Formal or Informal Wedding Photography?

Weddings: Which Style is Right for You?

When it comes to planning your wedding, one of the first decisions you'll have to make is what style of wedding you want to have. The two main options are formal and informal weddings, each with its own unique characteristics and atmosphere. Deciding between the two can be a difficult choice, as both styles have their own advantages and considerations. In this article, we will explore the factors to consider when deciding between formal and informal weddings, the benefits of each style, and how to incorporate your personal style and preferences into your wedding planning.

Formal or informal wedding?

Formal weddings are known for their elegance and sophistication. If you've always dreamed of a fairytale wedding, a formal style might be the perfect fit for you. One of the main benefits of a formal wedding is the opportunity to go all out with your decorations and attire. From luxurious floral arrangements to exquisite table settings, a formal wedding allows you to create a truly glamorous atmosphere. If you love the idea of a black-tie event and want to feel like a princess on your special day, a formal wedding is the way to go.

On the other end of the spectrum, informal weddings offer a more relaxed and laid-back atmosphere. If you and your partner are more casual and prefer a less traditional approach, an informal wedding might be the right choice for you. They are also more budget-friendly. This can be especially beneficial if you're on a tight budget or want to allocate your funds to other areas, such as your honeymoon or future investments.

Personal style and preferences in wedding planning

When it comes to planning your wedding, it's important to incorporate your personal style and preferences into every aspect of the event. This includes the choice between a formal or informal wedding style. Take some time to reflect on your own tastes and the type of atmosphere that resonates with you as a couple.

Consider your personal style in terms of fashion, decor, and overall aesthetic. Are you drawn to classic and timeless elements, or do you prefer a more contemporary and trendy vibe? Think about the colours, textures, and themes that you are naturally drawn to and try to incorporate them into your wedding planning. You can find out more here.

It's also important to consider your partner's preferences and find a style that represents both of you as a couple. This is a great opportunity to collaborate and compromise, ensuring that both of your voices are heard throughout the planning process.

Remember that your wedding is a reflection of your love story, and it should be a celebration that feels authentic to who you are. Whether you choose a formal or informal style, make sure that it aligns with your personal style and preferences.

Budget considerations for formal and informal weddings

When it comes to wedding planning, budget is often a major consideration. Formal weddings tend to be more expensive due to the elaborate decorations, formal attire, and larger venues. If you have a limited budget, it's important to carefully consider whether a formal wedding is the right choice for you.

Informal weddings, on the other hand, can be more budget-friendly. With a smaller guest list and simpler decor, you can save a significant amount of money. This can be especially beneficial if you're on a tight budget or want to allocate your funds to other areas, such as your honeymoon or future investments.

To make the most of your budget, consider prioritising the elements that are most important to you. For example, if you've always dreamed of a designer wedding dress, you might want to allocate more of your budget towards your attire and opt for a simpler decor. Alternatively, if having a large guest list is a priority for you, you might want to scale back on other areas, such as the venue or the decorations.

Choosing the right location for your wedding style

For formal weddings, grand venues such as ballrooms, castles, or historic mansions are often the preferred choice. These venues provide a sense of elegance and opulence that perfectly aligns with the formal wedding style. When choosing a formal venue, consider the capacity, amenities, and overall ambiance that it offers. It's also important to consider the logistics, such as accessibility and parking, to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience for your guests.

On the other hand, informal weddings offer more flexibility when it comes to selecting a location. You have the freedom to think outside the box and choose a venue that holds special meaning to you as a couple. Whether it's a beach, a rustic barn, or your own backyard, the possibilities are endless. When selecting an informal venue, consider the atmosphere, scenery, and overall vibe it provides. It's also important to consider practical aspects, such as the availability of amenities and the ease of set-up and tear-down.

If you're still having trouble deciding on a location, consider the type of wedding experience you want to create. Do you envision a glamorous and luxurious affair or a more relaxed and intimate gathering? Or how about a destination wedding in the south of France? Your venue can go a long way in setting the tone for your wedding, so it's important to choose wisely.

Dress code and attire for formal and informal weddings

When it comes to your own attire, the dress code will dictate the type of wedding dress or suit you choose. For formal weddings, traditional white gowns and elegant tuxedos are the norm. Consider your personal style and body type when selecting your attire, and don't be afraid to try on different styles to find the perfect fit.

For informal weddings, you have more freedom to choose a dress or suit that reflects your personal style and preferences. This can be anything from a bohemian-inspired dress to a casual suit. The key is to choose something that makes you feel comfortable and confident on your special day.

Creating a cohesive theme for your wedding style

Creating a cohesive theme is an important aspect of wedding planning, regardless of whether you choose a formal or informal style. A theme helps tie all the elements of your wedding together and creates a unified look and feel. It also provides guidance when making decisions about decorations, attire, and other details.

For formal weddings, themes often revolve around classic and elegant elements. Think about incorporating timeless details such as crystal chandeliers, gold accents, and lush floral arrangements. You can also draw inspiration from specific eras, such as the Roaring Twenties or the Victorian era, to create a unique theme that reflects your personal style.

Informal weddings offer more flexibility when it comes to themes. You can get creative and think outside the box to create a theme that reflects your personality and interests. For example, if you and your partner love the outdoors, you can incorporate rustic elements such as wooden accents, wildflowers, and natural textures. Alternatively, if you're avid travellers, you can create a travel-themed wedding with maps, globes, and vintage suitcases.

Summing it all up

All in all, deciding between a formal and informal wedding style is a personal choice that should reflect your individual tastes, preferences, and budget. Both styles offer their own unique benefits and considerations, and there is no right or wrong answer.

Ultimately, the most important thing is to create a wedding that feels authentic to who you are as a couple. Whether you choose a formal wedding with all the glitz and glamour or an informal celebration that revolves around simplicity and intimacy, the key is to make choices that resonate with you and make you happy.

Shotkit Feature

Delighted to have recently been featured on Shotkit - a site that discusses the kit used by wedding photographers across the globe.

I started the business on a Rolleiflex 6008 medium format film camera

– a very slow camera to use but the results were stunning – manual focus, handheld metering, even a polaroid back!

I’m Allister, a Wiltshire wedding photographer working across the UK. I’ve been shooting weddings in a natural style since 2004.  After a few years of creating photography that I really hated, I turned my attention to working in a photography style that I truly believed in.

During my career, I’ve shot with all of the main cameras manufactures. I have no brand loyalty and choose the most appropriate tool for my approach. At the moment, that’s the Sony mirrorless system, mainly because of the weight, high ISO capability, and decent auto-focus.

Fairly quickly, I sold a load of film gear to go digital and began creating wedding photography on the Canon 1D series, it was massive! After around 6 months of lugging this huge camera around, I switched to the Canon 5D series and, on and off over the last 15 or so years, have worked with all marks of the 5D.

They’re an amazing camera. However, by the time the Canon 5D Mark IV came out, there were just so many decent mirrorless options, and for a fraction of the price. I dabbled with Fuji for a season, then fully migrated to Sony.

I’ve been shooting on two Sony A7 III cameras for the last couple of years now, they’re amazing – light, quick, and extremely capable right across the board. There’s not really much to fault them on other than the ergonomics take a little getting used to, especially coming from Canon.

Read the full Shotkit article…

How Many Photographs Will Your Wedding Photographer Give You?

More is better. That's what the modern world teaches us. More TV channels, more websites, more apps for your phone, more consumer goods for you to buy, more more more. More choice could certainly be seen as a good thing. More choice generally equals greater 'freedom' of choice which is often seen as a positive, but at what cost to quality of choice?  In my experience, quality and quantity are most often mutually exclusive, you can have one or the other, not both.

A few years ago my wife and I were looking for a new kitchen table. We visited all the usual places including various furniture stores, national chains and local outlets. We were a little naive perhaps and the first difficulty we faced was finding one that would actually fit into the space we had available, whilst also trying to make sure it would be big enough to fit into a larger house we might move to in the future. 'How much bang could we get for our buck' so to speak?

The next problem we faced was the spec. Obviously we needed a table with an intricate and complex folding mechanism so that it could be morphed into any number of configurations, shapes and sizes.  What if we needed to move the table about too? Better get one with optional wheel capability just to make things easier. Oh, and then there were the chairs. Of course, more was better, how couldn't it be? We settled on a projected need for 10 chairs; my wife is quite the cook in her spare time (I'm awful, just to bring balance to the universe) and we'd need to make sure we had enough for big dinner parties you see.

Then came the choice of materials. Space grade titanium seemed a little overkill for a domestic item but it didn't stop me at least wondering once or twice if that was at least possible. It wasn't. Other options included wood, glass, less exotic metals and even recycled plastics. Who cares what it's made of? It had to be light to move it around easily and the more attachments, folding parts and the greater expandability it had the better right?

Price. By this factor alone all of the smaller outlets were effectively eliminated. None of them offered anything in the same league as the larger stores, where we could find dozens and dozens of tables for under £300 and all offering just the types of things we were looking for. There were folding tables, expanding tables, tables with wheels, even self-locking components. Self locking! Amazing. There were tables of all types of material, all offering next day delivery, free home construction service, interest free credit, buy now pay later schemes, three months warranty, free gifts and all were 'passionate' about quality and service.

Swept up in the corporate glitter-ball frenzy, convincing promotional material and sparkle toothed salesmen we excitedly chose our perfect table. It promised to double in length thanks to some ingenious mechanism that seemed to defy the very laws of physics. It had little fold down wheels that meant it could be moved around easily. It had a stain resistant, heat proof, fire retardant, scratch resistant high gloss coatings. It came with 10 chairs and it was light, it seemed to be made of wisps of air itself.

And it only cost £299.99. Perfect.

The next day, as promised, the table arrived at home. Two burly and competent looking table builders had the table up in no time. We had our perfect table at last. Within 6 months it was broken. Turns out the table may as well have been made out of air for all the sturdiness it provided. The miracle coatings peeled, the folding mechanisms jammed and broke within about 4 months, two of the chairs broke, one of the wheels fell of the first time I tried to use them and to top it off one of the legs came loose after the self-locking mechanism sheered. That was the final straw.

To cut a long story slightly shorter, after much agonising and a few 'I told you so's' from world wise friends and family we were on the market for another table. A piece of advice I had heard of stayed at the front of my mind this time. Buy cheap, buy twice. If only those words had been with me during the first buying process. You'll obviously be glad to know we now have a gorgeous and totally solid hardwood dining table, complete with folding mechanism that could comfortably support the weight of a container ship.

So, more is better? Unfortunately this idea is pervasive and we humans  are wired to try and get the most we can for our money. Salesmen have been taking advantage of this for millennia.  Most of the time, the lesson is learnt. Sometimes the lesson is painful, but usually there is opportunity to go back and rectify the mistake, just as we did with our new table.

Do you intend to get married more than once? Then you will only have one opportunity to get it right.  There is no option to 'buy cheap, buy twice' when it comes to your photography. There are no repeats, no second chances. I'm not saying you should get ripped off but I am encouraging you to think about quality over quantity. Do you really need one thousand five hundred images from your day?  Do you need a 'head shot' of every guest? Do you need twenty five images of your shoes and fifty of your cake? Twenty four of the images of your shoes won't be as good as the single stand out best one, the same is true of the fifty of your cake. Further, would it be better to provide your quests with a few disposable cameras to get the 'head shots' you are after whilst leaving your professional photographer and their talent to capture the priceless moments of your day?

Like the apps from Apples iTunes store or even the next great band about to hit the big time buried in the bowls of online music sites, small venues or pubs or clubs it is increasingly hard to identify the best or most useful things you need from the squawking cacophony of mediocrity spewing from the tens of thousands of frankly rubbish programmes/bands clawing for your attention and money. The parallels in photography are not dissimilar.

So how can you cut through the noise and find quality in the midst of tempting quantity? Firstly, I suggest looking for the emotional power of the photographers work, the quality of the moments they captured, the strength of their understanding of the day. Secondly, think about the perspective the images show, where they were taken from, how close the photographer was to the action.  Thirdly and most importantly, look and the depth and breadth of their work; their consistency. It is one thing to see one of two good images from a wedding but a great wedding photographer should be producing over a hundred exceptional images at every wedding, time and again, regardless of conditions or venue.

A truly great documentary photographer will melt into the background during your day, working unobtrusively to capture you and your guests interactions without dictating how your day unfolds and leaving you to enjoy YOUR day to the full. They will work with you to understand your needs and what you want from your photography. They will also be a master of their art and after the wedding day they will whittle down whatever images they make to only the most exceptional, emotional and powerful that tell the story of your day to the full. You will not be burdened with thousands of average images to choose from. You will receive from them only the absolute best quality images that capture forever those cherished, once in a lifetime memories.

Getting rid of things isn't easy as we live in a culture that values abundance and the supposed comfort it brings. In both my own life experience and my work with clients I see time and time again that our lives will be much richer if we opt for things that are fulfilling and meaningful instead of opting for just more of everything. It can be a brave step to place you trust in a photographer that offers less quantity and more quality but, if you can take just a small leap of faith, you can be sure that you will never have to worry that you have 'bought cheap' and will have to 'buy twice'.

Contributed by our guest writer Joshua Archer.