Why your wedding photographer needs to feel like a friend

Two words. Tit tape.

Wedding photographers have many secret skills that get discovered during a wedding day, from reattaching a veil that has flown off down the street, to literally applying tit tape to make sure that dreamy plunge necked dress doesn’t show off more than required.

We are up in your personal space for a lot of your day. We’re not trying to be obtrusive! (Trust me, I’m a fly on the wall kind of gal that wants to sneak in like a ninja when you’re snot crying over your nan to get those uber emotional snaps). But I will jump in to pull spiders out of layers of tulle in a dress (true story) or save dignity when someone’s split their trousers. I once had to negotiate with a father of a bride that it was socially acceptable to keep his trousers on during his speech… unfortunately true story.

You want to actually like your wedding photographer because it makes your couples portraits a whole lot more fun.

If you feel like you can be a silly goofball with your partner and not be judged by the person behind the camera that is half the battle. The photos you’ll print are the ones where you are laughing in each other’s faces because one of you has just tried to turn the phrase ‘bacon and eggs’ into something seductive. (Another true story…) Or where you got far too competitive at hip bumping that you both ended up on a floor in a field…

It would be weird if you had some random with a camera getting involved in your kisses…

But this is exactly what happens on your wedding day. You get all close and cosy with your partner and then some photographer gets half a metre away with a big black clicky machine. Sexy. But if you feel like you’ve known your photographer forever, or you share a sense of humour, or they’ve become best mates with you mum from the second they walked in, it just isn’t weird anymore. As long as you don’t stop to properly think about it and ride on the happy adrenaline wave all day…

Top tip: Jump on a call with the person that you want to shoot your wedding. (Check out their work beforehand and make sure you love that too!) I love to chat to my couples before their big day so that I can really get to know them, share tips about wedding planning and exchange the best cat videos. (I’m one step away from a database).

If you leave the call feeling pretty chill and it wasn’t like poking your eyes out with needles because of the awkwardness then you’ve found your person.