Luke & Emily's Wedding at St Nicholas Church, Guisborough
It's always nice photographing a wedding close to home, and Luke and Emily's wedding gave me one of those days where so much of it took place around places I've known and photographed for years. Their ceremony was at St Nicholas Church in Guisborough, followed by a little time with the two of them over at Gisborough Priory for their photographs, and a day that had plenty of laughter, family, friends and some brilliant moments to photograph along the way.
I've photographed weddings at St Nicholas Church before and it's a church I've always enjoyed working in. There's something about an old church that gives wedding photographs a completely different feel; the stone, the architecture and the sheer amount of history surrounding everybody creates an atmosphere that you simply don't get anywhere else. For me as a photographer, though, it's still the people inside it that matter. I can have the most impressive building in the world around me, but I'm still watching expressions, reactions and all those little things happening while everyone else's attention is understandably on the couple.
A St Nicholas Church wedding in Guisborough
Luke and Emily's ceremony was exactly the sort I enjoy photographing. I could work quietly around what was happening rather than constantly having to manufacture photographs, capturing the ceremony itself as well as their family and friends sharing it with them. That's always been a huge part of my approach to documentary wedding photography. Of course I want the photograph of the couple exchanging rings, but I'm also looking beyond the obvious photograph because sometimes the reaction happening a few feet away ends up being every bit as important.
St Nicholas itself is a beautiful setting for a traditional church wedding, with the stone arches and character inside giving me plenty to work with photographically. I love making a few wider photographs during a church ceremony as well. Close-ups give you the emotion and expressions, but those wider photographs put everybody back into the place where it actually happened. Years later, they don't just show Luke and Emily getting married; they show the church filled with the people who came to watch them do it.
Then, of course, everyone made their way outside and we had the confetti and there was plenty of it.
That photograph of Luke and Emily coming through everyone outside St Nicholas is exactly why I love a good confetti photograph. You can organise where everybody needs to stand and tell them roughly when to throw it, but once it leaves their hands you've really got absolutely no control over what happens next. In this case there was confetti everywhere, people laughing on both sides and Luke and Emily right in the middle of it. It's organised chaos for a few seconds and then it's gone, which pretty much makes it perfect territory for a wedding photographer.
Wedding photographs at Gisborough Priory
One of the lovely things about getting married at St Nicholas Church is having Gisborough Priory practically next door. After the ceremony we headed across with Luke and Emily for some photographs, and when you've got somewhere like that available it would be a shame not to make use of it.
Gisborough Priory has been part of the town for more than 900 years, having been founded in around 1119, and the huge surviving east end of the medieval priory church makes an incredible backdrop. What I particularly like photographically is the scale of it. You don't need to do anything ridiculous with a couple when you've got architecture like that behind them; sometimes it's simply a case of putting them in the right place, using the surroundings properly and letting the photograph breathe.
We did some of the more traditional photographs of Luke and Emily together, but we also got them walking, talking and just spending a bit of time together away from everybody else. That's generally how I prefer to approach the couple photographs at a wedding. I'll give some direction when it's needed and I'll absolutely make use of a great location, but I don't want a wedding to grind to a halt while we disappear for hours creating a fashion shoot.
The photograph of them kissing with Emily's veil catching across the foreground is probably one of my favourites from that little part of the day. It's still very obviously Gisborough Priory, but the photograph is about the two of them rather than simply using them as something to put in front of the building. The wider walking photograph does the opposite and shows just how impressive the ruins are around them. That's why I like creating a mixture — the close photographs, the wider scene-setters and all the bits that happen naturally between them.
It's not all about the couple photographs
As much as I love taking Luke and Emily somewhere like Gisborough Priory and creating those bigger wedding photographs, a finished wedding gallery can't just be photograph after photograph of the bride and groom looking beautiful in different locations. It needs the other stuff.
The people matter.
There were plenty of laughs throughout Luke and Emily's day, and one of my favourite photographs is simply a moment around a table with everybody laughing. It isn't a photograph anybody could have put onto a wedding-day schedule and there was no reason to stop what was happening and try to improve it. It was already there; I just needed to see it and photograph it.
Those are often the pictures that become more interesting as the years go by. You might choose a big photograph at Gisborough Priory for the wall — and I can completely understand why — but the photographs of friends and family laughing, talking and being themselves are the ones that quietly document who was actually there with you.
That's why natural wedding photography has never meant that I don't take the beautiful couple photographs or organise family groups. It simply means I don't want those to be the only photographs telling the story.
A little bit of magic...
There was another rather good source of reactions during Luke and Emily's wedding too — magician Luke Howells, who spent time entertaining their guests.
Now, I haven't got the faintest idea how magicians do most of what they do and, to be fair, I'm quite happy keeping it that way. 😂 From my point of view, I'm much more interested in watching everybody else.
For a documentary wedding photographer, a magician working amongst wedding guests is actually brilliant because people completely forget about the photographer. They're concentrating on whatever is happening immediately in front of them and I'm watching their faces through the camera. Disbelief, confusion, laughter and the inevitable expression from somebody who is desperately trying to work out how the hell they've just been fooled from about two feet away — those are great moments to photograph.
Watching Luke working the room at this wedding has actually given me an idea for another blog about having a magician at your wedding, because I've photographed them at weddings a number of times over the years and they can work incredibly well. I'll save that one for another day, though, otherwise Blogging Day will start breeding.
A Guisborough wedding that felt like Luke & Emily
Looking back through Luke and Emily's photographs, there's a really nice mixture to the whole wedding. We've got the traditional church ceremony at St Nicholas, the architecture and drama of Gisborough Priory, the rings and details they had chosen, the big confetti moment and the photographs of the two of them together. But mixed amongst all of that are the expressions, laughter and little moments involving everybody else.
That's what I want from a finished wedding gallery.
I've been photographing weddings for 18 years now and my approach has changed and developed plenty during that time, but the thing I've always cared about is giving a couple photographs that actually feel like their wedding. Not simply a collection of photographs that could have been taken at anybody's wedding with two different people dropped into them.
Luke and Emily gave me plenty to work with, and having St Nicholas Church and Gisborough Priory as part of the day certainly didn't hurt either. They're two fantastic Guisborough locations to photograph, particularly when the North Yorkshire weather decides to cooperate and gives me a bit of sunshine and a dramatic sky to play with.
Congratulations again to Luke and Emily, and thank you for trusting me to photograph it all.
If you're planning a wedding at St Nicholas Church in Guisborough, or anywhere across North Yorkshire and the North East, and you're looking for relaxed wedding photography that gives you the beautiful photographs without turning the whole day into a photoshoot, you're always welcome to get in touch and have a chat about your plans.
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