A newly-wed wedding photographer’s response to ‘It’s all in the Detail………But How Important are the Details?’

On Wednesday I opened up the blog to you regarding a question that had been playing on my mind after a family wedding a couple of weeks ago. It’s all in the Detail………But How Important are the Details? The discussion got a good response from you all (you can see hop over to the post to leave your opinion) and I also received a rather long and detailed email from two Photographers who are recently married Penny & Martin from Tino and Pip with their take on the discussion.

In order to put their point across in the manner it deserved I decided that their response should have its own post, so I’ll pass the Blog over to them……….

A newly-wed wedding photographer’s response to ‘It’s all in the Detail………But How Important are the Details?’

Ok so this is a debate that keeps rearing it’s head, but the emphasis has been on the role of the wedding blog and how brides and grooms may feel intimidated by the detail rich, immaculate weddings they feature. We responded to this a few months ago in our post ‘Dear Wedding Bloggers, Photographers & Brides…‘. Today we’d like to approach it from a newly-wed/wedding photographer’s point of view…

The importance of details debate reaches further than just wedding blogs and inspiration… it has leaked as far as wedding photography. Details have become so prominent that the balance with capturing emotion is often lost. It is not necessary to choose one over the other; both are beautiful, both deserve the spotlight.

As wedding photographers, our aim is to capture love, tears, giggles, fun and emotion on camera and it warms our hearts to think of our couples reliving those beautiful moments through our photography. Whether or not a wedding is oozing with swoon-worthy details has no reflection on the ‘beauty’ of a wedding. As photographers, guests, hosts, we do get just as excited about all the wonderful personality rich details at a wedding and we went detail mad for our own big day, to give our guests things to admire, interact with and remember as OUR wedding. (See photos on Rock N’ Roll Bride). We completely get that brides-to-be look to blogs for inspiration, and as beautiful as those intimate and loving moments are, would a post filled with these photographs alone give brides ideas to take forward and personalise for their own wedding? After all, isn’t that why the wedding blog was born?

It was really important to us for our wedding to be memorable… ‘memorably quirky’ was the phrase we had in mind! We wanted every last detail captured on camera as we spent a lot, I mean A LOT of time crafting them! For us, the planning part of the wedding, the DIY, the collecting, the crafting, the imagining, the designing was just as meaningful and enjoyable as the wedding itself. If the mere thought of doing all these things stresses you out then it’s probably not for you and that’s fine too!

The great thing about the way we photograph weddings is that, being two of us, photographing details doesn’t take us away from capturing the candid/reportage style shots- that is shots of guests laughing, dancing and generally having a great time! Every smile, every laugh, every tear we capture is genuine and that is our primary goal. The challenge is in combining reportage photography with beautiful light and composition. With this style of photography, attention to detail is imperative- avoiding people in the shot with eyes closed, unfortunate expressions or pulling out a wedgy is no mean feat! If capturing emotion is a top priority for you, make sure your photographer’s portfolio is not just details and poses- they should be just as proud of the shots they were not able to set up- the reportage ones. Be sure to ask to see a selection (not just one) of COMPLETE weddings and look for all the things that would be important to you.

A major part of the memorability factor at our wedding was the emotional rollercoaster we had planned for our guests and capturing the laughter and tears was a vital as the details. Having beautiful details does not make your wedding shallow and not packing your venue full of decorations does not make your wedding dull, but either way, make sure the things you value most are captured and recorded, after all the photos are your primary memento!