Jack and Lisa’s Wedding
I was on Facebook the other day (I know right?… Old) when I noticed it was the anniversary of Jack and Lisa’s wedding, meaning it was also the anniversary of my first wedding as a photographer. Aside from reminding me of a great day, this also prompted me to think “My god, it’s been a year and I haven’t really posted many pictures of that or done a blog post about it on my website or anything. How am I so bad at the internet?” So at that very moment I vowed to right this wrong and here we are a week (and a few hundred swear words directed at my computer) later with a blog about the big day.
As just mentioned, this was a big for me. I’d only done one other wedding before this (big shoutout to Jules and Caroline) and that was a ceremony only shoot at a registry office during covid, meaning due to various rules and an upcoming proper wedding day with a proper wedding photographer, the whole thing was over in about half an hour. While this was a great day and a lovely opportunity to be handed, it was quite a far cry from a full day, whole event wedding like the pros do. For Jack and Lisa’s, it was time I put on my big boy pants, face my fears and go for the big time.
I’ve known Jack since my very first day at uni; in fact he was quite literally the very first person I met on my first day there. There I was, sitting alone at a table having just arrived at the bar, silently contemplating the utter horror of trying to make friends when this blonde haired guy who looked like a James Blunt fan (and it turns out was… in a BIG way) asked if he could sit down. Fairly unbelievably, it turned out that not only was he in the room two doors down from mine in halls, we were also essentially the same course and, fairly bizarrely, our dads came from the same town. The rest, as they say, is history. However at no point during that meeting or on any of the many nights of student drunken debauchery that followed did I ever, ever see a scenario where one day I might be taking this man’s wedding photos. Nonetheless, a good 18 years later I got a call from Jack asking if I could do it and was absolutely honoured for the chance.
It was a full on day. Post ceremony taxi ride around London, followed by reception, group photos and then everyone’s favourite; the party. On top of all that, I was obviously also a guest, so as well as making sure I captured every moment and kept all batteries etc. topped up, I also had to adhere to Jack and Lisa’s ‘most important instructions’… i.e. to ‘put the camera down and have a good time.’ It was a fine tightrope to walk, but thankfully I think I managed to succeed in both jobs, and I’m really happy with how the photos came out. And I definitely had a good time!
Huge thanks to Lisa and Jack for taking a punt on an as yet untested commodity for the biggest day of their lives. It was an honour to even be invited, but it also felt pretty special to have that level of faith put in me. Big thanks also to my special assistant (who can be spotted in one of the below photos) for helping everything come together, and to the one and only Simon Smith for making day two of the wedding so unforgettable!
If you need a wedding photographer for your big day or any other big events coming up please don’t hesitate to get in touch to see if I can help.