Why should you invest in a wedding photographer? Let’s go back to the 90s…
When I was about 10 years old, every night when I went to bed I asked my mum to tell me stories of the “olden days”. “What did you look like?” “Tell me the naughty things you did at school.” “What was your wedding dress like?”
I hounded her with questions, and looking back now I’m not sure she appreciated me calling it “the olden days”.
But I loved the stories she told me. That time she came home from work and my dad had knocked a hole in the side of the house because he wanted a window there. The time her and her best friends tried to stay at school overnight by hiding in the toilets, but the janitor locked the loos, so they snuck out the toilet window and left behind the fat girl who couldn’t fit through.
And then there were the photos. The polaroids of mum and her best mate pretending to model in the local park. The print of mum wearing bell bottoms and hair down to her bottom, leaning against her first car, a Mini Cooper. I love seeing what my parents looked at when they were my age, too. The 80s hairstyles, the massive plastic glasses, my dad’s huge beard and rapidly disappearing hairline (sorry dad).
That’s my mum on the right, with her sisters and brother, and below is them a few years ago.
Mum went to a lot of fancy dress parties. She’s the one with the pink skirt. They all look so cool, I love seeing my mum at parties in her 20s! The old brown sofa, the red velvet curtains, the fringed lampshade.
This is my grandma and grandad. He was terrifying. If it wasn’t for these photos, I’d have forgotten what they look like as they died when I was small.
This is my uncle Eddie, he was in a band and executive producer at Capital Radio. Yep that’s Paul McCartney and Kate Bush.
My Lithuanian family. Look at that hideous wallpaper, it’s wonderful.
Then there’s the photo of my dad aged 16 sitting on his Lambretta scooter with his name across the front. He’s wearing a red velvet jacket and the mirrors have little flags.
Without these photos, these little glimpses into history, I wouldn’t know what life looked like for them back then. I wouldn’t know what my parents wore, what wallpaper they had in the living room, what fringed velour monstrosities they had around the house.
And that’s where I come in for you, as your wedding photographer. I create these memories for your kids, so you can pore over them together under the light of the bedside lamp before they go to sleep.
I come to your house in the morning while you’re getting ready for your wedding day. I’m not there to take a million photos of your makeup being put on and artsy photos of the dress hanging from a tree. You can find a million wedding photographers who will do that if it’s what you want. I’m there to shoot you and your favourite people getting excited. I’m there to capture the wallpaper, the lamps, the photos you have framed on the walls, the pets wandering around, your mum making tea in your favourite mug, the books on your shelves, your front door with the funky knocker you spent ages choosing, the house number so your kids can one day drive past and see where you lived.
Then we get to the wedding itself, and I’m there to capture the people you know and love now but in 20 years’ time might be just a memory, because people change, we drift apart, today becomes just a memory.
I’m there to capture what people wore, the cameras they were snapping with, the huge iPads that our kids will laugh at, the decor you chose, the cake you ate, the dress you wore, the laughs you had, the tears you shed, and the stories that go with all of these. The people who are no longer with us.
So when the cake is long since eaten, the decorations are at the back of the attic, and the kids are finally starting big school and asking what your wedding dress was like and what people wore in the “olden days”, you can show them these photos. And they can laugh at your hideous wallpaper.
If you’re looking for a wedding photographer to capture your wallpaper get in touch
