We can’t wait to share your day with you soon and we hope all the planning is going well. We’ll be in touch with you again as your day gets nearer, but for now, here are a few notes about how we’ll photograph your day that should help you as you plan your day. Also, there are a few pointers for what to expect from us after your wedding day. Please do give it a good read together when you can. It covers topics from the details we need from you, who will shoot your day, to when to expect your final image gallery – and much more.
Thanks for choosing us!
Thanks again for choosing us as your photographers – we can’t wait for your wedding day. We really love what we do and feel very fortunate to call this job our own. It’s a job that allows us to create new art, meet new people, experience new things and visit new places.
As well as loving every aspect of our own work, we’re passionate advocates of the very best in wedding photography. When we can, we help and mentor other photographers – we love photography and jump at any opportunity to immerse ourselves in the work of others. And if we can help with advice or guidance – all the better.
We’ve also written educational articles and reviews for magazines and blogs, been interviewed by a number of publications and appeared on several podcasts. In November 2022 we presented at the international conference ‘The NineDots Gathering’ – what an experience! We can’t wait for many more new experiences as the years unfold – and can’t wait to meet so many new people along the way (including you of course!)
Remaining balances
Your remaining balance is due no later than one month before your day. We will send out your remaining balance information – plus a reminder of the package you’ve selected with us – in good time. We take all payments via bank transfer.
The start of every year
We love our job – we work extremely hard to ensure we are always pushing our own photography on, developing, learning and improving with every year. We also now have a family of 5 and life can be pretty busy in our house (but it’s always fun!) With this in mind, at the beginning of each year we have a little down time, from January to March. We’ll still be working during this time (we do usually have some winter weddings to look forward to and we always have lots of admin to take care of). But we’ll also be catching up on some much-delayed holiday time to recharge our batteries. Also, it allows us to get ready for the amazing wedding season we have ahead. Speaking of which…
This wedding season
If you’re getting married this year – woohoo! We know how excited you must be – organising our own wedding was a time full of such anticipation (a little stress at times too, we’ll be honest – but it was worth it all and more). We carry this excitement over to working on every single wedding we photograph – and we know first-hand the kind of emotions you’ll be feeling on the day. Every wedding season is unique and so different from the last – and that’s what we love.
Next wedding season
If you’re getting married next year or the year after, we’ll be in touch much nearer to your date – until then, enjoy planning your wedding! Hopefully this blog gives you all the details you need right now. Any questions, please let us know and we’ll be happy to help. But please be assured, we don’t need anything from you right now – we’ll be in touch much nearer your date.
The details we need from you before your wedding
We want you to plan your wedding, the way you want it – then, when the day arrives, we’ll fit in around it all, capturing so many moments for you to look back on. We’ll love being a part of your day – but the way we work means you may forget we’re there at times. You and all your guests will quickly get used to us and feel comfortable with the way we photograph things.
All in all, what does this mean for you and your planning? Well, we’re happy to say you can relax – as you don’t actually have to plan anything for us. Your day is about you and your guests – not us! We’re experts in what we do – so you can leave everything photography related to us. All you have to do is have the very best day ever! We’ll let you do just that, without ever getting in the way.
We will need a few details from you before your wedding (a few timings, some group shot requests if you’d like some and the addresses we need to be at). That really is it though! We will request these brief details much nearer your date – usually 3-4 weeks before your date. We find this keeps everything relaxed and allows you to plan your wedding without needing to think about photography at all.
We allow every couple, every guest – at every wedding we document – to have an incredible day without being stopped or prompted by a photographer every five minutes. We never want photography to be (pardon the pun) the focus on the day, so apart from a few group shots (if you’d like some) the rest of our photography is 100% unposed.
We know this relaxed, unobtrusive approach is perfect for our couples. Also, our documentary approach is how we get the kind of photos we’re so well known for (we know that’s why you choose us to photograph your day of course!). Here’s some recent feedback we received, which gives a first-hand viewpoint of what it’s like to be photographed by us:
“We’ve spent the last few days going over your images of our day and each time we find another little thing we’d not noticed the last time we looked. There aren’t enough words to say how delighted we are with these photographs and we will cherish them forever. They truly are a fantastic reflection of the day and all the emotions that go along with it.
A big part of that was how you allowed us just to enjoy ourselves without direction. Many guests commented on how fantastic you both were too and we hope your careers continue to be celebrated – all of those awards are incredibly well deserved. Thank you both once more, we wish we could do it all over again!” Katherine and Liam, married at Saltmarshe Hall
UK Wedding Photographer Of The Year and Rangefinder Rising Star
We have photographed so many incredible weddings over the last few years – and we’ve won so many awards for our work. We’re still a little over awed by some of the accolades – in particular becoming one of only four photographers to win both the TWIA UK Wedding Photographer Of The Year award and be named as one of Rangefinder Magazine’s Rising Stars Of Wedding Photography (and we’re the only photographer to have achieved this in one year, too!) These are the two most sought-after accolades in our industry. We still pinch ourselves sometimes – five years ago when we started working together, we’d never have dreamed of achieving either of them, let alone both.
We continue to enter wedding photography awards – it’s something we get a lot out of. In fact, we’ve made so many friends from entering and judging awards. Awards also help us to continue to learn and develop – as we mentioned, we always strive to improve year on year and awards help us to do that. They’re a challenge we relish – and we love to be an active part of photography communities. We know our couples love that we enter and win awards too!
Our team on your wedding day
Your lead photographer (main photographer) will always be one of us – that’s Hollie or Patrick! If you’ve selected two photographers, we will always aim to photograph your day, together. However, on some occasions, it is impossible for us both to photograph weddings together (usually down to childcare – as mentioned we have a family of 5). If you have two photographers selected and for any reason we cannot shoot your wedding together, your main photographer will still be one of us and we will use a trusted ‘second shooter’ to work alongside us (photographing the wedding in our style).
Since we began working together in 2017, we’ve used second shooters and assistants whenever needed, always making sure we only work with photographers we trust. We only ever work with photographers who can shoot in our style – producing images that fit seamlessly into our portfolio and maintain our very, very high standards. So, if we have to use a second shooter at your wedding, you can rest assured we have asked a photographer who we know will do the amazing job you – and we – expect.
Who will edit your images
Editing is an important technical and creative process – and Hollie is an expert in editing! Hollie is the one who is responsible for the way our final images “look”. As Hollie edits all our images, we maintain consistency across the artistic style of all our work. So, whoever photographs your day – Hollie, Patrick (with or without a second shooter) – our images always have our signature ‘look’. That’s all down to the hours and hours Hollie puts into editing.
We spend 6, 8, 10, 12 hours (and sometimes even longer!) photographing every wedding – but that’s just the start of our work. The editing process takes far longer. Hollie edits each image individually, before we both work on the final photographs and gallery together. Every wedding is always a collaboration between us.
How long does it take to edit a wedding?
Hollie takes all the time needed to edit your images to our very high standards. We’ll get some preview images to you 2-3 weeks after your wedding. A preview from us isn’t just a few images, we will provide around 50 or more images from your day to keep you going until the full gallery is ready.
Then it will take approx. 12 weeks / 3 months (approx. 90 days) to deliver your full wedding gallery. Sometimes, it’s unavoidable that it will take a little longer than this and we’ll update you as needed if this is the case. However, we advise you to expect your image gallery around 90 days after your wedding date as we aim to deliver all weddings within this time frame. It’s not exact but it does give you a rough idea. Of course we know how excited you’ll be to receive your images and we’ll get them to you as soon as we can – but if you expect the final gallery to be at least three months, you’ll be prepared in advance. And trust us, the final images will be more than worth the wait!
Important: downloading from your online gallery and backing up images
We don’t just provide a few images – your final gallery will contain hundreds of moments we’ve captured for you. These moments will tell the ‘previously untold’ story of your wedding – the key moments, but also so many moments and little details that passed you by on the day. By not posing and not staging things we are able to concentrate on capturing so many moments you won’t be expecting to see. We follow the flow of the day, naturally.
We don’t take endless group shots – we don’t ever follow a traditional shot list. That would just distract us from being creative and really get in the way of you having the best day possible. We want to capture the funniest, most emotional and most romantic moments for you – these all happen naturally. So, on your wedding day we will document moments you weren’t even aware of happening at the time – all in our own artistic style. This is our biggest skill – it’s what makes us different to the rest – it’s what makes us unique. And most importantly, it’s why you’ve chosen us to be your photographers!
But how will you receive all your amazing images (we’re sure you’re wondering). Well, you’ll receive every image (plus a slideshow of a selection of images set to music) via a password protected online gallery. This will be accessible to you and anyone you invite to see the images of your day. From your gallery, you can pick your favourites or download every image. Also, though we hope you love every single moment we capture for you, there’s a handy ‘hide’ function. This means if you don’t love an image or two as much as you love the others, you can simply hide them and forget about them. You then won’t see them and nor will anyone else you invite to view your gallery. Above all though, you will receive hundreds and hundreds of images – we provide every image we can to tell the story of your day. So there will be so many images to pick your favourites from.
We highly recommend you download every image within one year of receiving your images. We cannot guarantee to store your images online forever and we can’t be accountable for the long term storage of your wedding gallery once it’s been delivered to you. So many things could change with us and our business in the future, how we store our images and so on. We don’t plan to make any changes right now! However, we feel it’s more than sensible to ensure you make your own back up. So please do make a back-up of your images within one year of receiving them – in fact, we recommend making two. We recommend making at least one back-up online via cloud storage then one physical back-up (we recommend buying a good quality, shock resistant hard drive for the physical back up).
Printing your images
Then, after backing up your images digitally, we really recommend getting an album made! There is no better way of viewing your images. Also, an album or photo book will never become obsolete or fail like hard drives or USBs may do (we stopped giving couples USBs many years ago as they’re not a durable way of storing files). So please do come to us if you’d like a really high quality album or prints – just drop us an email and we can provide prices and options for you. Of course, you can download your images and print them anywhere – there is absolutely no obligation to buy prints or albums from us. You can use any printing service, anywhere – you absolutely have the freedom to print our images of your day to suit you. However, we can’t vouch for other printers. So if you want exceptional prints and albums to match the exceptional quality of our images, please do come to us.
How many images you’ll receive
Every wedding is different, so we don’t put an exact number on the amount of images we deliver – it really does differ from wedding to wedding. Above all, we want to deliver all the images we can to you – so we do just this, providing you with every image we can to tell the story of your day. This final collection of images will give you memories to treasure for a lifetime. To give you an idea of the rough amount of images in your final gallery though, we’re happy to say you can expect between 500 and 600 images for for an ‘all day’ (getting ready to the dancing) package with one photographer. With two photographers, it will be between 700 and 800 images. If you’re having less coverage (say, half a day or less) you can expect to receive less images – for longer, ‘unlimited’ coverage we usually deliver more images. You’ll receive all of your images beautifully edited in colour – every one! Then, a select number of images will also be edited as black and white edits, too.
Following us and keeping in touch
As the excitement builds for your own day, we know you’ll be wanting to keep up to date with what we’ve been up to – see how we’ve been photographing all the incredible weddings we’ve attended. The best way of doing this is over on social media. So please do follow us if you’re not already: https://www.instagram.com/mandgweddingphotography/
Then, if you’d like to see regular posts from us in the run up to your day, please do go and give a few of our posts a like – and please do then like any new posts from us that you see as they appear. This will let Instagram know you’re interested in what we do and you’ll see more of our work as the year goes on (algorithms hey, don’t you just love ‘em?). We love to see our couples commenting on and liking our posts – and interacting with our stories. It’s a great way to get to know you better, so please do keep in touch over social media if you’d like to.
Meeting you before your wedding date
Getting to know you before your wedding is really important to us. We’ll arrange to call you (by phone or Zoom) a week or two before your wedding date, after we’ve collected all your wedding details (see above) and when all your plans are set in stone. We find just before the wedding is the ideal time to talk to us, as the excitement is really starting to build. However, if you’d like to meet or talk to us before then, we’d be more than happy to! You can meet us over the phone, by Zoom – or in person.
We hold our face to face meets at a café or pub near our home in East Yorkshire, usually during the daytime, midweek (we tend to be busy on weekends for obvious reasons!). However, in nearly all cases, we chat over the phone or by Zoom (we can be more flexible with timings when we meet over the phone / zoom, too). We photograph weddings all over the UK and further afield, so we’re used to speaking to couples remotely as it’s the most convenient option. With Hollie leading on the editing side, Patrick leads on the other pre and post wedding work – including most pre-wedding chats.
Whichever way we chat, we do recommend speaking nearer to your wedding date. However we are more than happy to speak earlier and we’re always there to answer any questions you may have. So please don’t hesitate to ask – however big or small the query, we’ll help however we can.
Recommendations from you
We often get recommendations from our previous and current couples – thanks if you’ve already done this and thanks so much if you do so in the future. There is no better booking than a recommendation as it means a lot to us to know that you love our work so much that you’d recommend us to others. It’s also always so lovely to see our previous couples at weddings we photograph – this happens regularly! So thanks so much in advance for any recommendation – they always mean so much to us. Our prices do go up year on year, so please just ask any recommendations to contact us for up-to-date package details (right now, our wedding photography starts from £2500).
Supplier recommendations for you
We know amazing videographers, make up artists, florists – we know suppliers of all kinds. So if you need any recommendations at all, please let us know and we’ll be happy to help. Video is one area we’re often asked for recommendations on – so if you’re looking for a videographer who matches our relaxed approach to weddings, please do come to us and we’ll help you find someone really good. Even if it’s last minute, please don’t hesitate to ask – we want you to have the very best wedding suppliers possible.
Adding on a second photographer or unlimited coverage
If you’re interested in adding on a second photographer option or later coverage add on at your wedding (so one photographer stays later into the evening reception to capture more dance floor action), please get in touch. These options both cost around £500 extra (though it does depend on the package you’ve picked with us). These add ons are also subject to availability.
Thanks for reading
We hope the above was useful and gives you all the details you need right now from us – the main thing to remember is this: please continue planning your perfect wedding day! That’s all that matters to us. We can’t wait to see those plans come to fruition and we can’t wait to photograph all the funniest, most emotional and most beautiful moments of your day. And our relaxed approach means we will never get in the way of these moments happening, naturally.
When we need some details from you, we’ll be in touch – and please do keep up to date with our work over on Instagram. Any questions at all, before then, please don’t hesitate to drop us an email. All the very best – we’re looking forward to seeing you soon, Hollie and Patrick