JOY OVER DISTRACTION

There’s something gloriously unrepeatable about a moment like this. It’s a moment that is devoid of choreography. Instead, there’s, I like to think, instinct, timing, and the ability to stand quietly amidst the cheer and catch the unfolding story.

Outside a London registry office, our couple emerges into a confetti storm, hand in hand, faces lit with an unfiltered joy that can’t be manufactured. It’s not a posed triumph. I enjoy images like this because they carry sound. You can almost hear the whoops, the laughter, the papery rustle of petals in flight. There’s movement, too, the raised hands, the flickers of red confetti caught midair. It adds up to a photograph that feels alive.

There’s a gentle irony in it all, that while I pride myself on reacting to moments as they unfold, this one, like many in a wedding day, was itself orchestrated by someone else, leaving me to find the unscripted within the scripted.

For me, this is what documentary wedding photography is about. I’m not here to orchestrate joy, only to witness it. I want couples to look back and feel something, not just see what it looked like, but remember the heartbeat of it. The unguarded smiles, the spontaneous gestures, the moments they didn’t even realise were happening. That’s the good stuff. That’s the story.

If you’re planning a wedding in London and you’re drawn to the kind of photographs that don’t ask you to pose for them, I’d love to talk. Because the best stories happen between the poses.