Ann's Pudding Picture #1

At some weddings, just when dessert is about to be served, Ann can be spotted lurking near the door through which the waiting staff exit the kitchen. You'll see her swing her camera to track the plates which whizz by, and you'll wonder what on earth she's doing.

What she's doing is taking Ann's Pudding Picture, one of which is shown here, and the idea is to take a picture which shows both what's on the plates and the movement of them being served.

We both do this sort of thing as an exercise to perfect a particular technique, so if you do happen to notice one of us doing something really weird with a camera, just pretend you haven't. At least now you know why ...

Babies, toddlers and weddings

Some of our clients are big on babies and young children, and are very happy to have lots of them at their wedding. Which is cool.

Some of our clients are not at all keen on the idea of babies and young children at their wedding, so they invite their friends but not their children. Which is also cool.

In our experience, the only time this whole kids thing can easily cause a problem is when a couple who aren't really big on small people either comes under pressure to have them at their wedding, or doesn't think about the possible consequences.

Hence this quick guide to the reality of babies and young children at weddings ...

1. In this picture, Dad is returning to his pew with the baby and the rucksack full of baby stuff, followed by number one child. He'd previously taken the baby out to change its nappy. This picture was taken during the couple's solemn vows, and this sort of thing is not as uncommon as you might think.

2. But at least he took the child out when it started yelling. Even though they assure the bride that they'll take baby out if he makes a noise, very few parents actually do. Most just move the source of the noise from the front of the church or ceremony room to the back, where it often seems to get louder.

3. Many brides spend a lot of time planning how a room or a marquee will look when it's set up for the wedding breakfast. On the day, some of them clearly feel that it all looked better without the prams, buggies and high chairs.

4. It's not unknown for a child or two to hang about round the top table during the speeches, with the result that some of the pictures taken during them may include those children whether the couple wanted that or not. If the parents don't control their children at that point, not many brides are actually going to shoo them off: most put up with it and complain about it later.

5. Some sort of crèche arrangement at a reception is a really good idea, as is a separate table for the kids during the meal with a couple of mums nearby to supervise. And a kids' entertainer is usually worth every penny, especially if they stay on to keep 'em quiet during the speeches.

Tables #1

Here's a neat Glasto theme: tables named after the festival stages, complete with green wellies holding the flowers!

The box on the tree

All I can tell you is that we did a wedding near Bedford a few months ago and this box was on a tree outside the entrance to the church.

There must be some seriously confused blue tits in that churchyard in the Spring ...

Shoes #4

Formal photos - cont'd

Kate asked earlier today what the secret is for organising the formal family photos, by which we mean shots like this one from a different Kate's wedding.

Unless you're very lucky, opting out of doing any family formals at all is unlikely to be an option because of the grief you'd get from family members - especially the wrinklies who usually look forward to being included in them. And besides, 10 or 20 years down the road, you may well be glad that you did a few after all.

The first thing to do is simply accept that these pictures will take longer than they should, and the second is to accept that it's no good handing the problem over to your photographer.

Best advice is to assume that the best man and ushers will be of no use whatsoever on the day, and to appoint instead a bossy bridesmaid or girlfriend to be People Rounder-Upper. Somebody who can be really pushy if need be and who's not averse to shouting at people if she has to.

Your People Rounder-Upper needs a list of the formal shots in the correct running order, with names of everybody who's in each shot. Doing a roll-call usually goes down well if it's done light-heartedly, and it also helps if you've primed the people concerned beforehand so they know they'll be needed for a picture.

There are various other ways and means of speeding up the whole process and actually making it fun, but we go through those with our clients on the run-up to the big day, along with all the other hints and tips.

What's a good number of posed formals? That depends a lot on how much time you've allowed for them, how well people co-operate, the weather and the conjunction of the planets, but we're unlikely to be the right photographers for anybody who wants more than 8, excluding the couple on their own.

Shoes #3

Shoes #2

Emma says ...

Video - We didn't want a video person getting in Dan and Ann's way so we asked a friend to set up a static camera just for the ceremony and the speeches - and it worked very well indeed!

Rings - I'd highly recommend The Wedding Ring Workshop in Hatton Garden where we spent 5 hours making each other's rings. It was a very special experience and the people there are lovely.

Invitations - Ours took a long time to sort out and were expensive but they were worth it. It's the first impression your guests get of how the day will be and virtually all ours commented on how lovely they were. We got ours from Piccolo Press - one of the most professional and dedicated companies I've had the pleasure to come across.

Shoes #1

Here's a bit of that nice carpet in Henley on Thames Register Office photographed during the exchange of vows between a woman wearing a gold dress and suede YSL platform heels and a man wearing a brown corduroy suit and bright red sneakers ...

She's done what?

So the bride decides it's time to get into the frock and Mum, ever anxious to help, produces a pair of scissors to remove the hangy-up loop thingies (bloke term there) from the Vera Wang. Whether it was the champagne or just the general excitement I have no idea, but I do know that when the time came that evening to bustle the dress, there was no loop to hang the train from ...

If you can imagine your mum doing the same, do make sure that on the day she (a) starts at the top of the dress (b) counts the loops she cuts off and (c) stops at two.

Going to the loo #2

Remember girls, big dress + small cubicle = potential problem, especially if you're in a hurry, unless you've thought this through beforehand!

If there is one, your best option's the disabled loo simply because there's usually a lot more room.

If it's going to be a Portaloo experience though, don't forget to reckon on (a) three steps up and (b) small cubicles.

Ceremony shots - religious

For this shot in a very dark church late on a December day, I was tucked away behind the choir, and I know that very few people noticed either of us taking pictures during the ceremony.

The bride and groom certainly didn't, and this picture is typical of what we can do in most churches even under adverse conditions - if we're given the chance.

So here's a very brief explanation of the real deal on photography during religious services in England. Ann says I have to keep it brief so it doesn't turn into a rant about a pet peeve of mine.

We've never had the slightest problem at a Jewish wedding, however Othodox. We've never had a problem at a Catholic wedding either. Nor at a Humanist ceremony. Or a Pagan one. But when it comes to Protestant churches and photography during the ceremony, it's a complete lottery.

We get literally everything from "As long as you're discrete I'm happy for you to get whatever the couple wants" through to "I will not tolerate photography in my church and if I see you so much as try to take a picture during the ceremony I will stop it until you leave". And Old Grumpy Trousers who came out with that last quote meant it: he'd not long previously stopped a ceremony to rebuke a guest who had the audacity to raise a camera to her eye during it.

Unfortunately there often seems to be no connection between what the vicar told the couple about photography in the first place and what we get told on the day, but we're well used to this stuff. And there are ways and means of making the best of things ...

However, if we're taking your wedding photos and ceremony shots are important to you, do please talk to us about this as early in your planning process as possible. Especially if it's a Church of England ceremony.

There.

Not the slightest sign of a rant ...

Going to the loo #1

Here's a tip just in from Zoë that applies to any wedding with a marquee and Portaloos.

"We went to a wedding a couple of weeks back and there was no cover or matting on the grass between the marquee and the loos. Needless to say it was raining and my shoes are ruined and the bottom of the bridesmaids' dresses were a lovely greeny brown colour!!!!!"

Table centrepieces

In case you haven't already decided what's going to happen to your table flowers / centrepieces, here's an idea from a recent wedding ...

During the speeches, the bride asked the ladies at each table to work out whose birthday fell closest to the day, and whoever put her hand up to that got to take the flowers home with her!

We thought that was neat, and it certainly went down very well indeed.

Fancy a London bus?

This is the bus that Ruth and Johnny hired to take themselves and a lot of their guests from Islington Register Office to their reception at Coq d'Argent in the City last month.

It was immaculately turned out and driven by a very capable and friendly driver, and it was certainly a fun way to travel on the day. It was also a very efficient way of moving a lot of guests from A to B without them getting lost on the way!

We've come across hired London buses before and found some of them a bit tatty or their drivers a bit less than wonderful, but this was good. So we have no hesitation at all in recommending Blue Triangle Buses in Rainham, Essex.

Wedding cakes - suppliers

We get to see a lot of wedding cakes and to sample quite a few of them, so, very much for what it's worth, here's our thoughts on suppliers of them ...

Out of the usual big names that feature regularly in the UK bridal mags, the only ones that consistently impress us are Savoir Design, Patisserie Valerie and Purita Hyam (see links on the right).

If you're on a tight budget and you want a fairly traditional cake, we've also been impressed by Waitrose wedding cakes, particularly the chocolate one!

Finally, if you're getting married in the south east, a very good local cakemaker and expert sugarcrafter is Sarah Harvey of Not Just A Pretty Cake And that's not just because we photographed her wedding ...

Wedding cakes - alternatives?

We've just been asked if we have any ideas for alternatives to a wedding cake, so here's a couple ...

Alternative 1 - no wedding cake. We photographed a wedding earlier this year at which they simply didn't have one, and to our surprise it looked very much like most of the guests either didn't notice or weren't bothered!

Alternative 2 - a chocolate fountain. In our experience how much of a success this would be depends largely on the person running it, the way they set it up, and both the variety and the quality of the foods provided for dipping.

One other point about chocolate fountains. Some of them have cheapo "vegetable" oil added to the chocolate as the thing's being set up to make it flow better (and taste pretty yukky in our opinion), whereas others seem to run just as well (and taste a whole lot better) without the additive ...

Bananas # 2

Why is this woman holding a banana like that?

Was she perhaps brought up to eat a banana sideways because it is more ladylike so to do?

Enquiring minds need to know ...

Bananas # 1

Why is the bride's father using a banana instead of a microphone?

Why is the bride hiding?

What on earth is the toastmaster doing under the table?

I think we should be told ...

Slideshows during speeches

At last Saturday's wedding, the best man's speech was built round a PowerPoint presentation of the groom's life.

Early on the day, he carefully set up screen, projector and laptop and did a complete run through to check all was well. He even marked on the floor the position of the projector table and the screen, so that when the time came to set up during the meal, he knew exactly where they needed to be. Then having satisfied himself that all was well, he dismantled everything and got on with enjoying the day.

Come speech time, he set everything up in a couple of minutes, switched on, and ... nothing happened. Nothing happened because the lead from his laptop to the projector, which was working perfectly earlier, had developed a fault. And he had no spare.

In the circumstances, he cobbled together an entertaining enough speech, and in fact ran the presentation on his laptop later at the bar, but all his preparation was in vain.

Which I guess only goes to show that if your speech relies on technology of any kind, it's wise to have a backup plan in case that technology lets you down on the night ...

The dreaded formal photos

"Ensure that you have made someone responsible for bringing the family together for the formal shots. This was the only part of the day that was really stressful for me and it would have helped if the best man had carried out his responsibility for this!"

And I'm not saying whose advice that is in case the best man reads this. However, here's two remarkable facts about the formal family photos, based on the last 200 or so weddings we've photographed.

Fact One Over 90% of couples assure us that on the day the best man and ushers will round up people for the formal photos.

Fact Two At over 90% of the weddings we photograph, they do nothing of the kind. As far as rounding up people goes, they are a complete waste of space.

But don't despair! We have the answer ...

Fancy a go on the gallopers?

The big attraction at a wedding we did near Bedford this summer was a genuine full-size fairground carousel complete with vintage Scammell generator truck! Built in 1898 and with a 1925 fairground organ in it, it's in immaculate condition and it's the pride and joy of a lovely old boy called Bob Rawlins from near Staines.

It's for hire by the day (although it actually takes Bob and his mate the day before to tow it to your site and set it up as well as the day after to dismantle it and take it home) and if that wedding was anything to go by, it goes down brilliantly with young and old alike.

Bob Rawlins is on 01784 252332 or 07850 570824

Apparently he can also do fairground dodgems ...

Ceremony shots - civil weddings

This is Lavinia and she's happy. She's happy because she's just walked up the aisle and turned to face the guy she's marrying. And she was happy afterwards too, because we got this picture and plenty of other great ceremony shots.

Lavinia was married at Turkey Mill near Maidstone, so it was Kent registrars who officiated, and as usual they had no problem with us taking the pictures during the ceremony.

Unfortunately, not all places are as enlightened as Kent, which has an official policy of normally allowing professional photography during the ceremony.

One notorious example is a certain castle in Gloucestershire, at which the registrars are graciously pleased to allow the official photographer one shot with a long lens from the back of the very long ceremony room. Another is the Sussex registrar who, when we last had the misfortune to work with him, forbade photography during the ceremony then camped it up to the point of holding hands with both bride and groom, before bowing low to kiss the bride's hand ...

So before this turns into a rant about egocentric registrars, let's just say that if pictures during a civil ceremony are important to you, do please talk to us about this as early as possible in your planning process.

Sling backs

Hannah says "Don't wear sling backs unless you're really sure they'll stay on your feet. Mine didn't and I was so glad I had another pair of shoes to change into before we started dancing!"

Time and mirrors

Lorraine says "Start getting ready an hour before you planned to on the day. When I got back from the hairdressers in the morning, it seemed like we had lots of time. Next thing I knew, there was ten minutes to get me into my dress and out of the door!"

"And make sure you remember to take a look in the mirror before you leave. Because I was suddenly rushing to get ready, I forgot to look in the full-length one my mum had got especially for me to do just that."

"There's a ... what?"

"Relax and enjoy. Remember that you cannot plan for every eventuality"

That advice comes from Kate, who on the morning of her wedding learned that an unexploded bomb had been found outside the premises of her caterers and that consequently nobody was allowed inside to collect the food ...

Blokes and buttonholes

If there's one thing you can guarantee that the blokes will have a problem with on the day, it's their buttonholes. Or, if you prefer, their boutonnières.

Even if you or the florist has ensured that the buttonholes are in the right location at the right time and they're labelled so they know which is whose, you can practically guarantee that they won't be able to put them on their jackets properly.

The only solution we know of to this problem is to ensure that when blokes meet flowers, there's either a florist or a competent lady present to sort them out.

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