In part two of Adam and Angela’s Chester wedding blog we meet the carnival crowds — and stars of the day! — as our brave bride and groom traverse the ancient city streets in their horse-drawn carriage.

As if that weren’t enough adventure for one wedding day, the couple also arranged for a tour bus to take them through Chester with their wedding guests to enjoy the parades!

Enjoy the rest of Angela’s wedding report along with images by Cheshire’s CG Weddings!

Chester carnival wedding day

“Our wedding, unusually, had the added complication of a horse drawn carriage and heritage tour bus needing to traverse Chester city centre when most of the roads that day had been closed for the ‘Chestival’ parades.

In the end the hotel staff at the Grosvenor worked extremely hard liaising with the police and the council to ensure our carriage and tour bus had the special permissions needed.

After a magical ceremony in St John’s church we had the added bonus of being returned to the Chester Grosvenor in our horse drawn carriage with literally thousands of people thronging the streets in anticipation of the parades, who were also wishing us well.

We felt like celebrities and the atmosphere in the streets that day was nothing short of amazing.

For the heritage bus tour we were also extraordinarily lucky in that the parade went by just as we boarded the bus, making for a really magical experience for ourselves and our guests.

As our experience quite dramatically shows, don’t overlook city centre locations as a wedding venue in favour of the more traditional country house settings. The atmosphere we had on our wedding day owing to the parade is something a more isolated countryside venue would never have been able to replicate. Also, as long as you’ve booked a quality wedding photographer who knows how to be creative and manipulate light and colour, there is no reason why your photographs shouldn’t be equally as dramatic as those taken in a more rural backdrop.

The wedding breakfast in the Chester Grosvenor later that day was complemented by some really great food and even better speeches! It is now five months on from the big day and I still can’t help feeling overwhelmed about how it massively exceeded our expectations.

Once again for any Chester or north west brides and grooms… here are those all important:

Recommended wedding suppliers

The Chester Grosvenor was completely faultless in managing our big day from working tirelessly to ensuring our carriage and tour bus could access the closed roads, to serving us exquisite food for the wedding breakfast.

We of course can’t recommend Liam Crawley — CG Weddings — enough as a photographer. As mentioned his manipulation of light and colour during the day produced some shots as beautiful and dramatic as any of those feasible in a country house type setting. CG Weddings blog is at http://cgweddings.co.uk/blog

Victoria, our florist from Lily Rose events based in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport. The apricot and ivory centre piece arrangements for the wedding breakfast were stunning.

Gabrielle Fisher from Kingfisher Cakes in Bromborough supplied us with a spectacular and very individual ‘Top Table’ style cake which proved one of the major talking points of the whole day!

Angela and Adam chose the busiest day in Chester’s calendar for their wedding — but it’s a day they’ll never forget, giant papier-mache people and all!

The Chester Grosvenor pulled out all the stops to make sure the bride and groom, their horse and carriage and the open-top bus could navigate the (otherwise closed!) roads to the hotel amidst the carnival crowds — and it makes for a spectacular wedding blog post — or two!…

I’ll share this in two parts — with words by Angela and photos by Chester wedding photographers CG Weddings. Enjoy!

The bridal shoes were a bargain: £40 bought from an online shop on eBay!

The (very heavy!) tiara was wired with Swarovski crystals and a few artificial pearls.

“I suppose every bride has the same sentiment but it was truly the most happy and special day of my life.

I wore a Maggie Sottero ‘Chance’ wedding dress. This dress style was discontinued a week after I placed my order so I was probably the very last bride to wear this down the aisle. I’m very petite so I needed a tightly fitted A-line type dress in a petite fit and ‘Chance’ fitted the bill perfectly. The dress was bought from Sense and Sensibility in Hazel Grove, Stockport.

Adam wore a ¾ length ‘Chopin’ style jacket in brown from Pronuptia Chester. The cravat was a ‘burnt orange’ colour to match the burnt orange sashes on the two bridesmaids’ Alfred Angelo dresses.

[I have to point out these two beautifully contrasting images: 1) vicar brandishing polo mints. 2) vicar more solemnly waving bible — Claire]

Angela says, “It’s really unbelievable the amount of organisation and planning that goes into a wedding so you can never start soon enough in terms of getting things organised.”

There’s more from Angela and Adam on English Wedding blog tomorrow as they brave the streets of Chester in the most bizarre and memorable wedding day journey you’ve ever seen! In the meantime…

Adam and Angela’s recommended wedding suppliers

The Chester Grosvenor was completely faultless in managing our big day from working tirelessly to ensuring our carriage and tour bus could access the closed roads, to serving us exquisite food for the wedding breakfast.

We of course can’t recommend Liam Crawley — CG Weddings — enough as a photographer. As mentioned his manipulation of light and colour during the day produced some shots as beautiful and dramatic as any of those feasible in a country house type setting. CG Weddings blog is at http://cgweddings.co.uk/blog

Victoria, our florist from Lily Rose events based in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport. The apricot and ivory centre piece arrangements for the wedding breakfast were stunning.

Gabrielle Fisher from Kingfisher Cakes in Bromborough supplied us with a spectacular and very individual ‘Top Table’ style cake which proved one of the major talking points of the whole day!

I have really strong feelings about today’s wedding blog post so I’m going to jump straight in and share them with you: wedding invitation designers have the right to add their signature or branding to their designs. It’s a mark of quality, proof an artist takes pride in their design work. Today I’m urging wedding stationers to add their name to their designs; I want to persuade couples who are buying handmade to choose designer invitations with the maker’s name on.

UK designer wedding invitation — Photo credit: Bunny Delicious

I’m expecting different reactions: a fair number of “ooh, this could be interesting“s — and probably a couple of sharp intakes of breath! Let me explain why this is so important to me.

The designer’s mark on a wedding invitation is:

• an artist or craftsman’s right and tradition
• a requisite for a small designer business
• a sign of quality; of pride in one’s designs

Let’s start with a little background — it’s about maker’s marks and designer labels.

What is a brand?

From Wikipedia: The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers”.

A brand is a word or company name that is loaded with our perceptions of quality, style and reputation.

A brand is something that creates a distinction:

• in retail: Prada or Aldi?
• in art and design: Van Gogh vs ‘Anon’?

A strong, positive brand can make the world of difference to a designer or small business. Successful brands are build on consumer perceptions. Brand image is all about quality and reputation, about pride in one’s work and conscious branding of a product range.

Every business has a brand

Wedding designers, business owners and creatives take huge pride in their products. It could even be argued that a team of 1 or 2 designers are more fiercely proud of and focused on the quality of their designs than the likes of… ooh, shall we say Moss Bros?

As designers we have the right to shout from the rooftops about how much we love our brands.

Signatures and logos in design

Hallmarks on silver: Photo credit AllAboutGemstones.com

Who uses these makers’ marks in design?

• Artists, painters and designers from the greats to local artists (a slight tangent but here’s a great blog post about signing works of art)
• Designers and retailers: who has an embossed fork in their kitchen? Or a silver bracelet with a hallmark?
• Manufacturers of quality brands: designer label shoes, handbags, cars… think about Coca-Cola, Smeg fridges, French Connection for example

But wedding invitations are different, aren’t they?

There’s a very common misconception that handmade, handcrafted and smaller scale designer pieces aren’t like this. That ‘designer’ doesn’t apply.

I don’t get it.

Is it because they’re paper? Then look at the high grade watercolour papers I use — the beautiful watermark is an essential part of the product, the cherry on the papery cake!

Is it because you don’t expect branding on greetings cards? Have a look at the back of a card you buy in Smiths or Sainsburys… in fact, it’s my sister’s birthday on Thursday so I’ve got an M&S card here:

How many logos and brands? 1. Forest Standards Council 2. Marks & Spencer 3. Getty Images — and there’s also a guide to the size for posting the card, ‘made in the UK’, Marks & Spencer’s head office address and website (in bold), a barcode and a line to say “for her — bright fun” (? there’s a hamster on the front).

Is it because it’s a wedding? Then explain to me why that makes it different. None of the stationery designers I know — small business or high street chain — change their rules or prices for wedding stationery. So I can’t see any justification for denying them their branding: effectively changing the rules on them.

Branding and logos as a mark of pride and quality

Jimmy Choos — always keep the brand as a mark of quality

Look again at designer brands: Prada, Jimmy Choo, Jaguar, Levi’s… you know when you see one of those logos on a product that it’s top quality, beautifully made, stylishly designed with thought and care.

Wedding invitation designers should show that they take the same pride in their work and include their signature / brand logo on the back of their product.

Sadly, I’ve heard stories about brides and grooms asking for a logo or brand name to be removed from designer wedding invitations.

Why?! Would these couples cut the label from a Louis Vuitton bag? Does ‘designer’ mean nothing in the wedding industry? Unless you’re buying your wedding invitations from Netto, or literally writing on the back of a fag packet, you should never try to hide the designer brand!

Zoe Rusga is the designer at Bunny Delicious, and she told me, “I have been asked to remove my logo from wedding invitations… but why would you spend £200 on invites and have a logo removed?  I am so brand aware and have spent years developing an iconic “thing” that will set me aside from the rest, add value to my product and create a little world of intrigue via the logo and beyond. When I see my invitations without the branding they look so de-valued. I drew the design, I am proud of my rights as an artist. I want people to buy and be excited to buy from me!”

Asking a designer to remove their logo from wedding invitations

Asking for the removal of a designer logo or branding from your wedding invitations is denying a designer the right to claim creative ownership of their work.

Not only that, it takes away a perception of value from your stationery. It’s the difference between ‘designer label’ and ‘anonymous’.

It doesn’t matter if your designer runs a highly acclaimed business or is just starting out. Vivienne Westwood started somewhere — how cool would you be if you’d bought one of her very first pieces? How silly would you feel if you’d cut the label out? Supporting established and new designers in any field is a wonderful thing.

Asking a designer to remove their branding from a product is not only insulting and rude, it devalues a piece too. It’s like trying to pass Prada off as Netto.

Brand logos as trademarks

Is this more about business and advertising than creative rights and a mark of quality? Am I missing the point here, do you think?

Are you?

Advertising is a small part of branding on invitations

If advertising were the sole purpose of branding wedding invitations, then designers would put a price on the back. Please credit us with a little more intelligence than that.

Look again at my M&S example: there’s a barcode on there, a product code and the website. That’s selling. Compare this to a wedding invitation with a designer logo on the back: I’m betting the logo is as carefully designed as the invite itself: it’s a mark of quality, not a hard sell.

If your wedding invitations arrive with “only £1 for 6 and get 10% discount online when you quote offer code XYZ” on the back, then you’ve cause to complain.

Logos are tasteful and while they do advertise the designer, it’s the right of every small business to get their name out there.

The desginers from Bellybuttonboo commented on my facebook page, “we do add a logo or website where we can to our invitations but we always add it to the final proof/sample so the couple know it will be there — it’s a key thing for us that if people like what we do, they can look us up. But it’s not always practical and we wouldn’t squeeze it in or add it where it would impact on a design.”

They went on to mention a bride who “wanted the feel of handmade invitations and wanted to make them herself, but we ended up doing the main invitation for her and she added some finishing touches. Although we could have added a logo, we didn’t as it wouldn’t have been ‘handmade’ for her. It’s really knowing when it’s not right for that couple in particular.”

I think an invitation handcrafted by a designer has added value though, don’t you?

Rachel Sokhal, designer at Exceptional Designs, says “I have always added my logo and website details to the back of all of my wedding stationery, right from when any samples are sent out and I have never had one client question it in 4 years.”

Sophie from Cards by Sophie commented on my facebook page: “I keep it simple, not too overt and in a grey shade so again it’s not too out there! I’ve never had anyone question it at all, like Rachel said. I think it’s important to show where they were made, also get your name out there and also to be very honest not have someone fob them off as their own! I don’t see why not? People have paid for your product, obviously love it to have done so, and no one seems to have an issue with it being marked as where it’s from.”

Julie from Carol Miller Designs told me, “I include my details on all my wedding invitations. If anyone asked me to leave them off I would say no. After all if you buy a card from Clintons or M&S all the details are there. I get calls from relatives asking for secret photo albums, keepsake boxes etc as a wedding presents. I’ve also had stationery orders from brides the following year who have received one of my invites.”

Supporting small wedding businesses and designers

I’d love to see English Wedding couples making a conscious choice to not only buy invitations from small businesses and designers, but to take pride in

a) having a unique, affordable, creative designer label on the back of your wedding invitations

b) helping spread the word about designers and small wedding businesses via the logos on the reverse of wedding invitations

Having pride in designer wedding invitations

Creatives in any industry have a terrible habit of undervaluing themselves. I hear it all the time from brilliant designers: “I’m not sure if I’m good enough” — from top bridal accessory designers to stationers, photographers (less often!) and even cake designers. Even though their work is impeccable and exciting, too many amazing wedding stationers work for peanuts.

Having a logo on a product is a mark of distinction. It’s a signal, a little stamp of confidence: not shouting “I’m brilliant” from the rooftops, but saying “I’m proud of this”. And that’s every designer’s right.

A wedding invitation designer who puts a logo on the back of their product is a GOOD designer.

(And let me take a little moment to say to designers, “please brand your products!” If you don’t, why not? I’m off to investigate an embossing press for my brand as soon as I’ve finished writing! Perhaps I’ve never really had the confidence to before — I don’t know. But I know branding my product will keep that confidence at the forefront of my mind — and that can’t be a bad thing.)

Haha… Even as I type this post, Nikki from Knots & Kisses has told me on facebook, “I’m looking at finding someway of embossing my logo on the envelopes and therefore it won’t ruin the stationery” — but Nikki I agree with your other half: embossing your logo on the invitations themselves will be a real advocate of your brand. I think any couple would be proud to show off their Knots & Kisses invitations!

Sharing your pride in your wedding designs

Brides: If you buy a top from Tesco in your lunch break, do you show your colleagues or leave it in the bag? No harm in either really, but I don’t imagine you’d be rushing back desperate to show it off…

If you buy a top by Alexander McQueen in your lunch break, do you show your colleagues or leave it in the bag?

The moral of the story there is, if you buy something special you can be proud of it. A designer piece is something to get excited about — designer wedding invitations are just the same.

If you buy a handcrafted designer wedding invitation with a logo on the back -

Show if off with pride!

and thank you for supporting our wedding industry designers too.

Claire xx

I’ve got a wedding countdown ticker as an app on my Chrome browser, and when I saw the 47 days to go, my heart twisted a little in panic! Seven short weeks to go!

The To Do list is getting shorter, however. We are meeting with our church florist, I have booked a make-up trial, we’re meeting up with our photographer and the bridesmaid dresses are being altered!

The best recent wedding thing is that… I’ve been on my hen do!

Went to York — yes, in the snow. It was freezing! However, my hen do was absolutely amazing and my two chief bridesmaids who arranged it all for me made sure that I had a fantastic time. The best bit of all the amazing bits was the cocktail making classes in Revolution! We had a really cute barman and all my favourite cocktails! Bonus! On the Sunday morning I was feeling a little worse for wear but I had an amazing time!

And! I have collected my wedding dress!

It’s so so completely and utterly beautiful and I love it so so much! I love wearing it and the best part is… it’s too big for me! They convinced me to get the size 16 when I was originally measured for it, but now it has to be taken in. It’s bad for spending money but it’s very good for my flagging self-esteem!

My bridesmaids looked utterly beautiful in their bridesmaid dresses. I actually want one of their dresses! I thought they all looked beautiful and they mostly only needed a few adjustments!

H2b is on his stag do at the moment, he’ll be back later today. He’s successfully not contacted me the entire weekend so I’m sure he’s having a fabulous time in Amsterdam.

Everything is falling into place and it’s very exciting!

Time for a little Friday afternoon blog hop, anyone?

wedding dress cake from Foodista.com

I have to confess: I’m out and about this week and writing this blog post in a bit of a hurry. But I still have to share a few of the best bits of internet I’ve been enjoying over the last week or so.

Real weddings

Wedding on Love My Dress blog. Photo credit: Lillian & Leonard

• Glamorous Glasgow wedding on Love My Dress blog
• A Mountaintop Wedding
• A vineyard wedding in Oxfordshire

Think Creative

• A great collection of ideas on Pinterest: Paper Flowers
• Gorgeous photography — some crackers from my friend Neil Redfern on Brides Up North wedding blog this week!Ice Maiden photoshoot (wow!)
• Rock n Roll Bride with some cookie-cutter love!
• Vintage Wedding Fair review from Stockport
• For a giggle — lost in translation? Stitch Your Own Suspenders! — not quite what you’re expecting!

Be different

• Gorgeous wedding cake inspiration… Gothic Roses and Birdcage Wedding Cake | A Wedding Cake Blog
• and an insight into the wedding cake designer’s world: inside the designer’s sketchbook, part 1: the 2012 collection | cake blog
• Foodista | Stunning Wedding Dress Cake — yum?
• Studio Artifice Beautiful Wedding Films and Cinematography

Have an opinion

• QR codes on wedding invitations? New York Times Article What do you think? Too modern? Does a QR code spoil a beautiful invite or make it easier for your guests…?
• I’m not sure of my views on this — negotiating with wedding suppliers: I’d say, don’t ask for a discount just because articles like this suggest you should. What do you think? Negotiating With Vendors: Tips for the polite — Blue Collar Bride

I’m watching the rugby with Gareth as I type, so I can’t say Bodkin out loud. But I want to: what a wonderfully English-sounding name for a wedding venue! “Bodkin”. It’s from Middle English and means dagger, according to Wiktionary! Not enough? Jane Austen once stayed at this Bristol inn, according to the wedding venue website. She scrawled her name on the window with a diamond ring — “fashionably”, so I understand!

Laura and Nathan’s glorious wedding lives up to the quality and elegance you’d expect, not just from The Bodkin wedding venue (oh I love it!) but also from Martin Pemberton Photography. I’m delighted to feature such a beautifully photographed wedding on my blog for you today.

And last but not least, Laura and Nathan. We have a beautiful bride — a delicate beauty with flowers in her hair — and a handsome groom (watch out for Nathan’s beaming smiles throughout the day — he looks so proud to be a married man)!

Laura’s written a wedding report for you — so over to the bride!

Laura and Nathan’s Bristol (Bodkin!) wedding

Our wedding day was fantastic and couldn’t have gone any better. From start to finish everything ran smoothly and we couldn’t have asked for better weather which made for better photo opportunities. It was very satisfying seeing the previous 12 months of planning come to fruition.

Jane Gilchrist is a family friend who offered to sing at the wedding as a gift. Jane is an operatic singer and she sang as the guests were seated and waiting for me to arrive and then sang as we were signing the register. Due to the church being small in size and the roof structure high this helped the acoustics sound amazing!

My wedding dress: Veromia from Future Brides

My wedding dress was from Veromia (Style: VR61018 — ivory fishtail with lace up back). I bought it from Future Brides in Chipping Sodbury, Bristol. They offered a fun and friendly service and were always willing to go the extra mile to ensure that my day was special. After selecting ‘the one’, my seamstress and I added a halterneck to the dress as well to make it more suited to my individual style. I recommend Future Brides — they were brilliant and have a range of different stock from bridesmaids dresses to bridal dresses.

(Future Brides facebook page is www.facebook.com/pages/Future-Brides/172000769489821)

I chose a classic court shoe by Rainbow with a 2 inch heel as I wanted to be comfortable throughout the day as I am so used to wearing trainers being a P.E teacher. My veil also purchased and recommended from Future Brides, was a ¾ length veil and had a silk trim which was simple and elegant that complimented the dress perfectly. My mum had given me her garter which she wore on her wedding day to my dad. The garter had sentimental value as it has been passed down through the family as a tradition. It was also lucky as it happened to be old and blue!

My jewellery was very minimal and apart from my diamond engagement ring and wedding ring I only wore white gold diamond droplet earrings.

Nathan wore a Prince Edward brown morning suit complete with ivory waistcoat and taupe cravat, handkerchief and brown shoes. This was to help him be distinguished from his other groomsmen who wore the same but with an ivory waistcoat and ivory handkerchief.

Each Groomsman wore cufflinks with their title for the day so either groom or best man etc. The groom being an avid Tottenham Hotspur Football fan wore his Tottenham watch which was his special accessory given to him by me that morning before the wedding.

The groomsman suits were hired from Tux and Tails in Bristol, they were very helpful with choosing which colours would work best with the colour scheme.

Our football theme was memorable: All the tables at the reception were named after the Groom’s favourite Tottenham players past and present. They all had a quiz relating to that player or to Tottenham Hotspur history for the table to amuse themselves with before the 3 course meal was served.

Our wedding breakfast was memorable: Looking around the room and sharing our memorable day with friends and family and feeling the fun and laughter that immersed the room.

Martin Pemberton, our wedding photographer understood that we didn’t want to have the traditional wedding photos, so he managed to capture some great relaxed shots of the day where we were having photos taken by various features that our reception venue had to offer.

Wedding day advice: what one piece of advice would you give?

After you are married, take a moment alone just the two of you to have a moment of reflection and just be able to share a moment in private.

… said the wedding blogger as she tipped the worms out of her tin. But no, I’m not trying to rattle any cages or have a big discussion today. A little while ago I read a really thought-provoking comment on my wedding industry blog post and it really got me thinking. This is a question I was asking myself — and with the help of some great friends I like to think we’ve answered it for you.

Photo credit: Fiona Campbell London www.fionacampbelllondon.com

Understanding wedding photography prices

Let me start at the beginning. I was intrigued by a blog comment about wedding photography pricing from the lovely Fiona Campbell. Fiona Campbell is a respected London wedding photographer whose work has featured in Vogue and across top wedding blogs. Fiona shoots weddings in the UK and Europe, and her 2012 prices start from £1750 for wedding photography. Fiona commented that many brides and grooms expect to find a top wedding photographer for £1000 — but that often they’re surprised by prices closer to £2000.

Is £2000 expensive for wedding photography?

Fiona’s blog comment made some interesting points:

• A wedding photographer’s work has to be 100% right every sin­gle time
• “We can­not have an off day, because our off day is some­one else’s big day”
• Wedding photographers work week­ends and have high over­heads

On Fiona’s website she also explains that “a large volume of backroom work goes on behind the scenes and this is reflected in the price” for her wedding photography. And this is the part I think couples often need help to really appreciate.

Fiona believes that wedding planners could play an important role in raising awareness of wedding photography pricing — and in educating couples “in how to get what is right for them, what to expect and how much they should expect to pay for it. I think it is only by strength­en­ing the role of the plan­ners that you will strengthen the indus­try.… a plan­ner knows who they like to work with and who will do a good job, and they know what is reason­able to pay them.”

Photo credit: Fiona Campbell London www.fionacampbelllondon.com

Raising awareness of wedding photography pricing

It makes sense: a wedding planner will have worked with different photographers and understand the prices and options available to brides and grooms. I also appreciate that many wedding photographers aren’t comfortable selling or having to justify their prices — and that’s fair enough. If you’re creative, you’re probably not a born salesman or woman!

I asked my friend Julie from The Wedding Genie her thoughts on wedding planners ‘educating’ couples about the price of wedding photography. Julie’s response was to focus on the bride and groom: in a nutshell, the wedding planner’s role is to help source the best suppliers, at the best prices, for each couple’s budget.

Wedding photo credit: Jo Hastings (wedding planned by The Wedding Genie)

The role of the wedding planner

When I emailed Julie — my Wedding Genie! (seriously — I love her!) — she’d just met with a recently-engaged couple. She told me, “One of the first things I asked them was what were their priorities for their planning. What do they categorically have to have to make their wedding day as wonderful as they imagine it to be?

Photography was high on their list but they had been talking to recently married friends and could not believe the cost involved. In their heads they thought about £500 –600. They started to look and found nothing really in that category. They don’t like the very arty contemporary shots but wanted someone to capture their day and their personality and have lovely images. They loved the idea of reportage; they did not want to spend hours being posed or spend hours with formal shots.

A wedding planner’s responsibility to couples

My role I think here was to explain why a photographer costs this much and what they do for their money. In reply to Fiona’s comment, I agree it’s up to us to educate our clients. BUT even for me there is a certain ceiling that I think everyday couples can pay for their photographer. I am employed to make sure that this lovely couple spend their money on the right people, and get the right package that suits them. All couples are different: some are not that interested in photography so it’s my role to help them budget for their own priorities. We have singled photography out here but it could just be the case for education in other areas such as flowers etc.

The real value of wedding suppliers: a personal thing

I don’t meet couples on a daily basis who have £15-20k to spend on a wedding. When couples are surprised by wedding supplier prices it’s part of my role to explain the value of great suppliers and why they are this much. For example I was asked to look for a particular group the couple had seen at a function and they were brilliant, the price was £900: to me an excellent price for the calibre of entertainment. My clients’ first reaction was, “oh my god that’s £300 for a couple of hours work”. I then had to advise them that yes, 2 x 45 minute sessions was what they were delivering but they have to travel to the venue and perhaps set up two or three hours before the gig and then take an hour to pack at the end. I also showed a similar group for £550 and the couple came back straight away saying “ah yes I can see what I am paying for”.

Julie’s advice opened my eyes to lots of things. A wedding planner can certainly help couples to understand prices for suppliers — and an experienced planner can guide you to choose the best wedding vendors within your budget. If there are services such as photography which seem expensive, then a planner can help to show you why, and talk through priorities with you to aid you in making the right decision for you.

Julie added, “It is not a wedding planner’s role to sell individual photographers: it’s up to them to portray to my client why they are charging that price. As long as my clients go and see them with enough information I feel I’ve helped them to make an informed decision. Everyone I send my couples to is a superb professional with prices that I think are fair, good value and worth their service. Most expensive is in my opinion is not the best nor is the cheapest, it is what is right for them. I recommend people who will produce what they say they will and make the wedding journey a really good one. I teach my clients that it is all about this and working with caring, talented people who will make their day special. You do have to pay for that level of service.”

I love Julie’s perspective. A wedding planner can share their own insight into photographers’ pricing, but ultimately it’s up to the wedding photographer to portray why they’re charging a certain amount. 

And that’s what it all boils down to. Wedding photographers charge different prices across the country, for different styles and experience levels. I could try to break down the basic price of wedding photography and justify it (I may even do so with the help of a couple of photographers… you never know!) but it’s not about that.

In my mind I was mulling over the price of Tesco’s finest vs designer t-shirts. It’s a similar story with huge variations in price for a bit of material, print, stitching, packaging and marketing. The cost price to the manufacturers will be similar for the two t-shirts. But the value of each one is down to perception: your perception.

Photo credit: Jonny Draper

If wedding photography seems expensive to you, read this

I asked Manchester wedding photographer Jonny Draper for his thoughts on the price of wedding photography. When he emailed them to me, I replied, “You beauty. Thanks Jonny — a brilliantly written response that covers everything swishing around in my head… it’s common sense but beautifully argued.” See what you think!

Do couples need wedding photography prices explaining to them? Are photographers’ prices really complicated to understand?

Jonny Draper — “I don’t actually think I’ve got the definitive answer for you — because I don’t think it actually exists! I think the problem is that as with anything creative, everything around photography is so subjective.

What is the ‘perfect’ photograph?

And if it is the ‘perfect’ photograph is it worth 100 times more than any other photograph that’s ever been taken?

Photo credit: Jonny Draper Photography www.jonnydraper.co.uk

The answers to those two questions are:

1) There’s no such thing. It’s only perfect to the people that it needs to be perfect to. Whether that’s the photographer realising a vision or a bride and groom ecstatic as this particular photograph captures everything about their amazing day.

2) Probably not. No matter how much the bride and groom love this particular photograph, they are unlikely to pay a premium for it. No matter how much the photographer thinks it’s the best photograph in the world, he’s unlikely to be able to demand 100 times the price that he would normally charge.

(Please understand that I’m making a couple of very sweeping and generalised statements that are in no way meant to spark arguments about technical aspects of perfect photography, etc.)

We’re all different so we value wedding photography differently

So where does this leave us? I think it leaves us with the same old problem. Different people attach different values to different things. In life, not just in weddings! Some people like to drive round in expensive cars. Others see cars as an ‘It gets me from A to B’ type thing, so why would they spend a fortune on the car itself, the tax, the insurance, the fuel, etc. when they can run something for a quarter of the price.

With weddings, some people find the venue the most important thing. That’s where the majority of the budget goes and whatever they’re left with gets divided up between the other things they need. Other people love flowers, some love live music and for some it’s photography. Some brides and grooms are lucky enough that they can afford all the things that they want, but I suspect for the purposes of this conversation we’re not looking at brides and grooms that have an endless budget…

The decision to spend on your wedding photography is all yours

So what if photography isn’t the most important thing to a bride and groom? How do you make them realise just how important it is? Sadly, in an unregulated industry, I don’t think you can. You can try to ‘educate’ brides and grooms when they come to see you about potentially shooting their wedding, but for me personally, when I meet people, I don’t want to scaremonger them into booking me. I want them to book me because they want to book me. And if I’m out of their budget, then I try to introduce them to someone who I know is a great photographer, but is within their budget.

The real value of a wedding photographer

I’m very lucky in that all my brides and grooms value what they’re paying me for. But I think that comes down to a whole different thing.

It’s about who you’re working with, other great suppliers whose work is amazing and is highly valued (I’m not talking necessarily about high-end, expensive suppliers, I’m talking about exciting, inspirational suppliers who get their brides and grooms excited about all aspects of their day and not just the part that they’re being paid for).

Listen to advice from your friends and family

Once you break into a circle of friends or family and do a few weddings for the same sets of people, it’s amazing the stories you hear. “Wow. My sister’s wedding last year was a nightmare because of the photographer, etc. I wish we’d found you for theirs as well — let me introduce you to my friends who are getting married…”

If you do a great job for discerning people (and again, by discerning I don’t mean discerning in a big spending kind of way, discerning in an ‘everything’s important to us’ kind of way) then they will do the educating of their friends and family for you.

A breakdown of wedding photography prices?

I could do the breakdown thing for you, why I charge £2k as a starting point, what that covers (expenses, editing time, what my images actually cost per photograph once you divide my fee between the number of images I take, etc.) but I have to be honest — it’s because I think what I do for my clients is worth it. Simple as.

I had a phone call recently from a bride enquiring as to my availability for a date. The next question from her was obviously about money and she was very surprised when I told her the basic figures. She asked me why I’m so expensive. I told her I didn’t think I was expensive for the time, level of service my brides and grooms receive, the quality and creativity of the work I shoot for them.

I had a meeting with a bride and groom last night who told me that they didn’t have a budget for wedding photography. It was very important to them, so they weren’t clouding their head with numbers, they just wanted to see great work, find somebody that they got on with and they were prepared to pay appropriately to get that. Two very different conversations with two people who had two very different outlooks on things.

Which is why I don’t think you can educate people across the board. Yep, you’ll always hear the ‘I wish we’d used more of our budget on the photography as we’re so disappointed with what we got’ stories, but at the time of those brides and grooms making their decision and paying out money before their wedding there’s no way you’ll be able to change their mind! What hopefully happens as a result of that, is that their friends and family learn from their mistakes and don’t go down that route themselves.”

My huge thanks to Jonny Draper — for sharing his (very eloquent!) thoughts for this blog post. Thanks also to Fiona Campbell for sparking a great little thought process for me! And to Julie Dawson aka The Wedding Genie for sharing her thoughts from a planner’s perspective.

www.JonnyDraper.co.uk

www.FionaCampbellLondon.com

www.TheWeddingGenie.co.uk

To everyone reading this blog post: I’d love to know your thoughts on the price and value of wedding photography. Do you agree with Fiona, Julie and Jonny?

And what about my comparison to designer clothes? Do you wear George, Warehouse or Gucci? And does your wedding photographer match your t-shirt?

If I was introducing these two to you in person this morning, I’d have an arm around Tory and Jamie’s shoulders and a big beaming smile on my face.

The lovely couple behind Vickerstaff Photography have inspired me, made me chuckle, kept me sane with their emails and even ordered a little piece of my calligraphy. Having the support of such lovely people means so much.

They’re also the creative team behind two of my favourite weddings blogged in the last few months. First there was Rachel and Steven’s winter wedding at The Ashes in Staffordshire and then I featured Ivanka and Ashley’s Manchester wedding. In each case it was the photography that blew me away!

Rachel and Steven: Staffordshire wedding photography

Ivanka and Ashley: Manchester wedding photography

I’m delighted to have Jamie and Tory aka Vickerstaff Photography as sponsors of English Wedding blog, and to welcome them to the English Wedding Showcase.

The English Wedding Showcase & Vickerstaff Photography

If you’re not subscribed to the English Wedding Showcase yet, you should be! It’s full of inspiration with lots of real wedding blogs, wedding news and features from my friends and sponsors.

There’s also a page full of information and ‘best bits’ from Vickerstaff Photography on the English Wedding Showcase, along with pages for each of the sponsors on English Wedding blog. So it’s a fantastic resource for finding a wedding photographer — or a wedding invitation designer or planner — who I support, admire and recommend myself!

Jamie and Tory — welcome to English Wedding. Not only do I love your photography, I love your leaf, your smiles and your red lipstick! (Isn’t that a fab pic?!)

Claire x

www.vickerstaffphotography.co.uk

www.english-wedding-showcase.com/vickerstaff-photography-wedding-showcase