My approach:

• Emotions will be high so I'll be taking a step back and capturing the natural occurrences!

• If there is a spacious and appropriate place to take photos of the wedding dress, shoes, perfume, jewellery, and bouquet, then I may slip away to do so. If you (the bride) would like photos of these details, please ensure they are all in one place, and a bridesmaid knows where they are so that I can easily take them away to photograph without disturbing you.

For your itinerary: 

• I'll arrive 2 hours before the Ceremony starts.

• Make sure bridesmaids are ready before you so that they’re ready to see you in your wedding dress without being distracted.

• Once you’re in your wedding dress, it would be lovely if I could have 10 minutes to take some individual bridal portraits, just before I head to the Ceremony. If there is time, grabbing some photos with your family and bridal party would be great too!

• I leave for the Ceremony 20-30 minutes before the bridal party.

• Allow more time than you think you’ll need, and ask a responsible bridesmaid to time-keep. With lots going on, and excitement in the air, time can disappear. A rushed bride = a stressed bride!

Advice: 

• Is parking difficult? If so, please reserve a space for ‘Alice Cunliffe Photography’ where possible.

• Get ready in a room with as much natural light and space as possible! Ask your make-up and hair artist to position you in front of natural light when they’re getting you ready.

• Keep things as tidy as you would like them to be seen in your photographs! Perhaps delegate a bridesmaid to keep on top of the mess!

• Put some music on!

CEREMONY

My approach:

• I will be as discreet as possible and simply capture the Ceremony as it unfolds.

• Due to legal reasons, I will not be allowed to take photos when you sign the register. After you have signed the document we can then take a staged photo of you and your witnesses with a blank register which usually the Vicar/Registrars provide.

For your itinerary:

• I’ll need to arrive 20-30 minutes before the Ceremony start-time so that I can park up, set up, check in with the Groom and Groomsmen, check in with the Vicar or Registrars, capture guests meetings and greeting, capture details within the Ceremony (flowers, order of service etc.) and be ready to capture the bride’s arrival!

Things to check: 

• Check with the priest or registrar whether there are any parts of the Ceremony I can not take photos, or whether there are restrictions about where I can stand. There quite often are! Please let me know about this ahead of your wedding.

• Please check whether there is parking for me, and reserve a space for ‘Alice Cunliffe Photography’ if you feel spaces could get filled up.

AFTER THE CEREMONY

For your itinerary:

• Allow around 2 hours after finishing the Ceremony for a confetti line, group photos, photos of just the two of you, and for you to see your guests. This will allow me to get some natural photos of you mingling with friends and family. I’ll slip away for 10 minutes just before everyone sits down for the wedding breakfast to take photos of the space you’ll be sitting down to eat in.

• Please add on any travel time to the 2 hours.

• Please be aware that if you’re planning on doing an official ‘receiving line’ after the Ceremony or just before the meal, this adds an additional 20-30 minutes to your itinerary. That gives you around 20 seconds per guest (based on 100 guests). Greeting 100-odd guests can feel overwhelming to some, so an alternative way to ensure you’ve greeted everyone on your guest-list is to briefly visit each table at the Wedding Breakfast in between courses, or simply just allow a bit more time before the dinner or after the dinner to mingle.

CONFETTI

For your itinerary:

• Allow 10 minutes for this, ideally just after the Ceremony. Remember to ask ushers to usher people out the Ceremony and in to place (a confetti tunnel works best; two lines of guests that you can both walk through - I can help organise this too!), and ask someone to hand out confetti as people exit the Ceremony. This helps keep things moving smoothly!

Advice:

• I recommend using paper biodegradable confetti. It floats and photographs incredibly! As lovely as dried petals sound, the small petals and petal dust can get stuck on skin (especially on a hot day!), in hair or in lace-dresses. Not ideal just before your Group Photos and Couples’ Portraits! Proper Confetti is a great company to order paper biodegradable confetti from. Here is their website: https://properconfetti.com

COUPLE PHOTOS

My approach:

• I’ll take the lead, so just be you! I’m basically just third wheeling some down-time in the day! :) Generally I like to take us on a walk around the venue, taking in our beautiful surroundings and making pit-stops along the way for some snaps!

For your itinerary:

• It will completely depend on the weather and the season as to when I take you off for these photos! Therefore, please stay flexible on this! Generally, in the Spring and Summer months, where the days stay lighter for longer, I will take you off during the Drinks Reception for 10 minutes, and then again before your First Dance for around 20 minutes when the sun is lower in the sky. In the Autumn and Winter months, when the sun sets much earlier, I’ll take you off around 30 minutes during the Drinks Reception.

• If we’ll be driving somewhere other than the Ceremony and Reception location, add this travel time on to the 30 minutes and think about parking.

Advice:  

• If I am not saying anything, it means I love what you’re doing!

• Silence is a beautiful thing - embrace the peace and stillness.

• Make each other laugh! Weirdness is welcomed.

• Stay close. The more physical contact the better!

• Don’t look to me to direct your EVERY movement; look at each other. Laugh, chat or simply ‘be’.

• Don’t worry about what I’m thinking! If there is anything I want to change, I’ll change it. I’ll usually be thinking about composition, lighting and whether I’m capturing the reality in the best possible and flattering way!

• Remember that you are truly beautiful and that you just got MARRIED!!

GROUP PHOTOS

For your itinerary:

• These photographs usually happen after the Ceremony, before the Wedding Breakfast. Group Photos can be really enjoyable if planned well, but quite often couples have unrealistic expectations on how long they take.

• Allow 5 minutes per group photograph. Organising excitable friends and family at weddings can sometimes be like herding cats. People move at their own pace, will want to hug and catch up with you, and it’s surprising how many people go missing at weddings (I’ll find people chatting away in the lavatories, checking in to hotel rooms, feeding their baby in a private space, and I’ve even caught people trying to take a sneaky nap in their car!).

• I recommend no more than 6-8 Group Photos (which on average will take around 30-40 minutes). If you want more than 8, just bare in mind you will be cutting in to your time to mingle with friends and family, your couples’ portraits, and the time I will personally have to capture candid moments and details around the wedding venue (signage, flowers, the wedding breakfast set up etc.). Some couples can ignore this advice and think “It will be fine on the day!”, and then find the rush quite stressful and don’t even have time to enjoy a drink and canapé!

How it works:

• Please allocate and let me know the names of two people that will help gather the people on the group photo list. Usually this is someone from the bride's side and someone from the groom's side; anyone that knows who is who on the list and is efficient! This really helps save time and keeps things moving swiftly :) Remember to let the two runners know in advance of your wedding so that it doesn’t come as a surprise to them on the day!

• Please put together a list of what group photographs you’d like, and please structure it in way that clearly shows the name and relation. For example:

  1. Bride & Groom with bride’s immediate family: James (father), Sally (mother), Connor (brother), Jenn (sister), David (brother-in-law, Jenn’s husband)

Please click here to see a suggested group photo list, and to fill out your own group photo list.

FOOD

Things to check:

• Please ask your caterers to provide food for me in a separate room. I usually take a break when you start eating and return to capture the speeches. Nobody wants photos of themselves eating! Having a break and having some food will refuel me for the rest of the fun! Depending on the start time of your wedding, please also include me in your lunch plans. Note: I have no food allergies or preferences :)

Departure time

• Unless you have booked me for extra hours, I head off 30 minutes after the first dance. This gives me plenty of time to capture the evening boogieing before everyone starts to look a little less fresh-eyed!

THAT’S IT!

All the rest of the fun will be captured naturally as it unfolds! If you feel you want any further advice though please just ping me over an email! I am here for YOU.

Please remember that the advice is only there for you if you want it. You may have completely different ideas about how you want things to run, and that’s fine! You’ll naturally plan your day around what is important to you.

I can’t wait to hear about what’s in store when we chat later on down the line!

Good luck!

x