With most weddings, things are usually planned very well in advance. Every detail from transport to table favor, flowers to chair covers, menus, table plans, cake cutting, entertainment and much more besides. The photography is no exception to this. Before the wedding, I always (when possible) meet the couple to discuss timings, venues, photographic styles, ceremonies, formal portraits and many other details. On the day of the wedding, I like to arrive early enough to take a fresh look around the venues (both inside and out), form ideas and plans for potential shots in and around the area, as well as looking at the possibilities of shots travelling between venues. Even with all the planning in the world, at live events things do still happen with a spontaneity that can really give the photographs an edge.
I was recently asked to photograph a wedding in Chelsea for Annie and Barry. They had planned a very cool and glamorous wedding, with a ceremony at Chelsea Town Hall and then onto Beaufort House on the Kings Road for dinner, dancing and cocktails. On this occasion I had done my recce of the area a week in advance, as I was due to meet with Annie for an early start at the Kensington Hotel for some getting ready shots. After arriving in style in a vintage gold and black Rolls Royce, the ceremony went swimmingly and the couple exited onto the Kings Road for a few formal family portraits on the steps of the Town Hall. It was then time to put my previous weeks research of the area into good use and I suggested that they take a leisurely walk, fifty or so yards along the King’s Road to the Chelsea Curzon Cinema, making use of it’s wonderful Art Deco exterior for some informal shots of the two of them. It wasn’t until we approached and Annie burst into laughter, that I realised this weeks headline film was Nymphomaniac (Volume 1 & 2) !
Luckily for me and with full credit to Annie and Barry, they both have a great sense of humour (an essential quality to every long, happy marriage) and were only too pleased to have some pictures taken outside…
