What happens now....?

Now

Once you have completed the booking form and paid the 20% deposit your booking is confirmed. Depending on how far in the future your wedding is, you may or may not yet know the exact times of your wedding ceremony, or wedding breakfast etc. This is normal so don't panic! Normally the registrars cannot allocate a time slot until 12 months before your wedding date, and Churches will often require you to pick your time slot nearer to your wedding.

Once you have these details, please simply update me either via email, text (all my details are below) or give me a quick call.

I have a database which holds all the information about your wedding such as times, and if you left this "TBC" when booking, this line will appear amber on my system, so I will be in touch anyway to confirm this with you nearer the date.

Please remember to keep me updated if any other details such as phone numbers or venues(!) change during the duration of your booking. Normally this wont be a problem at all, I just need to ensure my information is up-to-date and accurate.

My advice at this point, if you haven't already, is to get a wedding planner journal or a diary and start writing down all the things you need to do / look at / book / enquire about etc. It might sound obvious, and maybe silly, but there's a lot of planning goes into a wedding, and often the small details can be completely over-looked and forgotten.

1 month before...

No doubt the nerves are starting to build and everything is becoming very real! 

Now is a good time to check over your wedding planning journal and ensure everything you thought of ages ago, and wrote down in your book has been booked, paid for and is on-track for your wedding!

Wedding suppliers will generally need paying off around 1 month prior to your wedding, and it might be worth catching up with your big suppliers to confirm a few details, and check phone numbers are still current (I know this only too well - as a lot of bookings I take can be ~2 years in advance, the amount of "this phone number does not exist" calls I make are alarming!)
Finding out someone's phone number has changed at this stage isn't a problem - and can be dealt with easily and without stress!

I will be in touch with you around 1 month prior to your wedding date to do exactly this, checking your number is still correct, confirming timings with you (over the duration of 2 years, often there will be small changes to schedules and timings that aren't reflected on my original booking form) and generally catching up with information and your plans for your wedding. Your final balance payment is due at this point. I will be in touch with you and will provide receipt for any payment made.

This is also a very good time to have a quick catch-up on my website, have a look through my blog at my most recent weddings to get a feel and reminder of my style of images. Remind yourself that you wont need to practise your posing, you wont need to work out your best side, and when you see me on your wedding day, you will have a feel for the type of images I am capturing.

1 week before

I will be in touch to confirm the fine detail arrangements for your big day, such as what time I will be arriving with you in the morning, where you will be getting ready etc.

If you have any group photographs you would like, have a think and send me a list. I suggest somewhere between 5 and 8 (max) different groups, as this part of your day can be extremely stressful and can eat up a lot of time during your reception. There's absolutely nothing wrong with not having ANY group photos - infact, the majority of weddings I photograph only have 2 or 3 set-up group photographs, so don't feel like you need to ensure every guest preset is in one of the groups. I do suggest having an "everybody there" group photograph - as this can be a nice memory to see everyone present at your wedding. 

Now relax and look forward to the best day ever!!