Here’s one from late last year - Jenny and Andy’s intimate wedding at Hartsfield Manor in Surrey. This was my first wedding after getting back from a wonderful holiday (the first in ages!) but thankfully there was no chance of post-holiday blues as Jenny and Andy were just immensely good fun and reminded me how much I love my job.

The focus of my coverage has always been documentary photography, but I always say to brides that, if they’re up for it, it is worth spending half an hour during the wedding day to take some relaxed portraits. I call this window of time the ‘creative session’ and basically it’s an opportunity for me to take a little more control than I do for the rest of the day, and make the most of what a venue has to offer. Often it involves going outside in the cold. It can be hard to brave the cold in a gorgeous strapless dress, but Jenny was an absolute trooper and was totally onboard with the “30 minutes now is worth it in the long-run” school of thought!

I never make my couples devote time to things they don’t want to, but a short period of time spent on portraiture, come rain or shine, is (IMHO) time well spent! I’ve never once had a bride look through her photographs and say ‘wow, these are nice but it sure was cold!’, the cold/rain/snow tends to be forgotten pretty quickly once the pictures are in hand.

Hartsfield Manor has a wonderful staircased entrance hallway and so stepping into the cold was only necessary on a couple of occasions, for the rest of the day everyone was busily enjoying good wine, fine food and the company of their nearest and dearest. I had a fantastic time, I particularly enjoy photographing relatively intimate weddings like this, and my thanks go to Jenny & Andy for choosing me and then being such great people to work with.