Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth – HOW ONE BOOKING LEADS TO ANOTHER

Word-of-mouth recommendations that lead to bookings. Wedding bookings/enquiries would need a whole blog post. Some enquiries are bizarre. Some enquiries just get this way of capturing a wedding and book immediately upon checking on my availability. The more creative the couple – I shoot many weddings for photographers, filmmakers, art directors, etc – the more straightforward the booking is. No need for video chats with no real questions. Or no questions like “what do you wear at a wedding?”, “what are those out-of-focus bits in your pictures?”. Word of mouth is maybe the best form of enquiry. Recommendations from previous wedding couples, wedding venues (I don’t pay to be on any suppliers lists) or other suppliers, like caterers, DJs, make-up artists, and videographers for example – I’ve helped several get bookings over the years when I have been asked for recommendations. But maybe the best form of ‘word-of-mouth’ is when a couple have been guests at a wedding and seen how I work and the results.

It has meant working within several friendship groups – I saw four couples at one wedding, three previous clients and the current bride and groom. But also siblings. A sister or brother hires you to shoot their wedding too. As one bride’s father said to me, he had no more daughters for me to shoot weddings for. So here are a few images from linked weddings, where one leads to another, and the weddings can be very different…first up, siblings…

Hackney Town Hall – Wrest Park

2012-2013: A small wedding at Hackney Town Hall with a reception at the pub on a wet day in November. A last-minute booking, just two weeks before the wedding day. The bride’s brother then hired me the following summer for his wedding at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire.

SWEDISH CHURCH LONDON – The Gherkin

2013-2017: Summer of 2103 and The Swedish Church in London followed by a reception at The Wallace Collection for Hannah & Stephen. This led to a booking from a guest at this wedding, Robert, and his wedding to Miriam in 2017, with a reception high above the London skyline, at The Gherkin.

St Paul’s Cathedral – LUTON HOO

2014-2015: From February 2014 to August 2015, best friends Rhian and Donna swapped roles. A winter wedding in London at the OBE Chapel and Folly Bar, followed by a summer wedding in Hampstead church and a reception at Luton Hoo Hotel.

Hackney Town Hall – Girton College, Cambridge

2011-2012: Back to 2011, Mary and Lewis, had a wedding at Hackney Town Hall and a bus ride around London before a reception at The Peasant pub. The next year it was up to Girton College in Cambridge to photograph Lewis’s brother, Rhys, marry Gemma.

Huntsham Court, Devon – Hampton Court House

2013-2016: A wedding in deepest Devon led three years later to the wedding of the one of the bridesmaids, a church wedding in Balham and a reception at Hampton Court House. The school rather than Henry VIII’s palace across the road. (The second picture – the realisation outside the church that the bouquet of flowers had been left behind…)

The Tythe Barn – Hook NORTON BREWERY

2014-2022: Two Oxfordshire weddings. A sunny, colourful wedding at The Tythe Barn near Bicester in 2014, followed eight years later by a wedding for the groom’s sister, at the unique wedding venue, the Hook Norton Brewery near Banbury.

Northampton Town Hall – Layer Marney Tower

2014-2014: Again the two weddings of two friends. Slightly different this time as the ‘word-of-mouth- came before the first wedding, as Susanna had booked me before her friend Annie’s wedding in the rather grand Northampton Town Hall. So later in the year, it was a wedding at Layer Marney Tower in Essex on an unusually warm day in October

SOUTHOVER GRANGE, LEWES – Brookfield Barn

2021-2023: A winter wedding at Southover Grange in Lewes, with a reception in a room above The Royal Oak pub in the town. Then a wedding at a local venue to me, Brookfield Barn near Horsham, West Sussex.

Buckhurst Park – West Farleigh, Kent

2012-2013: A wedding at St Denys church in Rotherfield followed by a reception on the lawns at Buckhurst Park in East Sussex. Followed the following year by a very wet wedding in Kent. Creative couples.

Nutfield Priory – Roman Baths

2015-2021-2024. After Amy and Chris got married at Nutfield Priory hotel in 2015, I was then booked by Amy’s mother for her wedding to Steve in 2020, although Covid put that back to 2021. An outdoor wedding in their garden, with Sussex celebrant Claire Bradford (I gave Jan her details). This was followed in 2024 by capturing the wedding of Steve’s daughter Naomi and her wedding to Will in Bath.