Wedding photos

We didn’t have a photographer at our wedding. My late husband and I were no spring chickens so it was a very simple registry office wedding with just our children. I regret that now.

I must be strange but I love all the 'arty' shots from DD3's recent wedding. The only people at the wedding were our youngest daughter, her new husband, their 3 children, DH, myself and the groom's sister. The photos captured the joyous occasion perfectly. Much more than our wedding photos did.

Maw, DD1 put instant cameras on all the tables at her wedding and we got some fabulous photos from those.

We didn`t book a photographer, but one was hanging around when we left the registry office, from a previous wedding, and he took half a dozen shots for us. They were black and white, but after nearly 60 years they`re more sepia.

It used to be:
A couple of photos of the happy couple coming out of the church
A photo of the bride and groom with the bridemaids and Groomsmen
A photo of the brides family
A photo of the grooms family
A photo of all the guests
A couple of photos for the mantlepiece.
Done.

Now it's all dreamy photos beside lakes
The happy couple running through a storm of confetti etc etc.

Anyone remember the fashion for trick photography- the bride and grooms faces in a glass of champagne, the bride peering out at herself from behind a tree and so on?

When Dh and i married we didn`t have a photographer,family and friends took some photos throughout the day and they are lovely as everyone was being themselves and not forced to hang around with a smile on their faces for hours on end.

My most treasured wedding photos anyway are the informal snaps friends and family took at the reception and afterwards.

If the couple were wandering for 5 hours then that will be what THEY wanted.We took wedding photographs for 50 years ,We planned with the couple ,in earlier times the mothers,how much time we had for photographs.
The best laid plans however can go wrong when Hotels/venues lead the B &G up to their room for afew minutes peace and they dont come back for 2 hours!
Of course the photographer gets it in the neck from all the guests .the caterers and the band because everything runs late,
Nothing to do with the photographer usually .
Digital changed photography ,when I started in 1969 it was all B/W with a dozen postcard size colour as an add on option .
When we closed the door due to covid SOME ,not all, photographers were of the quantity not quality type.We heard of weddings where they rattled off over 1000 shots in the hope of getting enough decent images
The old pro's called them machine gun types spray and pray.
There is no need for any qualified photographer who can control the situation to take longer than one and a half hours max and in fact we could cover a wedding in 45 minutes to an hour and get every shot needed/wanted
But then we were the generation who could get what was wanted on 5 rolls of 2 1/4 negatives b/w and one roll of 35mm. colour ,
That makes me feel old...

Some years ago ago a cousin married and held the reception at a nearby hotel. We seemed to be in the gardens for ages and the photographer had finished. It gradually dawned on us all that there had been a massive hiccup. The hotel had made a huge mistake. Someone had forgotten to note the booking! Fortunately we had the wedding cake, which my aunt had made and the hotel staff were running round buying food from local supermarkets. They managed to find a room for us all and in the end we had a lovely time. My aunt refused to talk about the hiccup for the rest of her life.

Like henetha, I have one photo from our wedding; it was taken by my brother in law. A wedding we attended last year involved professional photos taken outside the church which seemed to take an age, then mass photos taken in a sloping damp field (in heels? Really?) which involved much correography to arrange shortest at the front and tallest at the back and it all looked a bit odd. Then we got to sit down and eat!

At a family wedding a few years ago we had this problem. It didn’t really bother us but my dear Grandma was diabetic and needed to eat at regular times. She had the forethought to put some sandwiches in her handbag just in case. Good job she did and snook off to a quiet corner and sat there eating them!

I,ve been to a wedding lately where the guests all started to sit down in their places as the couple wandered lonely as clouds for at least three hours in the local woods with the photographer. They were trying to give a hint. We have yet to see the album.
From my DH's experience, many more photos are taken than ever appear in the album and I must admit I feature on the first page of it something which is not my style. I am laughing with a big wide mouth as I had just put my heel down a crack and ruffled the suede and sworn. The chap who owned the venue popped his head out of a door and said "From up North are we", I could not resist and said, "No if I were I would have called a spade a shovel."I must then have given the daft laugh I would never have chosen it for the album. The photographer must have been lurking!

I have only one wedding photo, taken by a friend as we left the registry office. This was way back, before weddings became fashionable things. I never felt the need for more.
I'm not sure if I'm envious or critical of modern weddings.
A mixture of both, I think.

Wedding photos cost a lot of money these days, so I suppose the photographer feels that taking time represents value for money.
The ‘albums’ are often on line and guests can choose which, if any, they would like. However, judging by the numerous shots of wine glasses, brides shoes, gardens and flowers at the venue, I don’t think much of them.
Some of the best compilations are photos from the guests who have managed to capture the essence and shared love of the occasion.

This is one of the reasons I stopped accepting wedding invitations, standing around for hours waiting while the bride and groom travel to the beach/football ground/whatever. The last wedding I attended was at 2pm but we did not sit down to the meal until 8.30pm, not on in my book.