Pinterest Weddings: How to make your day picture perfect!

Collecting up some anecdotes and testimonials from old couples this landed in my inbox from Alyson, whose wedding I photographed in April... and I felt it needed a blog post all of its own. 

This.

A million times this!

"When we started planning our wedding, I spent a lot of time on Pinterest. It was a great resource for ideas, most of which we didn't use wholesale, but which served as inspiration and helped to get a feel for what we wanted the day to be like. I pinned A LOT of ideas for photos...you know the ones. The blurry bride and groom kissing in the foreground and the wedding party gasping behind them. The giant bride's foot hovering over cowering groomsmen. The bride surrounded by a circle of bridesmaids with iPhones, instagramming the heck out of the dress. I thought these were fun poses we could do on the day to bring a bit of frivolity to the photos.
And then the day came. We didn't do any of them. We were way too busy getting married and having THE BEST time. And you know what? I didn't miss them at all. We got our photos back, and - like the wonderful impish pixie you are - you'd captured some far more frivolous and hilarious moments. Like a groomsman vogueing. My bridesmaids "doing" Bridesmaids, unprompted. Me running up a muddy hill with my dress hitched up. My mum making people double over with laughter. My father in law raising his eyebrows as if to say "they've really gone and done it now..."
These are some of our favourite photos. In the end, I'm glad we didn't have a "Pinterest wedding". It wasn't perfect and it wasn't a cookie-cutter copy of anyone else's. It was ours, and we loved it. And you captured the whole thing and reflected our personalities (and those of all our friends and family) so perfectly. Far better than any number of clichéd shots could have done." 

Alyson has put it so perfectly. I think about this a lot, the more I see of Pinterest. Pinterest is great for inspiration... but don't let it rule your day. You could spend so much time trying to recreate "must-have" photos that you miss out on making your own moments which might just be so much better.

The Deck at The National Theatre London Wedding | Anna & Tom

I arrived at their home to get some shots of Anna and their two daughters getting ready and was so inspired by being in the midst of little signs of family life, the felt tip calendar with days crossed off up until the wedding. All those everyday things you find in a house with children. I wanted to tell that part of the day from their daughters' perspectives and I waited patiently to get the black and white shot with the youngest peeking round the door. It turned out to be well worth it as Tom and Anna told me after seeing their preview images:

"We both said the shot of Evie looking around the door is worth the price of all your work...we will treasure that for the rest of our lives."

I may have done a little dance at my computer when I read those words. 

When Tom and Anna first told me they were getting married at The Deck, part of The National Theatre in London I had to catch my breath a bit. London is such a beautiful city and The Deck had one of the best views of the skyline I've seen. It was gorgeous in the daytime but truly came into its own when night fell… all the twinkling lights on the Thames.

That's all the words I'll give you for now… let's have a look at the photos, hey?