The Groomsmens’ Cameras – how they make your wedding day a LOT less stressful!
Both sides of the wedding day story are vital. I want memories of both of you getting ready with your respective friends and families, and the fun that entailed.
But, as a bloke, I know we are useless at having our photos taken. That’s why the groomsmen cameras exist: and every wedding day picture on this page is from them!
Way back when, I used to try and fit in prep time with both sides of your family, sometimes driving upwards of an hour to do so. I didn’t object in the slightest, but I did think there must be a better way. I think there is.
Four things are true of us gents. One, we’re useless at setting times for getting ready. It only takes us ten minutes or so, unlike the ladies. Two, we often quite like getting ready early and heading to the pub for a beer. Three, we’re pretty rubbish at having our photo taken. Four, when it’s a busy emotional day, to start with we prefer having a smaller number of people around us. Basically a complete contrast to the ladies.
Now, given this, what could I do to make it easier? Well firstly I would need to remove any time constraints and time barriers to you doing what you wanted to do, when you wanted to do it. Secondly, it’d mean taking a massively low profile. When you’re 2 metres tall (6 feet 5 in old money) that’s not that easy.
Which is when I decided one wedding to try giving the groomsmen a pair of their own cameras to play with on the morning of the wedding. That was one of the best experiments I’ve ever done.
Ok, these cameras are not perfect. They unfortunately don’t give the quality of image that my huge mirrorless and low light lenses give. But they’re pocketable, easy to operate so that everyone can use them. They’re also not £4.5k each so you won’t be too scared to actually use them. Most importantly for me, they shoot RAW negatives, not JPEG’s, which means I can do more with the photos when it comes to develop time. I’ve put pictures of the groomsmen cameras with one of mine to give you the idea.
This way, I get to spend more time with the ladies trying creative things with the rings, the shoes and capturing the randomness of hair and makeup time. It also means the gents can sort their own timeline and get ready early and go to the pub if they want, knowing they haven’t got to wait for me. It also means that when you get to the church or venue, you can still get some frames of the gents waiting for the bride and myself to arrive.
Once the ceremony is about to happen I’m more than happy for you to give them to a page boy, one of the flower girls or similar. It will keep them entertained, give them something to do and also mean that they feel special. It also gives us an alternative camera angle to play with: they’re not 2 metres tall after all.