Nottingham Christmas Wedding | Judi & Lewis - Kent Wedding Photographer Aranya Photography

One of the things I love most about weddings these days is that they are no longer just restricted to Saturdays in the summertime. Gradually weddings are creeping across the different days of the week, and where it started with a trickle of weddings on a Sunday or a Friday, now it’s not uncommon to have them on a Monday or a Thursday too. The same is true of months of the year, and I particularly love the warm coziness of a winter wedding. When you then throw Christmas into the mix as well, then it’s pretty much perfect in my book! So I was particularly pleased to be contacted about the possibility of photographing Judi & Lewis’s Christmas wedding, and was keeping all my fingers and toes crossed until they confirmed that they would indeed like me to photograph their wedding! It was also special because I had been the second photographer at Judi’s sister’s wedding down in Devon a few years previously, when a photographer friend had been their primary photographer. I often speak to couples at wedding fairs who have moved a fair distance from their family, and then have the dilemma of not knowing whether to book a wedding photographer from the area where they are now living, or one from the place where they will be having their actual wedding, and simply put, there really is no right or wrong answer, just working out what suits you. When I am asked to quote for a wedding that is more than a 2-3 hour drive away I will consider what additional costs I may incur such as fuel for the car, or the need for an overnight stay, and I will balance this against my usual fees, and whether I can mitigate some of the costs by staying with a friend in the area, as I did for this wedding. As an experienced wedding photographer I am used to planning out the timeline for the photos for the day, and am also experienced at checking out new venues and quickly sizing them up for creative photo opportunities, so being new to an area is not the barrier many people think that it will be. In the case of Judi and Lewis’s wedding, I initially googled the church and the venue, and also used google earth alongside my usual AA route planner so that there would be minimal surprises on the day. I travelled up to Nottingham the day before the wedding and stopped off at both the church and wedding reception venues on my way to the friend’s house where I would be staying, to ensure that I had a workable plan for the following day. It was thanks to all these measures I was actually ahead of schedule with regard to the various group photos Judi & Lewis had requested I take by the time we arrived at the reception venue and so was totally unfazed and able to say yes when the reception manager approached myself and the bride & groom with the request to bring the sit down meal time forward by over an hour and a half!!!

I absolutely loved my day with Judi & Lewis and their family and friends and am so pleased with how their photos turned out. Christmas is an absolutely gorgeous time of year to have a wedding!