Phil Drinkwater, wedding photographer

Phil Drinkwa­ter is an expe­ri­enced wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher with an artis­tic and con­tem­po­rary style. He’s a national ‘Pho­tog­ra­pher of the year’ award win­ner and an expert in fash­ion and wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy. As a spon­sor of the Eng­lish Wed­ding blog I have come to know Phil and what strikes me is that he really cares about his brides and grooms.

Phil won’t just be with you to take pho­tos: he’s there to make sure your wed­ding pho­tographs reflect YOU, cap­ture the emo­tions and spe­cial moments of your day and main­tain the most exquis­ite qual­ity from start to fin­ish. I’ve invited Phil to share some of his expert advice with Eng­lish Wed­ding brides and grooms.

As a pho­tog­ra­pher I attend many wed­dings. I know it’s new for you and it’s ter­ri­bly excit­ing and scary at the same time, so here are my top tips…

Receiv­ing line or not? Con­sider your receiv­ing line options care­fully. If you have 70 guests and they all spend 1 minute talk­ing to you … out of polite­ness … that’s 70 min­utes gone! If you want a for­mal recep­tion line, con­sider hav­ing an announce­ment made which lets your guests know they can shake your hand, con­grat­u­late you and move on.

Tis­sues might be needed. Some peo­ple sur­prise them­selves about how emo­tional they become on their wed­ding day. While it adds to the occa­sion, a tis­sue is prefer­able to a sleeve!

Backup dress? I’ve seen a num­ber of brides now take a cheap “off ebay” dress with them for their wed­ding just in case some­thing is spilled. It hardly ever hap­pens, but it might make you feel more comfortable.

Makeup is impor­tant! As a very expe­ri­enced beauty pho­tog­ra­pher I’ve seen my share of fan­tas­tic and hor­ren­dous makeup. Avoid any prod­ucts with light reflec­tive ingre­di­ents, for exam­ple min­eral makeup, since it will show up as lit­tle specks of light when your pho­tog­ra­pher uses flash. Also avoid prod­ucts which are heav­ily sil­i­con based as they tend to become oily quickly. Do use a good qual­ity makeup artist for your wedding.

Your tim­ing will change. It’s your first wed­ding, so you won’t get all of the tim­ing spot on. Get all of the advice you can, but allow a few 15 minute gaps here and there to soak up the bits and pieces that change. If you plan every minute, you may stress about keep­ing to time on your day.

Feed your­self. Even though you think you’ll be too busy or ner­vous in the morn­ing, make time for some food since it will keep you happy and smil­ing through­out the day.

Feed your pho­tog­ra­pher. For the same rea­son as above They will work harder and more effec­tively with food inside them.

Con­sider an engage­ment shoot. The more relaxed you are in front of the cam­era, the bet­ter you will feel of the day. If you’re ner­vous, con­sider book­ing an engage­ment shoot since you will gain con­fi­dence when your pho­tog­ra­pher shows you the fan­tas­tic photos!

You can’t do any­thing about the weather. Brides and grooms stress about the weather. The worst thing you can do if you get poor weather on your day is let it affect your mood. Your pho­tog­ra­pher should have every­thing under con­trol and have options for indoor pho­tog­ra­phy so keep a smile on your face and love your wed­ding day.

Finally — you’ve done enough. Once you get to your wed­ding day, enjoy it. You should have done all of the plan­ning and have cho­sen sup­pli­ers who will deal with all of the issues on the day … so let them get on with it and relax and enjoy it. Wed­dings always go fine

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About Phil Drinkwa­ter Photography

I am a national “pho­tog­ra­pher of the year” award win­ner and expe­ri­enced fash­ion, beauty and — of course — wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher. My approach to wed­dings is that indi­vid­u­al­ity is key and fun is next. Happy peo­ple look good in photographs.

My wed­ding pho­tographs are a con­tem­po­rary mix­ture of beau­ti­ful story moments and nat­ural and roman­tic por­trai­ture. Both are required for the ideal wed­ding col­lec­tion in my view and, sit­ting along­side each other in a fan­tas­tic album, you’ll want to relive your day over and over.

I love to start every wed­ding with the bridal prepa­ra­tion where I get a chance to spend time with the bride and her friends. The morn­ing is full of ner­vous energy and excite­ment for the com­ing day and the story of the moment will start off an album beau­ti­fully. It also gives me a chance to artis­ti­cally cap­ture the wed­ding details, such as the dress, shoes and flow­ers. You’ve spent a lot of time think­ing about these, so do make some­thing of them!

As the day pro­gresses, the wed­ding cou­ple will reach the wed­ding por­trai­ture sec­tion of the day, which I think must be a bit stress­ful: “What if I can’t pose right?” Well my nat­ural style allows you to be who you are and it becomes my job to take pho­tographs which make you look fan­tas­tic — smiles all round!

The speeches are a per­sonal favourite of mine and I make it my mis­sion to take a fan­tas­tic shot of the groom look­ing embarassed by his best man. It’s a key shot in the day! Into the evening I have a spe­cial light­ing setup to give fan­tas­tic stu­dio qual­ity first dance shots and I love cou­ples who truly come together on the dance floor… it’s a priv­i­lege to share your day and store such amaz­ing memories.

I’m based in Cheshire, but am avail­able for wed­dings around the coun­try and abroad.

Enjoy your wed­ding day — it will hap­pen SO quickly!!

Phil Drinkwater’s offi­cial web­site is at www.phildweddingphotography.co.uk

Visit Phil Drinkwater’s Eng­lish Wed­ding Show­case Page to find out more and see some of my favourite wed­ding photographs

See Phil’s lat­est real wed­dings for inspi­ra­tion — Phil Drinkwa­ter wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy blog