7 Reasons Why We Might Not Be the Right Wedding Photographer for You

There are lots of really amazing wedding photographers in Northern Ireland and it must be so difficult for a couple to choose one that suits what they want best.

We believe the best photography partnerships happen when both sides are the right fit. We want every couple to love their photos and feel great about their wedding photography experience, but that only happens when our approach aligns with what you're looking for.

Here are a few honest reasons we might not be the best match for your big day:

1. You Prefer Traditional, Highly Posed Photography

We specialise in candid, documentary style wedding photography. If you're looking for a photographer who focuses mainly on traditional, posed group shots or a heavily staged style, our approach might not meet your expectations.

While we love to create beautiful portraits for our couples our aim is always to make these look natural with the aim always being to capture the moment and connection between the couple. We are not a photographer that is going to spend an hour to capture one photograph, ensuring that every single detail is perfect before we click the shutter button. While we will give direction when needed for your bride and groom portraits this will often entail creating moments to get what we want rather than fussing around the bride’s dress to ensure its perfect or spending 20 minutes testing lighting conditions.

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VIEW OUR WORK

For group photos we like to just find a location with nice light and from then on it’s about speed. When we got married group photos were one of the most boring parts of the day that we found frustrating. While of course we will ensure that we photograph you guys with everyone that you want, we won’t spend huge amounts of time setting up multiple shots with the same people. In an ideal world we want to get those all-important photos with your family and special people completed in around 15 minutes.

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We take the same approach with your bridal party. Although for the bridal party, instead of just putting everyone in a line for a photo we like movement and to have a bit of craic with everyone as well, sometimes we like to include the odd cheesy photo.

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2. You want the cheapest wedding photographer in Northern Ireland who is available on your date.

We are by no means the most expensive wedding photographers in Northern Ireland but we are also not the cheapest.

We invest heavily in high end equipment, editing software, backup systems, insurance, the best but also the most expensive option for online image delivery etc. the list just goes on and on. Our cost of doing business runs into tens of thousands of pounds every year. We never skimp or save when it comes to anything we need for our wedding photography business. We have always felt that having the best of everything available helps ensure that our couples get the best possible overall experience they have when they choose us to photograph their wedding. There are not many wedding photographers in Northern Ireland that invest as much as we do into our business. We also of course need to earn a living ourselves.

We have always felt that we offer excellent value for money for what we provide to our couples in terms of our experience and level of creativity. Even in recent times were the costs of doing business have increased dramatically, we have tried to swallow as much of those costs ourselves as possible.  

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CHECK OUT OUR PRICES

We also want the couples that choose us as their photographer to do so because they love what we do and are genuinely invested in having us photograph their wedding, rather than choosing us because we were the cheapest option.

If price is your only deciding factor, there are other photographers who may better suit your budget.

3. You’re Not Interested in Storytelling

We want to tell the full story of your day from the emotional moments of getting ready on the morning of the wedding right the way through to the dance floor. We love our job and it’s important to us to enjoy what we do.

How to choose a wedding photographer in Northern Ireland

If you’re only looking for quick portraits or highlight reels, our style of coverage and approach to wedding photography may not be what you want.

4. You Prefer Heavily Edited Photos

Every photo we provide to our couples is edited in our own style. However, we don’t like heavy skin soothing and photos that are heavily edited to the point that they look completely different to the actual scene on the day. For us we don’t think that that this style of photo editing looks real or natural. We won’t edit photos with backgrounds swapped out, fake sunsets etc. If you want wedding photographs with photoshopped dinosaurs etc. we won’t be the best photographer for you.

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For us consistent editing of our images is important, we want our couples to know what they can expect when it comes to their own wedding when they look through our work. We will crop and edit to remove anything we think looks distracting to us as well as colour grading in the way that we feel is most ascetically pleasing and looks true to life. While we want our photographs to be representative of the time when they were taken, we also want them to remain timeless.

5. You Want Photos That Replicate the Latest Social Media Trends

While we are always keen to try new things, experiment and learn, we prefer to avoid the more extreme trends you will find on social media. For us we also don’t want to replicate what other people do, we want to do what we do best and find ways of improving that.

One of the reasons for this is that those extreme trends often age very badly. A friend of ours in her wedding album has a photograph of her and her husband photoshopped to make it look like, they are inside a wine glass. Apparently, that was a whole trend at one point many years ago and they absolutely hate it now.

In the last couple of years there has been a trend for completely out of focus photographs. This started with photographers wanting to show movement, that is something we have been doing for years as you can see here.

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Completely out of focus photographs for no reason at all aren’t for us. We know this will age very badly. Down the road when you are proudly showing your wedding photos to your grandkids, how are you going to explain why they can’t see any detail of the day?

Trends come and go and some photographers will always jump to whatever the next extreme trend is. That is something we won’t do. We prefer to strive to improve what we do without copying what others do.

Just a few months ago we had a great example of this. A couple who had got married last year got in touch with us. They had initially reached out to us for their wedding but we weren’t available and, in the end, they went with a photographer who mainly shoots whatever the current extreme trend is. When they got their photos, they were happy, the photographer delivered exactly what they had promised. They received a full gallery of the ultra-trendy out of focus photos that you will see all over Instagram and TikTok. A few months down the line though they realised that they didn’t love this style. Their tastes had already changed. They ended up booking us to re-shoot all of their portraits from their wedding for them.

6. You're Planning a Very Last-Minute Wedding

While we will of course try to accommodate short notice, most of our couple’s book 12–18 months in advance. If you are planning a wedding with a very short lead time, our availability might be limited.

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We can only photograph one wedding a day and it’s also important to us that we don’t just take on extra work because we can. We don’t ever over book weddings because that can have an impact on the level of service we provide to our couple in terms of when they receive their images. It’s also important to us, to stay fresh and ready to give every wedding we photograph our best.

7. You Don’t Prioritise Photography or Us

Sometimes couples choose a photographer because they feel that that is just what you do when you are getting married, without attaching any real importance to who their photographer is, what their style is and how they do things. They choose only on who the cheapest option is or because the photographer shot their friend’s wedding etc. Some couples also just have no interest in photography and off course that is fine.

We want couples to choose us because we are the best option for them. We want them to love our work and how we do things and to be excited about the photos they will receive from us. It is important to us that we are first choice for our couples and that they are as excited as we are to document their wedding day.

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It’s also important that our couples have complete trust in us and how we do things and that they give us the time we need on the day to produce the results that they want.

Why We Don’t Accept Every Wedding Booking

When a couple gets in touch with us, we feel it’s important to be honest with them. If we think that we won’t be a good fit for what they are looking for, we will tell them. There is no point in us trying to change how we do things for one couple and them maybe ending up not being 100% happy.

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We would much rather keep ourselves available for couples who we are suited for than accept a booking for a couple would prefer a different style of wedding photographer.

Tommy + Laurene