On Saturday we had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Catherine and Mark. Images from the wedding will be loaded once the bride & groom have had a look at them as I feel it is not appropriate to let other people see the images first. So you will have to be content with the front of the wedding car at this stage.

I really enjoy shooting weddings. While they are incredible tense in terms of the fact that you have to get the shot, the event is so full of joy and it really shows in the images that come through. The combination of killer hair and makeup mixed with an inner happiness that just glows through the skin, it is very easy to achieve great results. Wedding are something that I will never shoot alone so on this shoot I was joined by my wife Vicky and our daughter Samantha.

I have known Catherine for a number of years and she was one of the first models I ever shot, so when I heard that she was getting married I was only too happy to offer to shoot the wedding. Being a winter wedding meant that we had to plan venues that could accommodate any weather, and more particularly rain.

Although we were shooting a full documentary style coverage Catherin was doing her own makeup and did not want that covered so we started later in the day that we have with other weddings. So it was arranged that I would go to her house at the time she was finishing her mother’s makeup and then shoot her getting her dress on. This was laved up the back and it turned into a three person exercise (including me) to get it laced up tight.

They were getting married in an old church in Upper Hutt. I had previously videoed two weddings there so I had an idea of what it was like, but just to be sure we attended the rehearsal held on the Thursday. While this is not something that all photographers will do, I find it is very useful to get an appreciation on any special or different things that may occur in the service. It also lets you look at the angles. If you are shooting part of the service outside it is a good idea to go to the venue the day before at the same time to see what direction to light is predominately from.

It was at the rehearsal that we discovered that the Minister would not allow flash photography for most parts of the service. Finding that out two days before is much easier to cope with than on the day of the wedding.

We had hoped for good weather but unfortunately that was not on the order and by the time I went to Catherine’s house there was an inch of water on the ground. The rain continued through the service but by the time it had finished there was the possibility that it may go away. It was still too risky to do the family photos outside of the church, and therefore they were moved to later on in the day at the reception.

The reception was being held at “The Back Bencher” which is a pub in Wellington opposite Parliament. As Mark was MC for the night and wanted to be there before any guest arrived we decided that the formals would be shot in the grounds of Parliament. It had the advantage that there were a number of covered areas available should it rain.

As I turned out the rain appeared to be very localised and when we got to Parliament we were under clear blue skies. However it was not much warmer than 10 degrees and with both the bride and bridesmaids in strapless dresses we had to move quickly to get the photos.

Fortunately the venue had a room away from the main dining room so that we could set up an umbrella and shoot the family groups. As with lots of wedding after I thought I had finished shooting the groups (and has started packing the gear away) a cousin showed up who wanted photos.

You can view other wedding we have been involved with from the weddings link at the top of the page.