I’ve been asked across the years to photographically cover weddings for venue owners, wedding organisers and other wedding photographers and whilst every event retains an importance befitting a truly one off occasion, there is no doubt on a day where wedding professionals are the key focus, there is a mind shift in terms of how I experience their photography. Because as a documentary wedding photographer I choose to envelop myself in a day and truly experience the event rather than work from a shot list, perhaps it’s that in the back of my mind, there’s a heightened intrigue as to how they are seeing their day unfold from the other side of the counter.

And so I bring you Angus and Verity’s Wasing Park Wedding Photofilm, a real journey of emotion with an inevitable focus on food at one stage, as the groom is a director of the catering organisation driving this venue. And with each Photofilm presented there seems to be an enhanced documentary feel; the film breaking from musical score on a couple of occasions to experience simply the sounds and atmosphere recorded.

A clean break is not a term you may necessarily associate with subject matter relating to a wedding. Yet, when you’ve been planning a wedding for two years, looking forward to the date, the occasion and everything to do with this one big day, think of one of the most difficult phone calls you could make, exactly four weeks to the day of the marriage itself when you have to announce; “Darling, I’ve just broken my ankle.”

This wedding saw many a twist and turn (if you’ll forgive the gratuitous pun Tony) in terms of the tales of a day, including a professional comic as one of the best men. So, here’s a love story, actually, here’s a whole bunch of stories, in a Photofilm called ‘Stories to tell’.

It’s a wedding venue I know well, Wasing Park; under fifteen minutes from my front door, I’ve shot over 70 weddings at this one venue alone. Yet every day is different, and I genuinely feel that. We talk a lot in this industry about story telling, narrative building through wedding photography. By setting the images from a day to sounds recorded as the tale unfolds in real time, I really believe it’s a strong way to capture another dimension in terms of narrative. Here’s Duncan and Erica’s story as a Wedding Photofilm.

It rained. Oh, it rained. And then it rained some more. But you know what? Late November, Christmas rapping on the door with a reminder to check your behaviour for the naughty and nice list; there’s a romance to winter weddings that dispels any thought from your mind that mild weather is the only accompaniment to saying “I do.” Here’s a new Photofilm edit from Chris and Nicola’s Windsor wedding, with reception at Bijou Weddings’ Botleys Mansion.

From probably one of the last truly mild days of 2012, two beautiful locations came together for what can only be described as a very English kind of wedding. This is the story of Steen and Georgina’s wedding day as a Photofilm. The day began at St. Michael and All Angels, renowned as Britain’s finest baroque church. It’s attached albeit by a ‘thread’ these days to Witley Court, which damaged by a fire in one of the wings in 1937 was unfortunately sold to scrap dealers when the insurance company failed to settle for restoration of the building. And so, as you’ll see by the opening two frames, this fabulous building (now restored in part by English Heritage) is now a haunting shell surrounded by beautiful Worcestershire countryside adjacent to one of the most incredible churches I have ever had the pleasure to photograph in. Following the ceremony, we went city bound to enjoy a quintessentially colonial style high tea at The Old Palace, Deansway. And so in the shadow of Worcester Cathedral, the evening came to a close. History lesson complete, I hope you enjoy the Photofilm.