We are thrilled that you have chosen us to photograph your wedding day. Now, you’re probably thinking: “What’s next?” Well, there really isn’t anything you need to do where we are concerned. All we want for you to do is relax and enjoy planning your wedding day the way you want it to be. You don’t need to think about us when deciding your timings, locations or any of the many little details that will go into making your wedding so special: this is your day, not ours! However, we know that a little information on what to expect from us may still be useful. So we’ve written this blog to give all you all the information they need before we photograph your big day.
Our natural style: we have one rule and one rule only… please don’t look at our camera! We want you to look at the person you’ve just married, not us! You and all your guests really can forget about us being there and ignore our cameras all day. By doing this you and your guests will relax and slowly stop worrying where our cameras are – this is how we get the natural images we are known for. If you’re looking at our cameras, you will end up striking poses and performing all day! Instead of this, we want everyone at your wedding to experience the day as fully as possible.
So stay in the moment and our images will tell the real story of your day. Relax knowing that we’re there to capture the best images for you. When you receive the link to your images, our photographs will take you back to those exact moments that we have captured for you: people laughing, kissing, crying happy tears, dancing, having fun, enjoying spending time with one another. You really can forget about us and concentrate on having the best day ever – feel free to tell your family and friends you are getting ready with that they can forget about us too! You can catch up with more of our work here, by visiting our blog.
Your remaining balance: this is due no later than one month before your wedding day. We take payment only via BACS bank transfer. Your balance can be paid in advance, if this suits you. Before transferring the balance, please just drop us an email to confirm your remaining balance and how to pay it – also, we will know to look out for your payment and be able to confirm receipt with you.
Booking a second photographer: Couples often add on a second photographer before their wedding day arrives. A second photographer means more moments photographed, more memories captured for you and your family and more images supplied to you (around 200 more images will be provided to you with a second photographer). With two photographers, we can also document moments from different angles, be in two different locations at once and cover more of your wedding overall. There really isn’t any negatives to having a second photographer – it’s just whether you feel you want the benefits of having two photographers or not. You can add on a second photographer for £300 to any package. Below you will find an image of our groom Lewis as he catches sight of his bride Jess walking up the aisle – we can only capture this kind of emotional ‘first look’ image with a second photographer positioned at the back (we can’t promise tears though!)
Who will be your lead photographer: this will be either Matt, Patrick or Hollie. You will meet your lead photographer before your wedding day, via a pre-wedding shoot or Skype, depending on what suits you best.
Who will be your second photographer: Your main photographer will always be Patrick, Hollie or Matt. If you choose a second photographer, we have a number of amazing second photographers who work for us. We only work with photographers we know and trust and they work with us all the time. We will confirm who your second photographer is nearer your wedding date.
Adding on a videographer: We have two video options to suit all budgets: you can add on a full video package for £1299 (usually priced £1499 on its own), or the reduced short highlights only for just £699.
Who will be your videographer: Our main filmmaker is Josh – he’s an amazing wedding videographer! We also have another equally amazing videographer called Jonny who works for us if Josh is already booked. Our filmmakers take the same unobtrusive approach as we do, so we never get in each other’s way. Also, by booking everything through us, you will never get confused by two differing styles that you may get by working with two separate companies – and you only have to deal with one company in the run up to your day.
Can we recommend other videographers: we can if our videographers are fully booked and we are happy to work with whoever you choose film your day. So if you book another video company, we will really look forward to working with them. However, we work with Josh and Jonny all the time and together we work perfectly in sync – we cannot recommend them enough.
Your pre-wedding shoot: if you have a pre-wedding shoot included in your package, please get in touch to check our availability. We will then let you know the next steps for booking your pre-wed in, including what dates and locations we are available for.
Our email address: please ensure you have added our two email addresses to your email and phone contacts. This is really, really important to ensure that you always receive emails from us via: info@mandgweddingphotography.co.uk and mandgphotographic@yahoo.co.uk
Adding on a pre-wedding shoot: a pre wedding shoot is a nice opportunity to meet us face to face. As we have a very natural style, a pre-wedding shoot is optional – it’s not about learning to pose, as we don’t need to pose you to get beautiful images! A pre-wedding shoot really is just a nice excuse to meet up, chat, go for a walk and take some beautiful and natural pre-wedding photographs. We really enjoy them as do our couples – so get in touch if you’d like to check the price for adding on a pre-wedding shoot to your package.
Meeting for a coffee or via Skype: it’s important to give you the opportunity to meet us before your wedding day. We love our job and we get excited talking to each one of our couples about their individual wedding plans! So we will look forward to meeting you either at your pre-wedding shoot – or alternatively, via Skype (or if you’d prefer, just a phone call!) Also, if you live local to us or want to travel to see us, we are happy to meet for a coffee face to face. We recommend booking in a chat a month or two before your wedding day, when all your plans are finalised. If you do want to meet us for a drink and a chat, we will do this at a cafe or pub where we are based (so in Cottingham in East Yorkshire for Patrick & Hollie, or Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire for Matt). We photograph weddings all over the UK and Europe though, so usually we speak to our couples on Skype, rather than in person – we find it works just as well, the bonus being that you don’t have to leave your living room!
Your planner: we will send you a document called a ‘planner’ to complete before your wedding day. This gives us all the information we need to photograph your wedding day, including your running order / times, the addresses we need to be at and also any group shots you’d like us to take. There is no rush to complete this document though – it’s best to fill it in a month or so before your wedding. You have enough to do to plan your wedding and the planner really is not a priority, so please don’t feel any pressure to complete it quickly.
The getting ready stage: pretty much from the moment we arrive at your wedding, we want you to forget about us. So, we won’t come in, reorganise your room, tell you were to stand or sit, move dresses, suits, shoes, jewellery or anything else. What we will usually do is say hello, have a quick chat then get to work, photographing everything naturally, without posing. This really sets the scene for the rest of the day. It helps you and the people getting ready with you relax around us, as it’s clear from the very beginning we are not there boss you around or tell you what to do. We get so many comments from couples saying “we forgot you were there on the day!” or “you’re not like other wedding photographers, you were really relaxed!” This kind of feedback is always so nice to receive.
If you do leave dresses, suits and other items out and on display – for example a wedding dress hanging up in a room that we are in – we will happily photograph them for you. If not though, we won’t go looking for them or get them out of a wardrobe – taking a wedding dress outside and hanging it from a tree isn’t very us, for example! We’d much rather be capturing you and your guests and photographing natural moments. Importantly, we feel you should be able to concentrate on getting ready for the most important part of the day – the wedding ceremony! – without worrying about a thing. So, really, to reiterate again – please just forget about us and enjoy all the excitement of the morning of your wedding day.
Your couple time: a couple shoot, just like group shots, is optional, but most people do choose to have some couple shots. So, if you’d like us to, we will take some relaxed and natural couple shots of you both together, during what we call ‘couple time’. Your couple time won’t be posed or directed – we just go for a walk with you and let you be yourselves. That is really is it! If you want to kiss, then kiss as much you’d like – if you want to hold each other, hold each other close, if you make other laugh – then be funny! People often worry they will be made to pose and feel really awkward during a couple shoot – but that really isn’t the case with us. We would recommend that you keep a connection together and stay close to one another, but we’re not going to direct you to do this time and time again. So there will be no awkward poses at all – really, just be yourselves.
Enjoy your couple shoot! Also, one important tip – make the most of your couple time and really enjoy it. All the cliches about your wedding day going fast are true. It’s your wedding day but you will probably find that you barely have any time together on your own. Your couple time though will give you a rare opportunity spend time with just one another. Our couples often tell us that their couple shoot was one of their favourite parts of their wedding, but also, it created really special memories.
Other locations and sunsets: we are happy to travel to other locations during your couple time! So if you have somewhere in mind, then just let us know on the day and time allowing, we’re happy to go there. Or, if we spot somewhere or know a location that would be great to visit during couple time, we may suggest it to you. Also, we absolutely love sunsets! If you are lucky enough to get a sunset we will be keen to take some photos of it with you both. Again though, this is your day, not ours. So if a sunset walk gets in the way of having fun on the dancefloor or even happens when you are eating your dinner, there is never any pressure on you to stop doing what you’re doing if you don’t want to! But if we are lucky enough to get a sunset on your wedding day, we will come and find you to see if you’d like to take a stroll during golden hour.
Group shots requests: you won’t find many group shots on our website, as we prefer to showcase natural moments. However, we do still take group shots at many weddings! If you ask for them, they are the only time we ask you to look at our camera all day. So, if you want some group shots, we will take them for you – but we will try to ensure they never take over your day by keeping them to a minimum. If you’d rather have no group shots at all, we’ll just stick to capturing everything naturally.
We recommend that you keep your groups small: you can choose who you would like in your group shots via your planner, as mentioned above. From years and years of experience, we strongly recommend you keep these groups small. If you select groups with only those key family members that are really important to you, it will mean you aren’t dragged away from your wedding for hours as can happen with large group photos. Larger groups take longer to set up and photograph, as there is always a guest who disappears to the bar or toilet at the crucial time (we’re looking at you, Uncle Frank!) Most importantly, trust us: the less time you spend waiting for group shots, the more you will enjoy your day.
We don’t work to a shot list: we don’t ever pre-plan shots or copy other people’s work. We’re not traditional photographers, so we don’t take traditional photos. Your wedding plans will be unique to you both and our photographs will reflect this. Pre planning your wedding photography just puts pressure on you and stops you from enjoying your wedding naturally. So, you’ll see there is no space on our planner for a ‘shot list’. During a wedding, we are so busy photographing things naturally and following the flow of the day, we wouldn’t have time to refer to a shot list anyway! However, don’t worry if there is a particular location within your wedding venue you want to visit for photographs. You don’t need to plan this – you can just let us know on the day and we’ll happily take some photographs there. However, you can trust us to pick the best locations on your day for images, using our experience of light, weather conditions and all the other factors that cannot be predicted in advance. So really, just leave it all to us and enjoy your wedding!
Recommended suppliers: you can find our list of recommended suppliers here. We have carefully picked the very best suppliers we have worked with – we will be adding to this list as the years go on. You can find our recommended suppliers here.
Our start and finishing time: you can check your contract to see what time we’ll be finishing on your wedding day – it’s also noted on your planner. As for our start time, this is dependent on your ceremony time. Generally we cover two hours of preparation before the ceremony starts, but we will confirm this when you fill in your planner.
Providing us with some food: it’s part of our contract to have a meal provided for us on your wedding day. This is because at many venues, unless a meal is pre-arranged for us by you, food will not be able to be served to us on the day. Also, by providing us with some food ensures we don’t have to leave your venue for a long period of time in search of a hot meal. You don’t need to set us a place with your guests – we’ll take our food in an area away from your wedding breakfast. We will use the time to have a break and get ready for the next part of your wedding celebrations. We really appreciate whatever food is provided for us (and never say no to a cup of coffee!)
When you’ll hear from us before your wedding day: we hope this blog gives you all the information you all the information you need before we photograph your wedding day (if not, please let us know and we will be happy to help). With this in mind, we’ll leave you to get on with planning your perfect wedding day! Then, aside from meeting you for a Skype call or pre-wedding shoot, we will be back in touch during the week or few days before your wedding date via email. We will then offer a quick chat on the phone during that week – it’s not an important chat, it’s just nice to say hi again and catch up on all your wedding planning! Apart from this, in the time leading up to your wedding, please don’t expect to hear from us regularly, though rest assured we are always on hand to answer any questions you may have. We do however hope you follow how busy we always are on Instagram and Facebook! If you see one of our posts, please do give it a like, the more posts you like of ours the more beautiful weddings you’ll see that we’ve photographed in the build up to your wedding.
Our turnaround time: our contracted editing turnaround for time is 12 weeks. We recommend that you expect everything to be ready between 10 and 12 weeks and no earlier than 10 weeks after your wedding. If you get in touch to check how long your wedding photographs will take to edit, we’ll always say 10 – 12 weeks. We are always so busy and we edit every wedding in house – to edit images beautifully like the ones on this page takes time. Just a reminder that with one photographer you will receive approx 550 to 600 digital images, with two photographers you will receive approx 750 to 800 digital images. For a half day package, you will receive approx 300 images.
Previews after your wedding: we will get you preview photos from your wedding day ASAP. It can take us a few weeks – and up to 4 – to supply previews at very busy times, so please bear with us. As soon as your previews are ready, we’ll get them to you. Please note, we don’t supply pre-wedding shoot previews or video previews.
Extending your coverage: if you would like to extend your coverage, please get in touch! We absolutely love having the opportunity to photograph more of the party after the first dance. Capturing memories for you is the most important thing we do, that’s why we work the way we do, photographing real moments. And the kind of moments that happen on the dance-floor are the kind that you will want to look back on in years to come To extend your coverage, please do get in touch.
Video bookings: our filmmakers work in the same ways as our photographers – you will barely know they are there on your day! Just a reminder that if you have our full video package booked, you will receive a highlights film, usually 10 to 15 minutes in length (the length though is all dependent on your wedding day and what happens) and two separate films featuring your speeches and ceremony in full. With the full video package, we will record the speeches and ceremony in high quality audio for your films. If you have our short highlights film booked, you will just receive a 3 to 5 minute highlights film set only to music (with no audio from the day).
Video and live singing / music: if you are having a church service and have our full video package booked and your church say you need a licence to record the music played in the ceremony, it is your responsibility to arrange this. For a short highlights film, no audio is recorded, only visuals – so you won’t need a music licence. Also, please note, we are not set up to record music / singing, so we don’t record hymns or live performances in full.
We hope this was a useful read and we will really look forward to your wedding day! Any questions at all in the run up to your wedding, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via email. As we just mentioned, we are always busy, so if there is any delay in getting back to you, particularly during wedding season, we can only apologise. We will get back to you ASAP though! Hollie, Patrick and Matt – M and G Wedding Photography – award winning Yorkshire wedding photography and award winning Hertfordshire wedding photography.
All images by multi award winning wedding photographers M and G Wedding Photography. If you have any questions, you can contact us here. In 2019 we won over 30 individual awards for our work. In 2020, we have already won 2 This Is Reportage Awards and Ninedots awards and photographed some beautiful weddings, so it’s already been a fantastic start to the year.
