Pre wedding meeting
I met with Andrew about three months before the wedding date to discuss his wedding photography requirements. This was a really important part of the process. Firstly we get to meet each other and secondly work out what style of photography, plus the timings and number of guests. Another important consideration was the venue, which was the Racquet Hotel & Ziba Restaurant in Liverpool.
The venue
The Racquet Hotel & Ziba Restaurant is a superb location. The building is steeped in history and every room is a photographers dream. The key to success is for me to visit the hotel in advance and make contact with the wedding planners. This allows me to plan the day, familiarise myself with the location and take some test shots.
The key was to be discreet!
The ceremony and the reception were at the same venue which always makes things a bit easier because there isn’t the logistics of moving to a second location. The main request from Andrew was to keep everything low key and for me to be as discreet as possible. We talked through the timings on the day, the number of guests and any special requests. On the day both Andrew and Anne were great fun to work with.
An enthusiastic guest with a camera!
I had a totally free hand to do a mixture of documentary style pictures, plus a few formal ones, which was great, but sometimes this makes it more challenging. As there wasn’t a sit down wedding breakfast, it was just a case of straight to the bar, I had to get amongst the guests while the drinks were flowing! As you can see in the pictures, everyone had a superb time including myself. I just mingled and became a very enthusiastic guest with a camera! The most important thing to me was the end product and the reaction from Andrew and Anne when I presented them with their photographs.