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Your Second Most Important Decision is your Wedding Photography!  Here’s why….

You don’t know it yet, but your wedding photographs and photofilms are the second most important decision you will make about your wedding

A radical and intriguing statement I totally agree.  Although I’m obviously biased it’s only with the benefit of hindsight and the feedback from my couples over the last eight years that I believe this to be so true.  

The below is a little insight based on both my experience, and those little things that brides, grooms and their families have told me as we put together their photograph collections, albums and watched their photofilm together for the first time.

What comes first?

Obviously the first thing to book is the venue and hence your date in the spotlight.  This special place becomes the centre of all the planning, effort and energy in the run up to your wedding day.  You will remember your day of course, but think about past times when your brain prompted you to remember something hidden deep inside:  be it a little detail or a facial expression which was triggered by a photo, a film or a book. Your photographs and the voices of those people that made your day complete become your trigger, your focus point and your way to both remember all that you saw, you did and you said.  They also show you all that the story of your wedding day was and the people it brought together.

As one of my VERY wise bride’s said to me, “It’s all very well having a gorgeous venue and a stunning dress, but if you haven’t got amazing photos to remember them by, what’s the point?”

Your Second Most Important Decision
Your Second Most Important Decision

Cake gets eaten and is no more, the car is there for an hour or two then gone, the trinkets on the tables go in a cupboard and the flowers will be with you at home for a week before they wilt.

Your photos are with you forever:  your photofilm too. In the morning you’re busy getting ready but you don’t see the other side of the story of what your fiancé is getting up to.  That’s why for me having pictures of both sides of the story is so very important. Once you come together and say those special “I Do’s”, have photos with those special people and have photos together your story is being taken in by you, your mind but also your photographer.  Those photos and voices become that trigger in your mind: that look from your parents when they saw you for the first time, the smile on Nan’s face when you turn around after having that first kiss as a married couple are enhanced by the voices of those with you. These memories will be with you for a lifetime.  That laugh of Dad’s as he gives his toast to your marriage, the story from the best man’s speech about how you got together, your husband or wife telling you why they love you, that giggle from the crowd as you drop the registrar’s pen, and possibly most of all those tiny little snivels and sniffs as you stand there together at the front saying your vows.

Your Second Most Important Decision
Your Second Most Important Decision
Your Second Most Important Decision
Your Second Most Important Decision

Yes, other prompts and triggers exist:  your dress or your suit hanging in the wardrobe, your shoes in a box under the bed, congratulations cards in the drawer under the TV.  But your photos and your photofilm are everywhere: on your phone, your computer, social media and accessible in a flash. Without photos and a photofilm these moments may be gone or not be so strong.  So I ask a deliberately provocative question: “How important to you are these memories?”

This is why I am so passionate about the quality of the photos and the photofilms I do:  yes of course I’m not wholly impartial but I love this job so much because of the special days I experience, the amazing sights I see and most of all witnessing two very special people in love enjoying all that they deserve.  I truly believe everyone should be able to have special memories at an instant which brings everything that your day was about back to you. This is why I record the audio of the day, why I take so many photos and why I put it all together in a six minute photofilm.  This is also why I take time to get to you know you and your family in the run up to the big day so I know why this day matters so much and how you’re likely to be together on your big day.

This is also why I’m so passionate about you having a wedding album to remember your day by.  But not an album that sits in a cupboard unloved and never viewed.  I want you to have an album that you can proudly keep on your coffee table, or in the lounge, so you constantly have reminders of the memories of that special day you said “I do!”  You can read more about the albums below.

Your Second Most Important Decision
Your Second Most Important Decision
Your Second Most Important Decision
Your Second Most Important Decision
Your Second Most Important Decision
Your Second Most Important Decision

This paragraph is deep and emotional so be warned:  this is the key reason I do photofilms. Many moons ago a bride contacted me to say her wedding was coming forward 2 years because her Dad wasn’t going to be with “us” much longer.  I knew I had to get his voice, his words and those emotions captured for the years ahead. For obvious reasons this photofilm is no longer in the public domain. I still speak with this bride:  I know she watches her photofilm frequently to bring her Dad’s voice back to her. I still watch it as a reminder of why I do what I do and its importance: I’ll also admit it still makes me cry.  And this film gave me a truly compelling reason to get better at them and make them for YOU!

The below video is not “the” video:  but it is one that is also very important to me.  I’d known the bride for years, and whilst everything was perfect she was missing her “the one”.  At her best friend’s wedding she met one of the best men, and the rest is history.  On their wedding day she was pregnant and little one was “cooking nicely” inside:  a few weeks later little one arrived to complete the family.  It really was written in the stars!

If this photofilm has peaked your interest, you’ll find more photofilms and UNUNUN’s here.  You’ll find a little more info on why I do them, what each of them is and how I put them all together.

Happiness and giving my couples and their families the ability to trigger all those memories is everything to me:  that is why I do what I do. And why I’d also like to do it for you.  I’m well aware this opinion is very relative and also subjective:  this is why below you’ll find some thoughts from my previous brides about this exact topic.  Truth be told before publishing this article I asked them if they thought what I was saying was fair:  I was overwhelmed by their responses hence why I asked them to let me publish them as well.

Good evening lovely 🙂

It is totally a very fair comment. When we were planning our wedding loads of people said to us the day will fly by, and to take some “just us” time to take it in. You helped us do that, and made sure we took the time to be with each other for which I’m ever so grateful.

Even though we did that, looking back on the photos, and now the photo film just triggers memories of parts of the day that were so important but also so personal to us and what the day is all about.

I don’t think I appreciated how important photos/photo film would be after the wedding if I’m honest, we spent 2 years making sure the day was perfect and it was so worth it but it is the memories you captured for us that will be treasured forever. I think that’s probably true of most couples though, planning a wedding is exciting and I guess that not everyone thinks after the wedding… if that makes sense?? Xx

Louise Lovegrove

Phil!!!   It’s not mathematically possible for you to be 200% right, but if it was you are!  Not only have we got the most amazing photos, a wedding album that we treasure with our lives and a photofilm that reminds us of all the special things that happened on our wedding day, we’ve also got something much more important!  We’ve got you, a very special and priceless friend and someone who we know will always go that extra mile for us xxx

Gemma Woolley

Phil, you’re completely right!

Every photo we have is a precious memory of the most amazing day, and every time we look at them the emotions come flooding back to us in waves.  We’re so lucky we have them as they are a constant reminder of our day in the spotlight.

While I’ll also admit watching our photo-film does make me laugh a little as I hear myself sniffing away saying my vows, it is representative of everything I was feeling at that exact moment and would not be without it.

Jackie Sullivan

Hey Phil,

You know what, that sums up a wedding perfectly!!  Everything goes so fast in such a whirlwind you forget it and you miss certain times in the day or people.  But the way you’ve brought the the photos and photofilms together brings everything back and just makes us want to do it all over again!

Best of all I’ve got all these lovely and special memories wherever I go:  little slices of happiness whenever I need them!  That’s so amazingly special and important to me xx

Emily Hasseldine

If you like the sound of the above, you’ll find more kind words from my previous couples in the testimonials section.  Link below as always 🙂

Memories that WILL last forever

Your photos and photofilm are the key for the future generations to understand and see for themselves your special day.  I’d love to be able to make memories for you that last both our lifetimes, but also for your children and children’s children too.