Everyone has a fair idea of the order of a wedding day, we've all been to enough ourselves to know what takes place and when, but whats it like for a South Wales wedding photographer?. A wedding is a event to look forward to! From the church, ceremony, confetti and speeches to meeting up with old friends, drinking wine and the same old best man jokes! But are we really that familiar with what goes on for the photographer? what exactly is the photographers order of the day? where does it begin, and is it equally planned out with precision?

I'd like to try and run through what its like to be in the photographers shoes, so hopefully you have an insight into the world of the guy behind the lens!

Let's start at the beginning, with the wedding of Sophie and Ian as an example. Sophie and Ian were married at All saints church in Swansea, Wales in July 2009, with the wedding reception at Langland golf club.

It may be suprising to hear, but a wedding photographer doesn't just turn up on the day and start to take excellent photographs, relying soley on his or hers brilliant camera skills. For us at least and in the case of Sophie and Ian it all began the week before with a visit to the church and venue and a Met office forecast of the weather a week in advance. With heavy cloud and a 60 percent chance of rain forecast we visited the church and walked through in our minds where the outside photography would take place and also the location of the sun at 2pm in relation to the church if indeed the sun decided to break through and blind us all like we all know South Wales weather can!

So the Sunday before the wedding in Mumbles we ran through a plan A and also a plan B of where the photography outside the church would take place in the event of two possible weather situations; extreme rain and hot sunshine. Our perfect senario would as you may already of guessed... clouds! We not only thought about the background for the photography but also tried to combine that with sheltered spots away from both the sun or the rain. We also did some test photographs inside the church and met the vicar and ran through how many photos would be allowable during the ceremony and whether a flash was allowed. Usually there is no limit to how many we can take during the ceremony and most of the time there are no problems using a flash. However there have been occasions when no photography has been permitted during the ceremony itself and times where only one photograph can be taken at the end of the ceremony, so its important to note all these details and check these out in advance. We'd also need to do test photographs at different ISO levels if a flash was not allowed.

For the wedding of Sophie and Ian I was also lucky enough to go with them on the Thursday night before the wedding to the rehearsal, even though I'd done my test shots inside the church already it was too good an opportunity to have a real life test run, not for me so much, but for Sophie and Ian, they could then see where I was standing and feel a little more relaxed when it came to the Saturday having run through the test ceremony with the flash going off. The less nervous the happy couple are, the better the photography as they will feel more relaxed with the photographer and this is one of the reasons why we offer a pre marriage shoot as part of our wedding package. Its always easy to forget as a wedding photographer that even though we have been in this situation countless times before and are pretty calm; its all new to the bride and groom! this is the first time they have been centre of attention at a wedding, its one of the most important days of their lives.

That week I'd got some photos of the church with the flag flying, the aisle and some church clock shots that I would use after the wedding as album fillers and also slideshow backgrounds. It means I get some of the work out of the way before the wedding and usually Dave and I will start to play around with album overlays and slideshow backgrounds before hand so we at least feel we have made a start on the work for that wedding and make sure these look good.

Saturday was then upon us. Our memory cards were wiped, the camera set to take the photographs at Jpeg fine and NEF format on my Nikon and Daves set to RAW on his Canon. Our batteries were charged and our backup batteries also charged.

One thing I'll mention is the shooting format, I do like Jpeg fine as a format to shoot with as there is so much processing to do after a wedding it helps loads to get some of this done for you by the camera. While I love the flexibility of RAW or NEF and being able to adjust the exposure afterwards in photoshop, especially for the ceremony shots and the important indoor or church photography it does take time, and a lot of the time for half of the shots at least the photos don't need much in the way of tweaking, so I'll use the jpeg fine ones where I see fit and alter the NEF (nikon) or RAW (canon) on the ones that do need tweaking and altering of the exposure slightly. A good a example of this are bride shots where the whiteness of the dress can overexpose.

We kicked the day off by going to Sophies house to photograph the girls getting ready. Fortunatley for us Sophie had given us as much time as we wanted to shoot her and the bridesmaids getting ready. This allowed us the time to make sure we get the shots we want. There was no pressure or no small window in which we had to produce quick and stunning photography. Planning again and time allocation does really help a photographer. The more a photographer is helped on the day increases the chances of excellent photography. We simply had time to think. We looked, paused, looked again, chatted about the staircase, saw where the light was coming from, chatted again, took some test shots, tried different angles etc until everyone was happy. This didn't actually take that long but it seemed like we had all the time in the world, the pressure was off and the results showed this. The amount of time also meant we were not overly pushy or bossy toward the bride or her family and just slotted in out of the way as they all prepared for the big day that lay ahead.

Next up was the church! The boys were waiting there for us, along with some guests who had already started to gather. We gave ourselves a good 30 mins to get some shots of the groom and best man outside the church, along with the groom and his parents. The time flies by in this situation and soon I was walking down to the front of the church and left Dave waiting for the bride to arrive in the wedding car so he could snap away and get the bride and dad entering the church and looking a little nervous! I usually at this point take the opportunity to get a few good photographs of the groom and best man sat at the front of the church, along with some family shots, its a good test for the lighting once again and a double check really the camera settings are all correct and that the flash diffuser is working along with the correct tilt of the flash itself.

As the bride starts to walk down the aisle I am usually at the front directly dead ahead of her waiting for the one or two shots that I will get as she and her dad get nearer to me. This is the hardest part in terms of capturing the moment, as it usually takes less than a minute to walk down the aisle and without having the tripod or monopod there I usually wait until they are pretty close to me to pull off the one aisle shot. Miss this and its gone forever. There are literally no second chances here! we can't ask them to walk down the aisle again! but we could re take the traditional family group shots if we really needed to as there is quite a lot of flexibility in taking the group shots. This is why I feel the ceremony photography is probably the hardest photography task of a wedding day in that you only get one chance to get it right. That day, like all weddings we shoot was pre planned, having gone through the whole process with Sophie and Ian the Thursday before the wedding, done the test shots and also shown them where I was going to stand and where Dave would be made it a relaxed and happy ceremony for us as photographers and helped them relax infront of the camera which in turn ensured great natural wedding poses. The bonus for me here personally as a photographer came when Ian decided to kiss Sophie a little longer than would normally be the case!! While there was laughter from the guests at the length of the kiss, I was just as ecstatic as the pair of them as photographer as it meant with my 50mm fast lens I got one of the best "kiss" shots of the summer!

Unexpected events like that happen all the time at a wedding, usually to our favour, Its the nature of wedding photography; and this is why planning and being on your toes is crucial. But if you are not well prepared and the planning is not in place your simply not going to be that lucky. As the old saying goes, "the harder you work the luckier you get"

The signing of the marriage register will come directly after the church service and ceremony, usually in a side room or at the back of the church. This tends also to be a fairly quick process. Quick in that other guests are eager to get their small cameras out and mobile phones and barge their way infront of you to get a peice of the action! While we are only allowed by law to photograph a staged signing and not "THE" actual signing this again tends to be a very quick and staged process with the married couple and guests keen to get them outside the church and shower them with confetti. You may think that the confetti shot is also a hard one to take, and while you also only get one shot at this, it can, in extreme cases of bad weather or other situations be staged again to get the confetti shot taken. Confetti shots are sometimes difficult in that the shutter speed has to be high enough to stop the confetti mid flight and a smaller aperture will allow the faces to be more in focus. Usually if its a reasonably light or good day then there shouldn't be too many problems here. Alternitavely a good photographers flash is a great addition in this instance. On this particular day by the time the ceremony was over the Swansea weather was coming in as black clouds off the sea. Even though it was British summer time, we knew we only had a short time frame to get the confetti shot taken before the skies opened up.

Another trick for us is we always carry with us extra confetti, you can never in my opinion have too much confetti! I love the stuff ! The churches however think differently and are always eager to let you know that all throwing of confetti must be done outside of the church gates! but get this one photograph right, especially if you can manage to get friends and family into the action also and it can be a centre peice for the album or great canvas print. Needless to say it went well that day and the confetti shot was ticked off our list and we managed to all head over to Langland Golf club to where the wedding reception was being held.

From here on in I find the photography gets easier. The nervous part of the day for the happy couple is now over, its time for the wedding party to relax, have a few drinks and enjoy themselves. It also means we as photographers can sit down for half an hour if we want to, re charge or swap batteries and find a quiet table near a power socket to get the laptops out and backup the cards. That day with the weather not looking the best we decided to crack on and get a lot more photography out of the way while nature allowed. My lens was now swapped for the 14mm wide angle in order to get the traditional group photos done and the steps came out from the boot of the car in order to get some height at which to take the group shots. The weather held out for us, but only just! Like I say... "the harder you work.. the luckier you get!"

After this everyone went inside and soon were preparing for the wedding breakfast. Dave and I prepared for that long overdue sit down, a soft drink, sandwich and a look back at the hundreds of photos we'd taken so far. At this point I remembered thinking that a good tip for any budding new wedding photographers out there reading one of our blogs would be to buy a pair of trainers that actually look like shoes! Its suprising how your feet can ache in shoes, especially if your on your feet for 12 hours!

Next up were the speeches, and at this point we entered the main room where everyone was and both found suitable spaces at different sides of the room. Speeches I find a little hard to shoot, in that often there are obstacles in the way such as chairs, tables, wine bottles, flower stands and vases, dinner plates, peoples hats, children and waitresses that constantly whizz past you and get in the way of good photography. If we stood closer it would be easy, but its critical to be unobtrusive at this point. Sometimes a good head and shoulders shot becomes full of these wedding items in the forground and makes cropping for a head and shoulders shot later a little difficult. This is where the monopod and camera settings come into play. By placing the camera on the monopod and raising it slightly, it helps in this situation, firing off its shots from a height and therefore eliminating these wedding bits and bobs that seem to clutter the tables after a good meal and few drinks have taken place.

The time was soon flying by, and its only at this point really we know we have the day covered. We by this time realise we have nearly all the photographs we need and are 90 percent towards our goal. I always take a step back here and take time to sit down and talk to Dave and see what other shots he'd like to get or ones that may look good in the Album or slideshow. We'll start to think about the wedding guests a little more here and concentrate on the Reportage style of photography. People at the bar, holding a pint. People enjoying themselves. The off the cuff photography. We take time to observe people and click away without them knowing. By now guests are really getting into the swing of things as we head towards the evening of the wedding.

Our all day wedding deal means that we stay all day, as long as the customer wants us, part of this is getting the all important first dance photography. There is no set time for a first dance so it can be anywhere between 7pm and 10pm. I can't remember the exact time Sophie and Ian had the first dance, but we ensured that like all weddings we attend the guests knew that it was important that we were allowed the time and room to position ourselves to get the best photographs we could of the happy couple. With it dark outside and the lights dimmed our flash guns took over as our most important pieces of photography kit. Stunning visual effects can be captured at night with a camera and this was no different. I also find that DJ lights add a little something to the overall sparkle of a first dance, but the effects that day could only be appreciated once I was back at home viewing them on my computer screen.

With a few more shots captured of evening wedding guests our day was almost complete. We sometimes at this point get the odd tyre kicker guests who have had a bit too much to drink trying to hold court and discuss at length the finer aspects of the Nikon D300. This you might think may make us laugh, but it can get quite annoying! We don't mind in the slightest having photography conversations all day long, but its hard to converse with a drunk person when your sober! In the past we have even been asked if one of us shoots in colour and the other in black and white! This you may laugh at, but we were glad it was asked. It gave us a momentary chuckle in what was an otherwise intense day of photography.

With the evening guest photographs done, it was time to say goodbye to the bride and groom that day, pack up our kit and head back to the car where our shoes were immediatley taken off and replaced with comfy Japanese Nikon branded slippers! It had been a long day. A 12 hour day in the life of a South Wales wedding photographer !