life
WEDDINGS
food &
photography
The food has to be stunning and the photography
truly memorable
Food and photography are the two areas
which can make or mar a wedding. When your
guests look back on your wedding day, you
don’t want them to remember acres of time
when nothing seemed to be happening, and
they were feeling hungry and headachy.
A photographer should be efficient and
forceful enough to organise your guests into
the groups you require, but should have a
manner which is pleasant and jovial. That way
the photos will be of
happy, relaxed people
– pictures which truly
reflect the day.
Look at examples of
their work on their
website. It should be
true that the more
experienced they are the
better, but when you
meet for a consultation
make sure they are
flexible enough to match
your ideas and not set in
their ways.
Are the images the
sort you want? Do
you want more informal “reportage” style
of photography, or a mix of formal and
informal, colour and black and white. And
how do they present the finished product to
you?
Ask detailed questions about how they
will tackle the day. Can they come to your
wedding rehearsal? Do they know the
reception location and will they check out
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good backgrounds in advance? Let them know
what you want and make sure they’ve got more
than one camera. Better still, they will have an
assistant. You want to minimise the chance of
missed photographic opportunities and maximise
the likelihood that your very special day will be
captured for posterity.
It is when the guests are starting to arrive at
reception, while the couple are being posed under
trees, by pools, up hill and down dale that the
skills or otherwise of
your caterer will start to
matter.
“The first glass of
champagne is already
making your head spin,”
says David Rogers of All
About Catering. “It’s
often mid-afternoon,
guests have had nothing
to eat. That’s why you
have canapés.”
The skill, it seems, is
in keeping the canapés
interesting for the
hour, minimum, the
couple are away being
photographed. “We do waves of canapés,” says
David. “If the couple have chosen six different
ones, we send three trays out first – all the same
so people don’t pick! – and later three more. It
keeps it interesting so people keep eating and
don’t notice the time passing.”
Such details are things to discuss at your
consultation, though don’t try to finalise the
menu more than six months in advance. How does
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