Modern day issues for decades of tradition

Today on love my dress, Annabel wrote this post about restrictions on photography in church. (It was actually yesterday, but the time zone thing is too confusing.) Whilst it isn't unique to churches (one of the photographers we contacted has had issues with registrars too) and I can completely see where it's come from, it is such a shame if a couple can't get the photographs they want. 


We're lucky - firstly, we were warned by our photographer that there was a risk of restrictions being imposed, and secondly our vicar has said anything is fine as long as they "don't get in the way." This sounds perfect to me. I don't want to be looking at or thinking about the camera in church, I want to be thinking about becoming husband and wife. But I want to see pictures of that moment afterwards. 


For me guests are a bigger issue than the professionals. Our photographer knows how a church service runs, and will have checked out the best places to stand, lighting etc before hand. She also knows how to use a camera - and that includes turning the flash off! I have lost count of the number of places we have been where flash photography is banned - there is always at least one idiot who can't manage this. At the Singapore Zoo night safari, they asked everyone to turn their flash off in seven (yes, 7) languages, told us twice that someone wouldn't - and several people still hadn't. This had led to other places banning photography entirely (such as the Blue Penguin colony in Oamaru, NZ) as it is a danger to the subjects (often nocturnal animals). 


The same is true of mobile phones/cell phones. There's always one going off somewhere, despite signs or announcements to turn them off. They are invariably loud and playing ridiculous tunes (I love a ridiculous ring tone - mine plays the theme tune to Fraggle Rock - but not at a wedding). If a phone rings during my wedding ceremony, its owner may find themselves going home hungry! A cautionary note to my guests - if you don't know how to work your technology, leave it in the car!!


This was quoted by one of the commenters on love my dress, and appears to originally be from Offbeat Bride. I think it's perfect:


We want you to be able to really enjoy our wedding day, feeling truly present and in the moment with us. We've hired an amazing wedding photographer who will capture how the wedding looks - and we invite all of you to sit back, relax, and just enjoy how the wedding feels. We respectfully ask that everyone leave all cameras and cell phones off during the ceremony. We ask you to refrain so we can see your faces, and you can see ours, both now & forever in the photos that our photographer will capture. Of course we will be happy to share our photographs with you afterward!


Gadget, however, will think it's cheesy, so I've found him this alternative:


Ladies and gentlemen, prior to wedding take-off, all seat backs and tray tables must be in their upright and locked positions, all bags properly stowed, and all portable electronic devices turned off and stowed. This includes cell phones and cameras.


I think I might add the first to our wedsite and Order or Service sheets, and ask Father Nick to announce something similar to the latter before I arrive. There are some signs on OBB that you can use too, but I think Gadget might object if I label our wedding "unplugged!"

Hold the front page - Gadget has made some decisions!

I mentioned yesterday that we've decided on the wedding cake. We need to find a few things (like a lego cake topper), but the choice is made. That's actually the second decision Gadget has made this week, and he almost managed a third (but that was too much for one week!).

He has decided to wear fun, coloured socks for the wedding instead of boring black ones. He doesn't own any coloured socks, so at least this will be something different for him. Hopefully we'll get some funny photos - have a look at the top left and bottom right photos.

Images from rockmywedding's recent fab groomswear article.

He also started looking into photo sharing sites. We LOVE photos, and are of the view that the more you have, the better the chances are of some of them being good. We want to add our guests photos to those of our photographer, which means getting digital files from everyone. We use Picassa for showing photos to friends and family, but apparently this may not be the best method for the wedding photos. Before anyone suggests Facebook, I'm going to tell you that we hardly ever put photos on there as they compress and downgrade the image to the point where it's unusable. 

It appears that there is currently no perfect answer. Flickr is good for uploading but not downloading, dropbox is good for both but has limited storage capacity unless you pay for it, etc. He tells me there are couple of new things around, such as Google Drive, so he's waiting to see how they pan out. In his own words, he's "decided not to decide yet!"

Lights, camera, action!

We have a videographer! My friend has very kindly agreed to be in charge of recording parts of the day. We don't want a fancy movie, but I want to watch myself walk down the aisle (go figure!), and Gadget wants the speeches recorded. I may have to erase my dad's, depending on how embarrassing he is, but we'll wait and see on that front!

He's going to use our camera and tripod, and has even said he will stand by the camera for the whole ceremony. This is because their wedding video didn't work (presumed technical failure), and he doesn't want that to happen to us. I feel very sad for them (I didn't know that until today), and very grateful that they are helping us to benefit from their experience. A big shout out to the awesome Mr F - we owe you!

Snap = happy!

Not knowing where to start looking for a photographer, I did a google search for "photographers in york." Lots came up. A few people had emailed me after a wedding fayre my mum attended. I looked through dozens of websites, and ruled out the ones I didn't like. Then I asked Gadget to rule out the ones he didn't like, and emailed the rest.

There were no set criteria here. We like photos, and we routinely sift through hundreds (or maybe thousands) of them. We know what we like. The one thing I can share is we do not like washed out, over exposed, so-called "vintage" pictures. We like our pictures to be fun, and we like them to include people.

Arbitrarily I decided that £1000 was the maximum I was prepared to pay. I don't really know why, but as we got five candidates under that price, it seemed reasonable. I also insisted that they had to specify whether they would take posed group shots, and if so were there any limits. A friend had problems with this, and I'm pleased she felt she could share this with me, allowing me to deal with it upfront.

As with the venue, it seems some people are incapable of reading emails (or maybe they just can't be bothered?). We got several standard, bounce back replies which contained nothing more useful than a price. They were all over £1000.

The short list of five quickly became four as one photographer confirmed he was booked for our wedding day. Then it became three as one person was "so busy photographing weddings" that he couldn't possibly meet anyone on a weekend. My dad did the interviews for us. He works in London during the week, and can only do weekends.

Of the two he spoke to, one was a clear winner. Like the venue, it ended up being an easy decision. Kath Occleston's photos are FAB - bright, fun and beautiful. I'm excited to meet her, and I really hope we can get permission to go up on the venue's roof to take photos (her idea, and if you've looked at our venue you'll see why!).

The last photographer fell by the wayside, as we were happy with our choice. I'm now glad they did, as they are still sending me solicitation emails.

pretty in pictures

Although having lots of (hopefully fabulous) photos is a priority for us, we weren't sure if we were going to have a professional photographer or not. We actual have several friends and family members who take great photos. Gadget takes pretty good ones himself, and so does my dad, though that's clearly not practical!

Photography: father-of-the-bride

Photography: Gadget/groom

We considered asking the other people we know, but decided it was putting too much pressure on them. At least with a professional we can have our friends' photos as a back up plan, and it's covered by insurance if there's a major problem.

How did we find a photographer form the other side of the world? You'll have to come back tomorrow!

Engagement photo shoot

We didn't have an official engagement shoot, but we did need a photo for our save the date cards. My dad took the pictures, in the beautiful vineyards around Napier in Hawke's Bay, NZ. He also took a couple of sneaky ones when we weren't watching!

I think they're pretty good - what do you reckon?