember to get some photos of them!

Soul Bird Photo

I Met Some Photographers

I recently went to my friend’s gorgeous wedding and the photographers for the day were fantastic!

They were really professional, really discrete and friendly. I was chatting to one of the photographers, Asia Werbel, talking about lens envy.

The company is called Soul Bird Photo.

As well as photographing the wedding and reception, the photographers were also running the photo booth. It was a very popular feature of the wedding, visited by every guest.

I definitely recommend Soul Bird Photo, they were fantastic for my friends wedding. All the key shots were captured and the photographers stayed until the end of the night.

If you look on their website, you will see tonnes of beautiful photos of different weddings. I love the different angles and the captured details which they photograph professionally.

Soul Bird Photo are definitely worth checking out!

The Most Important List of Your Wedding

Your Wedding Photos

In a You and Your Wedding photo special, they kindly listed a lot of the photos you will need for your wedding.

The day will fly by, and the last thing you want on your special day is to be fussing about photos. Compiling a list will make things easier for you and your photographer. The list in You and Your Wedding is invaluable! Copy this list into word and print it out asap!

At Home

• Your dress on the hanger
• You getting ready
• You in your dress
• Your shoes

Tackling Your Budget

The Right Budget for Your Photographer

Setting Your Budget

The main factor in setting your budget for your photographer is the importance you place on your wedding photography.
If you only want something simple for your wedding, have a simple budget.
If you are like me and want a long coverage at two locations then your budget will need to be slightly larger. A photographer’s work begins before your wedding day and continues long after, so try not to look at the price as a day rate but rather an investment in beautiful photos that will last a life time.

Photographers

Choosing Your Photographer

Regular blog visitors will know how important my wedding photography is to me. H2b and I are amateur photographers and we try to capture our friends’ weddings as much as we can to help add to the professional photographers photos.

When we chose our wedding photographer we thought very long and hard about what we wanted.

Where to Start

With brides having such high expectations for their wedding photos, the best place to look for a photographer is in the blogs and on their websites. Try to picture your wedding in their photographs, and if you can see it then you know this is the photographer to go with.

Look for passion and style in their photographs. Some wedding photographers take photos for a job, others have a passion for their photos and challenge themselves to take better photos each time. Spend time talking to the photographer to find out about their passion.

Make sure that you like the photographer. You’re going to have to trust them to take photos of your wedding.

When to Book

Book early! Once you’ve booked your venue and your ceremony, book the photographer! Good photographers can be booked up 18 months in advance! If you really have your heart set on a good photographer, book them as early as you can!

Visit the Venue

Most photographers will visit your venue if it’s somewhere they haven’t been before. An engagement shoot is a great way to not only get to know the bride and groom but it will also give the photographer the chance to look around your venue.

An engagement shoot is also a fantastic opportunity for the bride and groom to have a nice day being photographed. It’s not often that we get to be the centre of attention, and it’ll be good preparation for the Big Day.

More Wedding Photos

More Must Have Shots!

In a previous post, I said that some of your must have shots are the following:

• Establishing shot, setting the scene and mood of the album
• The details of your wedding, which are usually things you’ve slaved over with a glue gun!
• The getting ready shots, wonderfully animated and full of excitement
• The lads! Remember, h2b is there too!
• Your family, a photo with your dad or whomever is giving you away

Well, here are some more shots that shouldn’t be forgotten!

The Grand Entrance

One of the moments the guests will be waiting for at a wedding is in the church or civil ceremony venue when the music begins to play, they all turn around and the bride walks down the aisle, arm in arm with her giver away-er, or even walking on her own. 

The excitement on your face, the bouquet, the dress! Everyone will want to remember this moment as you walk down the aisle to your h2b!

Hopefully your photographer will snap this picture without you even noticing! This shot should be natural and relaxed and full of all the emotions you’re feeling at that moment!

The Groom’s First Look

My personal favourite shot is of the groom turning around to look at his bride for the first time as she walks down the aisle.

I think the groom’s first look is the most romantic, touching photo. It’s a photograph filled with love and anticipation. If your photographer can quickly snap this photo while your groom isn’t look so that it looks natural and as relaxed as a man can while his bride is approaching, it’ll make a fantastic addition to your wedding album!

The Reception Room

Once everyone has settled in the room and moved things, the reception room will never look the same again. To get the best image of the reception room, ask your photographer to nip inside and snap a few untouched shots.

I like these shots as they show all the effort that went into dressing the reception room. Even if you have minimal decoration, the elegance and style of the room will be something you will want to remember in years to come. A fantastic addition to any wedding album.

The Cake!

With wedding cakes costing in excess of £400, asking your photographer to take a few snaps of the cake is essential!

Edible items of your wedding will either be eaten or perish, so having a few photos of these items to remember them are crucial wedding album shots.

Try to capture the details on the cake, the ribbon and the little details. If you have a cake topper, it would be nice to snap a few shots. You could try standing behind the cake toppers to show how they look like you!

 

The First Dance

The first dance is often the last photo in an album. It’s actually quite difficult to take a good photo of a first dance as you’re both looking in different directions and the lighting is low. However, it’s a very romantic shot and ideal for any wedding album.

The DJ’s choice of lighting can often add an interesting atmosphere to any first dance and if your photographer can capture the lighting it will look fantastic in your wedding album.

But the best first dance pictures are when the couple are relaxed and happy.

Top Tips

One of my top tips for wedding photos is to make a list of all the shots you want taken on the day. If you have some special friends or family members who you really want to have photos with, make sure you make a list to give your photographer so that no one is missed.

More photo blog posts coming soon!

Top Tips

How to Pose for Your Wedding Photos

You are most likely going to keep your wedding photos for the rest of your life. You want them to be memorable, beautiful and filled with all your friends and family. You may also want to look your absolute best! Here are some tips on how to look your completely amazing in all your photos!

1. Stick out your chin!
   To avoid double chins in pictures find a natural pose where you can extend your chin or tilt it to the side.
   
2. Have good posture!
   While you don’t want to look stiff, you want to show your figure off at it’s best. If you slouch it will make you look saggy, keep your shoulders back but relaxed to make you look more perky.
   
3. Find your perfect angle.
   If you notice, on the red carpet actresses never look straight down the camera.  They always stand at an angle to have their picture taken. Do some experimenting either in the mirror or with a camera to find your perfect angel. Stand at about a quarter turn from the camera. Put one foot forward, straight ahead of you. The other foot should be turned to the side so that your body is at an angle.
   
4. Avoid the closed eye look.
   If you’re anything like me, you will blink when the flash goes off. To avoid this, ask the photographer to count to ‘three’ before he takes the picture. If take in a breath when he says ‘three’ then you won’t blink. Crazy but ezinearticles.com say it’s true!
   
5. Idol hands
   Make sure you do something with your hands. It needs to be a relaxed pose. A lot of the time when I’m posing for photos, I put my hand on my hips in a vain attempt to look thinner. You could vogue with your hands or hold hands with your hubby. Your hands may be hidden under your bouquet.
   
6. Smile or no smile?
   Don’t force a smile. You will probably feel like smiling lots and lots and lots! I feel like  smiling just thinking about it! There may be times during the day when you don’t feel like smiling and if your photographer snaps a picture of you during those times they can look lovely and peaceful.
   
7. Interact with your guests
   Some of the best photos are of people hugging or talking or being natural in pictures. Make sure you forget your photographer is there and talk to your guests. They are there for you and these natural photos will look fantastic in your album.

If you have any tips for posing for photos please let me know and I will include them in my post. Have you had your photos taken for your wedding? What would you advise?

Chat with our Coordinator

One year, one month, 19 days to go!

Had a really really really good day today!! We went to our wedding venue and had a chat with our wedding coordinator. With just under 14 months to go, you might be thinking why are we going to the venue to sort things. We have plenty of time to do that, and with so much time to spare we might change our minds.

The reason is, we want to get our invitations made. We’re sending invites to our local guests in September but we’re sending invites to our guests abroad in July, to give them time to book tickets and things. This means we need to book our invites over Easter as I’m not sure how long it will take the invite making lady to make them, and we have to book a slot. So, if you work it backwards, seeing our wedding coordinator in February half term isn’t so bad!

We had a really good chat and he answered heaps of our questions. We went through the wedding top to bottom.

The church ceremony is starting at 12:00pm, finishing at roughly at 1-ish and getting to our venue for about … well we agreed at about 2pm including time for photos and travelling. It could be as late as 2:20 though… Then we’d have our photos and the sit down dinner, or wedding breakfast, would begin with a receiving line (mum and dad’s idea!) and dinner beginning about 4:15. The speeches to be at the end of the meal (sorry dad, h2b and best man!) followed by the evening do, which will start at 7:30, the first dance appearing at 8:30!

The coordinator also let us know about when our suppliers would be able to deliver the cake and the table flowers. He asked us about our chair covers which I thought I’d sorted but hadn’t booked yet, so that’s got me to think about that! I was thinking of going with posh frocks for chairs. More about that later… If there isn’t another function booked in the day before our wedding, our suppliers could deliver our things on the Wednesday before the wedding, however if there is a function the day before ours they can deliver from 5am the day of our wedding, which is fair enough. However, they recommend that the florist delivers the day of the wedding, but that’s obvious really. No one wants droopy flowers!

We talked about the speeches as well, putting h2b and Dad under pressure there. I think the ‘s’ word is something they don’t want to hear for a long time yet! H2b even dared to joke about how short his speech would be… We do not joke about the wedding!

We talked about wedding DJ’s as we haven’t sorted that out either, and we talked about the men’s suits as that also hasn’t been sorted. Actually… looking at my to do list, lots hasn’t been done!

Our coordinator asked us about the food we’re thinking of having. We’re fairly sure about the starters, we discussed the main options. We talked about the puddings too, and we’re all having lots of good ideas!

It was really exciting talking to the coordinator. I know our wedding is ages away but it was really useful to get timing and advice and all sorts from someone who not only knows how weddings work at our venue but also has vast experience of the wedding industry as a whole. Peter is so professional and friendly, I feel like our wedding is in good hands!

Photo Albums

I have already posted that I believe photos are one of the most important aspects of a wedding. This is why my h2b and I chose Clive Blair to be our photographer. I may have mentioned that h2b and I were absolutely inspired by all his pictures. I honestly cannot recommend Clive enough but this post is about wedding albums.

Since we booked Clive he’s introduced Queensbury albums. They look spectacular! They appear similar to photo books but with the quality of a traditional album. My sister-in-law and my brother have this tome, I call it, a huge wedding album in a traditional style. I wanted a tome, but I like the style of the photo books. It appears that Queensbury albums combine the quality of a traditional album with the modern chic of a photo book. This is what I want for my wedding album, something that we could keep for the rest of our lives as a reflection of the most wonderful day we spent together, and the start of our married life.

However, that’s just the one album for you and your hubby to keep, what about the rest of your family who want an album. Clive does offer parent albums, but perhaps your sister would like a picture because your niece was a bridesmaid.  Many photographers out there offer a CD only service, where they take a lot of photos and put them on a disk for you to order your own wedding album. This is a cheaper and quicker way of seeing your wedding photos but which photo album should you choose?

There are so many websites out there that offer photo books by uploading your own photos and making a book, printed with a hard cover. As I’m a bit obsessed with photos, I do make quite a few photo books. My h2b takes some brilliant photos and I make them up into books so I have used a few of the photo book websites.

Photobox
User friendly, easy to use, fantastic templates and plenty of choice, Photobox was the first photo book making company that I started to use. This picture here is of me holding the first photo book that I made for my fiancé and I to celebrate seven years together.

There are a variety of covers available in a variety of colours. I chose a black cover because I thought that would be more manly for my h2b. I would have liked a pink cover!

Photobox offers a variety of different products. My friends bought their thank you cards from Photobox, they looked fantastic and they’re a memento from the day. I will be doing the same. Other products include calendars and diaries, wall decor, photo mugs, prints and home gifts. The photo book I received was very high quality. One of the pictures I used was from the camera I had in 2003 which was barely 3 mega pixels, when I put that photo into the album they told me that the photo wasn’t print quality. That kind of help is invaluable! (I used it anyway, it was an important picture!)

The photo books come in different sizes and shapes. It depends on which photo album you’d like. It’s completely online, there’s nothing to download and it’s all easy to use. You can even preview your creation online before you print. My dad so loved the album I had from Photobox that we made a funeral album for my Granddad’s funeral. It was filled with photos from my Granddad’s life and everyone at the funeral said it was lovely and deeply touching. See, photos are for any occasion.

Blurb
Blurb is a website I’ve only just started using and I like the look of it. They have a variety of methods for creating a photo book.  You can use a pdf book, if you’ve taken the time to make one, download their book making program, or make a book online. I have tried both in the interest of giving you a full review – and wow!

I first tried making a book using the BookSmart program that is downloadable from the Blurb website. There is a fairly clear user guide, some interesting templates and the option to edit layout. To me, an amateur, I think this is amazing! I get the feeling that some of the elements of BookSmart are aimed at marketing or advertising companies, as they are very customisable. You can add photo boxes, text boxes, resize these boxes and move them around the page in any layout that you’d like. Imagine working on your wedding pictures, creating an album for a friend and you can design the layout into any format you like.
I am fairly computer savvy but I did find this program very easy and simple to use. I was just bashing about pressing buttons to see what happens but I achieved a fairly nice effect using this program.

I’ve added a photo here to show what the photos looked like when I added them to the template. Pretty nifty if I do say so myself. I just quickly added some photos from my computer (there’s also the option to add from online albums) and messed about slotting the pictures into the spaces.

It really depends how much time you would like to put into your photo album. If this was the only option I had for my wedding album I might spend a bit more time making it. As it stands, this is the kind of thing I would enjoy spending my time making as I’m that sort of person, so I would really use this type of program.

The Bookify option doesn’t seem to have as many templates. I chose a small square album as I would if were making an album for my parents to have and there was a set format that I couldn’t change, although I could alter colours of backgrounds and so forth. This could give the less computer savvy person the option of using a simpler book builder. The BookSmart option does give you a lot more control over what your final book will look like.

Boots
Just to demonstrate how good Photobox is, Boot’s online photo book maker is in partnership with Photobox! I was about to type that I thought the Boots books were very similar to the Photobox ones, and then when I click on the website I see that they are made by the very same company! It goes to show that not only do Photobox provide an excellent professional service, but they are also used by a nation wide chain of shops – a brand that we all visit and use from time to time.

Jessops
Jessops use CEWE to make their photo books. There doesn’t appear to be an online photo book making function, but the program is easy to download and install. However, I didn’t find the program as easy to use as the Photobox and Blurb programs.

I’m not sure if I clicked on anything wrong but the pictures I’d selected (randomly from my pictures folder) filled into the album without me indicating where I wanted them to go. Once you get the hang of it, it is possible to customise the backgrounds, photo layout, and add additional photos to the page. It takes a bit of fiddling and experimentation, but there is a fairly decent customisable element to the program.

Kodak
Kodak’s photo book maker is online, where you can upload your photos to their website and  then edit them into your photo album book. I like the function that you can add yourself as a guest, you don’t necessarily have to sign in or register to use their website. Always a bonus if you’re in a rush.

Depending on the size of your photos and on your internet speed, the uploader is fairly speedy. I uploaded a few pictures from my computer to use with the album and it was fairly speedy.

There is the option to change the layout of the photos if chosen from a set layout, but it seems like the background colours aren’t customisable. It is quick and easy to use, just a drag and drop system, but for me I’d rather use a much more personalised layout than simply using the set layouts.

My Conclusion

Which ever website you decide to use, remember you could always ask your photographer for his or her recommendation. I think it’s important to weigh up cost with the product you receive in the end, and to think about how you want the photos from one of the most important days of your life to be presented. Think about how much time you have, and how much computer know how. Each of the websites have their own positives and negatives, I’ve tried to give you a fair appraisal of all the main ones that I use so that you can decide from a bride’s opinion.

Photographers!

Photography is a topic close to my heart. I love taking photos, I always have ever since I was a little girl. My friends can barely meet up with me without a flash going off in their faces. And it's one of the few things I have in common with my fiancé! We both love taking photos but he's the only one with the fancy DSLR camera. (I'm saving up for mine but this pesky wedding got in the way! lol) 


We are amateur photographers and as such have a keen eye as to what counts as good photography, and what counts as fairly average photography. Not that we're experts, just very fussy! 


Because of our hobby, it was very difficult to find a photographer we liked. We looked at the photographers our venue recommended and well, they didn't inspire us. They were good but I do think your photographer should be able to take better photos than you can. We amateur photographed my best friend's wedding and some of our photos turned out absolutely amazing and I'm personally really pleased with them. 


That is why we chose Clive Blair to be our photographer. His photos are breath taking, taken from interesting angles, utilising mirrors and wonderful moments. When we were looking through his sample albums, it was like looking at what our wedding could be like.

When I was showing my mother the prospective photographers, she complained about every single photographer. She said that he'd cut off the bride's head, or he'd got the photo at the wrong angle, taking photos of the back of someone's head. Whinge, whinge, whinge... Until she saw Clive's photos. Mum was very quiet, just soaking in how amazing his photos were. I just can't praise him or recommend him enough. And he is a nice guy too! 


After your wedding, when you've spent all that time planning, spent all that money on dresses and venues and invites and favours and flowers and so many things, the photos are what you have left, as well as a wonderful marriage. They are a lasting memento of your wonderful wedding day. I think the photos for your wedding are worth spending a chunk of your budget on. 


As for talking to your photographer, here are some tips and questions to ask:

• Websites!
  Before meeting up with your photographer, have a look at his website. This will give you some idea of his better photos and will give you some ideas for questions to ask him/her/them.
  
• Can we see a sample album?
  It sounds simple but this will give you the best idea of what your photos are going to be like. Look at the composition of the photos, are they want you want you photos to look like? Could you take photos like that? Do they give you a feel of what your wedding could be like?
   
• Will you be our photographer?
  If you're going through one of the bigger photography companies, this might be a pertinent question. The person you're taking to may be booked on that date, make sure you're getting the photographer you want.
  
• Do you work on your own or are you a team?
  Team photographers are the best, in my opinion. One will follow you in the morning, beautifying yourself for your big moment, while the other follows your fiancé and his nervous preparations. I'd love to catch a glimpse of my fiancé looking a bit worried. I know he'd have a good sense of humour about it! But I also think, that if a single photographer produces such amazing photos then it's important to choose him or her.
  
• How long will it be before we see our wedding photos?
  Some photographers have a 2 week turn around, others spend more time and the photos arrive later. One of my friends received their wedding photos 9 months after their wedding, that's a bit extreme I think. It depends on your album but expect a reasonable turn around.
  
• What would you do if it rains?
  Or if it snows, which it has done recently? Or if the groom breaks a leg? Or if aliens abduct the best man? A good photographer will know what to do in all these occasions because he'll be experienced and have contingency plans.
  
• Do you do an engagement shoot?
  An engagement shoot gives you the chance to not only have some lovely pictures of you and your fiancé, but also it gives you the opportunity to learn your best angle, to relax in front of the camera so that when it's your Big Day you will be able to take the best photographs you can. 

I think you should really go with your gut on this one. You will know what you think are the best photos, you will know how much of your budget you will want to dedicate to photos.