Paul's videos popped up on my Facebook feed randomly before we were even engaged, and seeing his style was such a relief! We were engaged a few weeks later and I immediately told Mark I knew who our photographer had to be. I emailed Paul basically asking when he was free for 2018, we were flexible and knew we didn't want to stand around and pose for some awkward shots (that we would probably hate) on what should be the most fun day of our lives!
Skip forward 10 months to Paul turning up at my parents' house the morning of our wedding, this is what I really thought…
On Paul. Throughout the run up to the wedding he communicated with me quickly and always with humour, it was the easiest part of our wedding to book and when he arrived at 9am on the 21st April it felt like I already knew him. We had a late wedding (3pm) and Paul wasn't just the photographer, he spent time with all my family, FORCED me to start drinking prosecco to calm the restlessness, played scrabble with us and made sure my handbag made it into the bridal car, all while taking flippin loads of awesome photos. So many of our guests commented that they didn't realise Paul was the photographer, he managed to be everywhere at once and was very sneaky, lots of photos of those guests I know actively avoid having their photo taken. Such a lovely moment for Mark and I was when we were outside getting some air and out of nowhere Paul dropped a load of little print outs of some of the photos he had already taken, I love a spoiler and it proved that between the tequila shots he was actually doing his job ;). Having Paul at our wedding added to the day, and I doubt many people can say that about their photographer. He is not a time-stealer but lets you get on with celebrating in whatever way you want, you really couldn't ask for more.
On the photos. If you're reading reviews of Paul's work you have probably already decided you want something a little bit different, and my opinion is you can trust Paul, he has a fantastic eye and managed to be in the right place at the right time to capture all the little and big moments. I did start to get dubious in the run up to the wedding thinking ‘we won't have shots of certain people together' or ‘what if people get missed'. For starters there were photos of pretty much everybody throughout the day (no one can hide!). Secondly, and please take this the right way Paul, you're never going to get everything! What we got is photographs that capture the atmosphere of the day, of our friends enjoying themselves, of the mad dancing, and sweet little moments that aren't posed, and personally I wouldn't change that for all the group family shots in the world. And brides… there will be unflattering photos of you dancing, but who cares? Mark and I look ridiculous and ridiculously happy in so many of them and I love it. We had all of our photos in a week of the wedding, rather than waiting months for them, we got to spend our honeymoon going through all the beautiful photos (laughing a lot) and sending them off to family and friends which was so special.
Normal photography is lovely and I completely understand why people would choose it, but we couldn't recommend Paul enough! Make your day yours, don't do anything you don't want to just because it's ‘tradition', and make sure you have photos of real memories of what should be a day of celebration and excess! Thanks again Paul, tequila next time your travels bring you this way ;)
P.S. It doesn't matter if your Dad is in the bath completely starker's, Paul will photograph it, just in case you were worried he'd miss any moments.
