Dear wedding guests,

I’m Kat and I’ll be the wedding photographer at the wedding you are soon attending.

I just wanted to introduce myself and briefly explain a bit about my style and how it might be different to other weddings you’ve attended (or it may not be!).

I’m a documentary wedding photographer, therefore I’ll be documenting the wedding day, rather than setting up staged, more traditional shots. This is great for you, as guests, as it means I won’t be bossing you around or taking the couple away for long periods of time to pose for photos, their day is theirs to enjoy. The main reason I wanted to say ‘hello’ ahead of the day is to explain that sometimes reacting to the camera can affect the dynamics of the wedding photos so I just wanted to say that please just be yourselves and forget I’m there! You don’t have to move out of the way for me, often I’ll be using people’s backs/shoulders to frame images so don’t worry, you aren’t in my way. I can always move to work around you so I never expect people to move for me. Likewise, I won’t get in your way, I try to be as unobtrusive as I can be whilst getting the best wedding photographs I can. If I move in front of you during the speeches, you can be assured that it will only be for a few seconds, I’m very respectful of everyone there and you having a lovely day is extremely important to me.

One example of reacting to the camera having a negative affect on the wedding photos is sometimes I’ll see a child doing something cute, as I go close to them the parent then instructs the child to ‘smile at the camera’, then the child stops doing the cute thing and also doesn’t want to smile at the camera so the moment has gone and the photo of the moment never gets the chance to exist. And most of the time the parent doesn't get the ‘smile at the camera’ shot either. Similarly, people pulling silly faces or turning to smile at the camera interrupts what they were doing before, so the photos are no longer documenting the moment. It’s of course fine to do this, do whatever you’d like, but just a heads up that it can affect the moment and the wedding photographs.

I always advise my couples to keep their groups shots small as it really affects the documentary aspect (and the stress levels of the couple getting married, who are in all of the group shots!), but absolutely anyone at the wedding is more than welcome to grab me at any point throughout the day for a posed photo of your family, or of you as a couple, or friends etc. This only takes a few seconds if you’re already in a group together so it’s no trouble at all so don’t be afraid to ask. This is much preferable to having a long list of group shots to get through, whilst the couple are hanging around waiting for people to be gathered.

At some point during the day I’ll take them for some quick photos of the two of them, and I’ll likely still be doing a few group shots (depending on the couples’ requests) so if you’re in the group shot list it really helps if you' don’t disappear after the ceremony so we can get these done as quickly as possible and the couple can get back to enjoying their day.

One more thing - as long as you haven’t been asked by the couple not to then as far as I’m concerned please do take as many photos on your phones and cameras as you like. I’m not a photographer who gets annoyed by guests taking photos, sometimes I find people apologising for taking photos or trying to hide that they are doing so but please do take your own photos! I totally understand that everyone wants their own memories too. The exception is during the ceremony, as couples usually don’t want their guests to be hiding behind their phones, be present and enjoy it! Also during group shots it can be confusing for the people in the photos if they have multiple cameras/phones pointing at them and eyes wander in different directions, but for the rest of the day, photograph away.

After the wedding the couple will get a sneak peek within a few days, and the full gallery no longer than 8 weeks later. It’s up to them whether they share their online gallery or keep it private so please ask them for photos, I’m unable to share the link with guests myself.

Thanks so much, I’ll see you at the wedding!

Feel free to follow me on Instagram to see any photos I might share Instagram.com/kmgs_photography

I always ask permission to share on social media from the couple, but if there are any people who can’t have photos shared then feel free to let me know at the wedding, I’m always respectful of this.