A shorter wedding photography session doesn't mean moments like this still can't be captured.
Are you planning a wedding that is big on love but small on budget?
My favourite weddings are those that are all about celebrating love with family and your very best friends without a debt the size of a small house to go with it.
Forget the fancy car (which isn’t yours anyway), the three-tiered wedding cake (most of which will end up in the bin) and the hundred guests (you will barely have time to talk to them all) and choose quality over quantity.
If the so-called fairytale wedding with the big dress, the band, the dancing and being the star of the show has been your dream since you were six years old, then, absolutely, you have to do it or you might live to regret that you didn’t.
But if all that traditional stuff is not really you then you can’t beat a simple ceremony, an outdoor location and splashing out a bit on some nice nosh for your guests.
Celebrating with family and close friends is the most important bit of any wedding
When it comes time to start planning your wedding and you hit google and Pinterest it can be easy to get sucked into the hype. But you don’t need to do what everybody else does. Instead, choose to stay true to yourself and your budget at the same time.
Focus on the stuff that really matters.
Not long ago I had a call from a work colleague asking if I was busy tomorrow.
“Ummm, just the usual stuff,” I replied, wondering what was coming next.
“Well I’m going to a friend’s wedding, I don’t have a present for them and I’ve just realised they don’t have a wedding photographer.”
There’s a bit of a long drawn out okaaay from my side. “People usually book their photographer months – years – in advance, but that’s ok. But what’s your budget for a present? Wedding photography doesn’t come cheap.”
“The thing is I was hoping you could come along for just a few hours. My mate won’t have organised a present yet either and we could split the cost.”
Well, why not, I thought? All the fun of a wedding without a good chunk of the stress
And so, snack pack wedding photography was born.
Just after the ceremony emotions are high and it can be a lovely time to capture those intense feelings of love
I loved the few hours I shared with Amy and Alex at their Dunedin wedding.
We 'met' for a chat on Skype the day before and agreed I would turn up at the end of the ceremony. I spent an hour taking family and group photographs for them at the Rhododendron Dell in Port Chalmers.
Then we spent some time taking portraits of just the two of them before they joined their guests for dinner at the Careys Bay Hotel.
The Careys Bay marina gave a perfect, close-by back-drop for portraits without the bridal couple spending hours away from their guests driving to locations around Dunedin
It worked out perfectly. We covered all the really important bits – the photographs that you actually look at 10 years later.
You won’t spend a lot of time looking at a picture of your shoes, but you will you study all the family pictures and remember all the people you invited – those that really mattered to you at that time in your life.
You don't need a lot of space or big locations to capture meaningful moments. Gorgeous window light in the Careys Bay Hotel helps create a photograph to treasure for both bride and niece
Do you really need to have every second of your wedding day documented? Is your wedding all about the love rather than the pomp?
Then snack pack wedding photography might allow you to have your photographs and enjoy them too.
Moments of shared celebration happen all the time during weddings. You can't possibly capture them all but even a few hours of photography will give you pictures to bring back happy memories.
Good photography is always an investment you won't regret ten years from now, but newly-wed couples also want to start their married life together without the strain of paying for a day already behind them.
If you would like to find out more about snack pack wedding photography you can find out more here.
