A personal reflection on why your wedding photography is important, even if you don’t know it yet.

As a relatively recent newlywed, I can confirm cakes get eaten, expensive dresses will get dirty, and flowers die. Yup. Harsh isn’t it? If present me could tell past me anything? It would be to spend a tenth on the dress and go to New York for an extra week. Yes, that’s a radical statement. Regardless of how much I wish we had prioritised better, the one thing I wouldn’t skimp on is our photography. I can barely remember our wedding day, not because I had too much to drink (one loo visit in a tulle dress was enough to stop me drinking!) but because it was a whirlwind. Before I knew it, we were hailing a Rickshaw to our hotel. I plead with all brides to be: invest in your wedding photography.

Yesterday, I asked my husband his favourite thing about our wedding photographs. He said this:

“I love that I can see what you got up to in the morning while I wasn’t with you…”. 

Our photographs are a visual trigger to memories on our wedding day. Photos of family members who we thought we might have lost, but didn’t and those we never expected to be gone in such a short time. Our first look, giggling in the church when the minister said we won’t always agree (standard!), the look on my mums face when she saw me in my dress – her little girl that didn’t believe in marriage. All these little moments that Lindsey (mack.photo) captured that will be with us for a lifetime.

mack.photo

And my flowers. Oh my goodness my flowers, I spent the whole day asking family and friends if they had seen them. They were divine. Of course, flowers don’t last. By the end of the day, they had started to wilt. I put them in a basin of water when we checked into the hotel, and took them to my Dad’s grave the following morning. Another point.

Above is my favourite photograph of my Dad. Standing outside the church, waiting for my mum arriving on their wedding day in May 1983. Every single one of their wedding photos he is smiling just as much as this one. He is brimming with happiness. I can’t help but smile from the very bottom of my heart.

My parents had a small intimate wedding with around 20 guests. It was my Dad’s second marriage, and my mum would have been considered an older bride at the time, aged 36. It would have been easy for them to have decided against hiring a photographer. But I’m so happy they did.  Their photographs are a visual legacy. Sadly, my children will never meet their grandfather, but they will look at his wedding pictures and see that he was a happy and kind man.

Yes, of course, it’s easy to see why I would consider wedding photography so important, I am after all a photographer. But, speaking from experience your wedding photographs will hold more memories and emotions for you than anything.

Visual prompts of many little memories that are just waiting to be unlocked. My dress hangs in a dust bag at my mums, and my shoes live in a box under the bed. But our photographs are on our computers, our phones, our social media. Accessible at a seconds notice. But without investment in photography, all of these moments are gone. Just think it over, think ‘how important are our memories?”

If wedding photography is important to you, and you’d like to hear more about what I can offer, get in touch. 

Similar Posts