Maria and Dan’s Wedding Oxwich Bay Hotel 17th October 2021

This wedding will always remain an important milestone for my professional photographic practice. It was a privilege to construct a bespoke wedding package, details of which are included below for those who would appreciate this insight.

Oxwich Bay Wedding Package
Informal documentary style wedding photography with the option to include traditional family group portraits.

• Full day (up to 10 hours)
• Cover from getting ready until the first dance
• Around 500 individually edited images on a USB stick
• All images hosted on password protected online gallery
• Unlimited printing/distribution license
• Travel from Bristol to Swansea included
• Full liability and indemnity insurance
• Full consultation

The focus is always on quality image production, with packages being tailored based on budget and individual preferences.

It was imperative to be completely prepared at least by the day before. To do this, my batteries were charged the evening before and packed into the wedding bag (Think Tank Retrospective 30 V2) along with my chosen camera and lenses. This meant that it was just a case of just getting dressed and ready for the day ahead. My favorite part of the journey by car was travelling down the B4436 where Gower AONB fully comes into view, I had never visited this small peninsula before. It felt like a real privilege to experience such a beautiful place through my work. Arriving a full hour before any of the wedding guests gave me the opportunity to do some research and settle in before the ceremony at 11:00am. I asked venue staff about photo opportunities that would be appealing to my clients, they gave me a keycard that enabled access to an upper balcony which was used to photograph all of the guests present in one large group. Outside the light was wonderfully soft all day, with no weather-related issues whatsoever. The ceremony was by far the most challenging to capture, as it was fast moving in very low light. My background as a film photographer enabled me to respond accordingly by raising the ISO amount to what was necessary. Being able to use a fast shutter speed to freeze the action mitigates any potential noise which is already minimal with professional digital equipment.

Over an hour and a half was allocated after this to do photography just outside of the venue which was followed by a short beach shoot with just the newly wedded couple. The amount of time was just right, which is great as it means this can be suggested to future couples for their day plan. It was incredibly special to capture how much fun everybody was having on such a happy and memorable occasion. Working with Dan and Maria on the beach satisfied my artistic cravings to say the least. With Maria in particular, Venus de Milo came to mind as full length portraits were rendered against the backdrop of Oxwich Bay. The limestone is visible gently curving around whilst the sand and sea is cradled in the foreground.

Following a brief drinks reception, there was the wedding breakfast to capture with a slew of memorable speeches made by family and friends of the bride and groom. Having wrapped up photography after a traditional Céilidh band played their first set, I stayed for the evening buffet and a dance in the second set before heading back to Bristol. The day was such a pleasure that it ended up being longer than 10 hours, but the opportunity to stay longer was not going to be turned down! The next day, it was seen that there were over 2500 images in total to put through post-production. This was just the right amount, as there were just under 500 in total that proved to be worthy of the final selection after being individually edited.