Why you still need a photographer for your small, intimate Irish wedding

I know what you’re thinking, she’s a photographer, of course she thinks wedding photography is the most important part of the wedding planning. Well you’re wrong, I don’t think it’s the most important thing, the most important part of a wedding is you guys, declaring your love for one another in whatever way feels right for you. Do I think it’s important to document that? Why, yes, yes I do. I could go on about how the photos are all you have after the flowers have died, the dress and suit have been packed away and all your guests have gone home, but I won’t, you don’t need to hear that.

Photographer small intimate Irish wedding

With less guests attending the actual wedding, your extended friends and family will be dying to see what went down, and that’s where a photographer is worth their weight in gold. Every single couple I’ve worked with have said it’s like I’m everywhere and nowhere, that I got things they didn’t even see happening and didn’t see me do it either. If you’ve relatives that are too frail to travel, they will really cherish these professional photos as they will feel like they were there on the day. The magic of a good photographer eh?

Weddings in 2020 are looking pretty different to what we thought they’d look like. There are government restrictions in place around how many guests you can have, where they can sit, what they have to wear on their faces (not a sentence I ever thought I’d write but here we are). They’re smaller, but smaller doesn’t mean they’re in any way less important than before.

I love small weddings.

I love big weddings too, I love all weddings really, but the intimate ones are the ones that stick with me. And by small, I’m talking less than 50 guests. A few have just been the couple, a celebrant, witness and yours truly. Some people, me included, come from a massive family and have tons of friends and couldn’t imagine getting married without them, but for others, that’s their worst nightmare.

Some things that make small weddings great:

• You can have the wedding you always wanted, you can suit yourself and nobody can get offended. Just blame covid19
• It’s a great excuse to cut the guest list, you get to invite who you really want to be there. Also, a great way to have a child-free wedding without the guilt.
• It goes without saying that with less people to feed, the more you can spend on the food and booze. That’s just maths, maths that I’m a fan of.
• Also, with less guests to get round to you’ll have more time to spend with your other half and guests (and for photos of course).
• There’s absolutely nothing stopping you having all the trimmings, flowers, stationery all that craic, in fact, you’ll have more in the budget to spend.
• City centre, urban weddings are suddenly an option when they weren’t before.
• You can spend more on photography, a photographer who may have been out of your budget now becomes affordable because you’ve saved so much on the paired back guest list ;).
• You can spend more on your dress, or go with something more modern and chic, something that didn’t seem enough for the big wedding suddenly makes perfect sense for your small wedding.
• If you’ve always dreamed of eloping just the two of you, now’s the time ‘oh we just couldn’t cut the guest list without offending someone so we just decided to do it on our own’.

I’m still shooting weddings in 2020, booking elopements, small weddings, micro weddings. short weddings, tiny weddings and all the rest

For 2020, small weddings of around 2.5 hours prices are starting at €550. If you want a full day, that’s grand too. 2.5 hours coverage is good for a small bit of prep, ceremony, small group photos and some photos of just the two of you. If you want to extend the coverage we can talk about it, let’s face it, 2020 hasn’t been the best year for most of us, I’m just happy to be back shooting weddings.