Katherine and Jon - Wedding Celebrations and Associate Shooting

Over the last year, I have become an expert juggler!

The sheer volume of weddings that have been postponed (sometimes for two or three times) or cancelled and rebooked has been staggering! Consequently, that has meant my diary has seen a lot of changes and, at times, it has been tricky to keep track.

For many of my couples who found themselves needing to change their wedding date, it has been a straight-forward process of transferring their booking to a new date. Job done. Unfortunately, there has been a small number of clashes where new wedding dates have fallen on dates where I am already booked. In those circumstances, I either lost the booking or, in the case of Katherine and Jon, they were happy for me to send an “Associate Photographer” in my place.

So what exactly is an Associate Photographer? Essentially, it is a photographer that attends the wedding and takes the photographs on my behalf. The photos are then forwarded to me so that I can edit and deliver them in the “Copper and Blossom” style. Not only have I enlisted the services of other photographers to shoot for me in this way when I am unavailable, I have also associate shot for other photographers when they are double-booked.

One of my key guiding principles is that when my clients book me, I am the person that will photograph their wedding. I feel it is really important that the relationship we start to build from the very first enquiry is carried throughout their entire journey. Of course, if this isn’t possible (and it doesn’t happen very often) then I try my very best to ensure that my clients have a chance to build up a relationship with the photographer who actually will be photographing their celebration by encouraging meetings (either online or face-to-face) in the run-up to the wedding. This goes both ways and I endeavour to do the same with any couples who I am booked to associate shoot for another photographer.

As much as I wanted to photograph Katherine and Jon’s wedding myself, it just wasn’t possible. I had already committed to photographing Lindsey and Rob’s celebration after their wedding day last year and so I enlisted the help of Nick Spratling, a fantastic wedding photographer who I knew would approach the day in a similar style to me.

I was a little nervous of course but that was simply because I am a bit of a control freak and putting such a huge responsibility in the hands of another photographer wasn’t an easy thing to do. But I knew that Nick would do a great job and I had every confidence that he would capture the wedding in a similar way to me, seeking out the details and the important moments that make each wedding unique.

I have to say that it was really interesting and actually a lot of fun looking through the images when I came to edit them. Seeing the event through another photographers eyes gave me more of an insight into how my clients must feel when they receive their images from me. I even picked up some great ideas for angles and approaches to use in the future.

So here you have it, a small selection of photographs taken by Nick but edited by me (in the Copper and Blossom style)!