“I hate having my photograph taken.” If I had a pound for every time somebody had said that to me during a wedding meeting, I could probably have retired from wedding photography by now. Sometimes it's both people, although quite often one half of the couple is perfectly happy about the whole thing while the other looks genuinely horrified at the thought of spending their wedding day in front of a camera. Then comes the usual explanation: “I'm really awkward in photographs,” “I never know what to do,” or one of my favourites, when somebody points at their partner and says, “You'll have your work cut out with this one.”

The funny thing is, after 18 years photographing weddings, I've realised that most people who tell me they're terrible in photographs aren't terrible in photographs at all. They're uncomfortable being photographed when they're thinking about being photographed, and those are two very different things.

I've been photographing weddings for 18 years now and, because I'm based in this part of the world, a huge number of those weddings have been across North Yorkshire. You get used to driving through the North York Moors on the way to work, heading towards the coast for a wedding in Whitby or Scarborough, or finding yourself halfway down a country lane looking for a wedding venue that you're absolutely certain didn't exist the last time you checked Google Maps.

Nearly every wedding photographer describes themselves as natural these days. It's become one of those words that's used so often that I'm not entirely sure anybody really knows what it's supposed to mean anymore.

Natural wedding photography, relaxed wedding photography, documentary wedding photography, candid wedding photography... you'll see all of them while you're looking for a photographer, usually accompanied by photographs of couples walking through fields looking suspiciously like somebody has just told them to walk through a field.

One of the questions every wedding photographer gets sooner or later is, “When will our photographs be ready?”

And honestly, I completely understand it.

You've spent months, sometimes years, planning your wedding. The day itself seems to disappear in about five minutes, I've seen a few preview photographs on social media and suddenly you want to see everything else. I would be exactly the same. Once you've had that little glimpse of your wedding photographs, waiting for the rest probably feels even longer.

But something I've realised over the years is that most couples understandably have absolutely no idea what happens at my end once their wedding is over.

From your side, I've photographed your wedding, I've gone to the office and now I'm editing it. It sounds pretty straightforward.

Unfortunately, it isn't quite like that.

Your wedding doesn't finish when I put the cameras away

Photographing the actual wedding is only one part of the job