Why your intimate wedding celebration still deserves epic photography

Weddings in 2020

Update 05/08/20 – on Friday 31st July, with less than 24hrs notice to many, it was decided that small wedding receptions would not be able to take place as planned (along with some other sectors who are waiting to hear if they can reopen). This is obviously a blow for the wedding industry (I hate using that term as it implies the idea of there being this huge wedding industrial complex, and whilst that exists some places, the wedding businesses I know are all small, passionate teams that care deeply about the couples they deal with), but small ceremony only weddings are still able to take place. We’ll hear more from the government on the 15th August, though I suspect it’ll be a ceremony-only affair for a while now.

If being married, and doing it just the way you want, rather than having a big party (which you can always do next year) is the most important thing to you, most of what I’ve written in the piece below still stands – you can still have a wonderful celebration of your love, have a quick glass of fizz with your guests outside, and then go and eat the most delicious food, and stay somewhere gorgeous; just the two of you. My minimum booking price covers up to 2 hrs photography which is the perfect length for ceremony only coverage, and if receptions are allowed again later this year, we can always add-on extra time at the last minute. I, and I’m sure no doubt plenty of other wedding suppliers, are prepared to work flexibly to help support our couples in these difficult times.

Original text published 24th July 2020: On the 16th July, the Prime Minister announced, that from the 1st August wedding receptions with up to 30 people in attendance would be possible. The current official guidelines can be found here, and hopefully this link will stay current with the most recent information as we navigate this period, I’ll share some more info here and I’ll try to keep this post updated as we navigate this time. There’s also a downloadable guide for all things related to small weddings, which you can find all about below!

The blog Love My Dress has been doing some epic work on advocating both for the couples whose weddings have been affected by Covid, and for the wider wedding industry too. They have been an absolute mine of information, so do go and check them out.

Firstly, let me start by saying that I love small weddings.

It goes without saying that I love the big ones too, but it’s always an honour to be asked to capture the really intimate ones. And those that I’ve captured with numbers under 30 have run the full spectrum of elopements with me acting as one of the witnesses, all the way to full on micro weddings of 30 people that have included a big ol’ rave up afterwards, just on a smaller scale. Some people have oodles of friends and family and couldn’t imagine anything less than having them all there, others would prefer a quiet celebration…

Here’s some things that make small weddings awesome…

Fewer people to feed so you can go fancier with the food and drink, book your favourite restaurant or get the pricy champagne.
More time to actually have a proper conversation with your guests
You can still have gorgeous flowers, invites, menus and all the other stuff (if you want, they are lovely but they don’t make a wedding)
Only invite who you want – it’s a great excuse to be ruthless, there’s no room for distant cousins or your Mum’s friend from bridge, or indeed, if you don’t want to invite them, it’s a great way to have a child-free wedding
Small, urban venues suddenly become available – beautiful private dining rooms, or small pubs
As with the food, your whole budget goes further when there are fewer people involved which means there’s less compromise on budgeting for things like a photographer, or your outfits.
Venues will be keen to book in short notice weddings to replace their postponements, so you might bagsy a good deal.
You can make it all about you – if you want to get married with just your very best friends then this is the time to do it.
You can take risks with your outfit – suddenly that chic but awesome designer outfit that maybe didn’t feel ‘enough’ for a big wedding is the perfect answer.

It has become a bit of a hackneyed cliche to say that your wedding photos are one of the most important investments you can make into your wedding day – when the outfits are packed away, the flowers wilted and the food you ate a long distant memory; it’ll be those photos reminding you of how you felt in that moment, how the streets and city looked, how young the two of you looked and that funny thing your best friend always does. If, because of Covid, fewer people can attend, it stands to reason that you’d want something beautiful to show to those that couldn’t make it – maybe those that can’t travel, or maybe are too frail to make it. And also, 2020 has become pretty damn unique, so let’s celebrate that too.

Now booking elopements, tiny weddings, short weddings and everything in between

For the rest of 2020, my minimum booking for wedding coverage is just 2 hrs, with prices starting from £450. Of course if you want a full day, or 6 hours or more, that’s cool too. Just get in touch and we can talk about timelines, and I can suggest what I think might work.

2hrs coverage works perfectly if you want a bit of coverage pre ceremony, the ceremony itself, confetti, a handful of groups, some time for some awesome photos of the two of you and maybe the start of a drinks reception.

3 hrs will cover all of the above plus extended coverage of your drinks reception, with lots of lovely candid, natural photography of your guests and would cover some speeches/toasts too.

Once you get on to 4 or 5 hours you can include some getting ready shots (and from 1st August you can have hair *and* makeup too!) or extended coverage of dinner. That might work well if you have a number of speeches, or even are doing a little first dance (even if the big party is still a no-no). I’ve shot plenty of weddings of all shapes and sizes, so we can just chat about your plans and how it’s shaping up, and I can recommend coverage that I think could work to capture everything you want. Hey, 2020 has been a bit of a shitshow for the wedding industry, amongst others, so at this point we’re all just happy to get back to doing what we love!