Things To Think About #3

Planning on moving your guests from church to reception in a coach? In the light of our experience at two weddings in the last two years, the way to avoid the risk of a lot of people getting cold and fed up outside a church whilst waiting for a coach to turn up is to:-

Assume that if the coach is also taking people to the church, it will drop them off then disappear to park somewhere else. Before it does, get somebody to find out where the driver's going and that he knows what time he has to be back.

Get written confirmation from the coach company of the time when the coach will be outside the church ready to load for the journey to the reception.

Get a mobile number for the driver and a backup number for the duty manager at the company's base,

Assume that mobile phones won't work at the church and find out where the nearest landline phone is.

Remember that the service you're paying the coach firm to provide is not what they spend most of their time doing, so you need to spell out exactly what they have to do for you on the day.

Hats #11

Just realised that we haven't had a hat picture for ages ...

The Land Of Big Breakfasts

On Wednesday we flew oop North to do a talk for the good folk of the North East region of the Master Photographers Association in Durham, which is indeed a fine place for a wander round on a sunny afternoon.

Having met some really nice people and done our thing, we retired to our hotel room intent upon a relaxing bath. The guy who came up to try and make the bath taps work couldn't have been more helpful, and having admitted defeat was quick to give us the key to the empty room next door so we could use that bath instead. And when Ann found that it was full of tins of paint and maintenance gear, he immediately found us another one down the corridor which was just fine.

The fault with the fire alarm in the adjacent block didn't really disturb us that much because by 3am we'd just about got used to the drone of a remarkably noisy fan somewhere and were pretty much fast asleep.

However, just before 7am we were rudely awakened by the incessant chattering of that insufferable woman on Radio Two, coming to us loud and clear through the floor of our room. Which was above the restaurant. In the ceiling of which are the speakers for the background music. And the restaurant started serving breakfast at 7am sharp ...

Breakfast was fascinating. There we are being Southern wimps with our breakfast of faux croissants and coffee, and we're surrounded by sturdy folks carrying huge plates from the breakfast bar thingy piled high with bacon, eggs, sausages, beans, fried bread, black pudding and for all I know a deep fried battered Mars bar or two, topped off in many cases by a quivering mass of scrambled egg, all of which they consumed with great gusto.

Feeling totally outclassed, we slunk out and in due course were kindly driven back to Newcastle airport, there to spend a few hours looking out of the departure lounge windows watching two blokes mend an aeroplane so that we could fly home in it.

Photographer At Work #7

Here's a picture of me at yesterday's wedding in sunny Suffolk checking what the big group shot's going to look like if everybody ever gets into place for it. In the absence of a first floor window to hang out of, an obliging guest with a trick Landrover is indeed a handy thing to have at a wedding ...

Things To Think About #2

If you're thinking of booking a particular DJ, it's always a good idea to ensure that they don't in fact advertise their business on the front of their rig. Few things look tackier across a dancefloor at a wedding than "Aren't I Cool Discotheques For The Grooviest Sounds Around" in purple reflective vinyl lettering on a banner strung from a lighting truss.

Notices #9

That's "Inn" as in "Inn of Court", by the way ...

Things to think about #1

Despite what Mum or your florist might tell you, tall centrepieces are not actually a good idea for top tables. If they're much more than maybe 12 inches (30cm) tall, they're likely to obstruct your view of some of your guests or their view of you.

Will she or won't she?

And if she does, will we get to see the pictures?

Heard today from the lovely Anika, whose wedding we photographed last year and who is pictured swanning past a Soho sex shop (as you do) with husband Tim on the home page of our main site.

Apparently they'll be spending their first anniversary at this year's Isle Of Wight Festival, at which Ani is considering wearing her now-shortened wedding dress together with a pair of white wellies in order to celebrate the occasion.

We think that's an excellent idea, and if it happens, we're going to be seriously miffed if we don't get to see the pictures!

No pressure Ani. Just do it :)

Doo-dah ... Doo-dah ...

Yes, I do know it's Camptown ladies in the song but I couldn't resist that.

I spotted these two whilst legging it round Lincolns Inn Fields in the City yesterday, and it's actually the sign on the gents that intrigues me.

If you go to school in Camden, is that a plural or is it the plural of a plural?

Cakeless Weddings

The first time we photographed a wedding without a wedding cake, we were fascinated to see how little difference its absence seemed to make. The guests didn't seem to notice. Nobody went hungry. It didn't seem "wrong" at all.

We've now done four cakeless weddings, and at the last one I was interested to hear the banquetting manager's take on wedding cakes. What it boiled down to was that:-

1. They can be outrageously expensive for what is after all just a cake that's supposed to be eaten on the day

2. At most weddings, half of what's been sliced up and served at table actually gets left on the plate and ends up in the bin

3. That's because most people nowadays are not used to eating a three course meal, therefore they have no room left at the end of one for a piece of cake

4. Wedding cakes and the cutting of them are traditions that seem to be on the way out

All of which seems about right to me. I won't relate what he then had to say about bands at wedding receptions, but I did agree with every word of it ...

Neat Idea For A Table Plan

Sam and Gregor came over from Tokyo to get married in Knightsbridge, and this is one idea they brought with them - labelled pairs of chopsticks arranged in ornate bowls containing rice.

When guests were called to the wedding breakfast, they found the chopsticks with their name on, read the back of the label to see which table they were on, and then kept the chopsticks as a memento of the wedding.

Seemed to work OK in practice and was certainly well received by the guests!