Here’s a favourite moment from one of my recent weddings. Mary (pictured centre) and the bride Joanne were very close as Joanne grew up. This was the moment when Joanne thanked her in front of everyone during the speeches and presented her with a big bouquet of flowers. I just loved her emotional reaction as she brought her hands up to her face!

I’m back in the studio today after a very busy couple of weeks with the Easter break and being away in County Mayo shooting a lovely wedding in Ballina – images from which I’ll be posting later this week.

Before that, I photographed Louisa and Raymond’s wedding day at the ever fabulous Larchfield Estate.

When I arrived at Louisa’s parents house her little nephew was playing the piano in the front room and that just set the scene for a lovely day for me.

His three brothers were also in the house and they all managed to catch a glimpse of the bride in her dress before she left for Larchfield. The first challenge for me was to try and get a picture with all four of them in the frame (but not larking about). That moment came together in the second image below. The rest of the day was very relaxed with lots of lovely personal moments for the family.

Here’s a few of my favourites from the day:

I build up a series of visual impressions as I go through a wedding and during the day I always have several images imprinted in my instant memory as I go along. Two photographs (below) had really stood out for me during my wedding last week.

Later in the day, once everything had quietened down a little, I asked the bride Louisa what was her favourite moment from the day. So naturally, I was delighted when she told me it was the same moment – when she turned into the aisle and saw her groom!

After my London wedding I was back in Belfast, Northern Ireland for Nicola and Richard’s wedding at the beautiful Saint Peter’s Church on the Antrim Road beneath the slopes of Cave Hill (with reception at the Galgorm Resort & Spa). I’d been looking forward to this wedding all year for a number of reasons.

First, I knew I was going to get to photograph two of my favourite flowergirls from 2008. Back in August of that year I photographed Nicola’s brother’s wedding to Catherine. One of those pictures remains as one of my all time favourites.

On arriving at Nicola’s parents house this time, the two of them were getting ready in the front room and they really took a shine to me, calling me the photographer who made the “famous picture”! :D

I have to say that the two of them just seemed to have left off from when I last saw them three years ago! Even mirroring the same picture/moment when Nicola’s bridal car arrived outside (see the 2nd picture below).

I’d also been looking forward to this wedding because of the church. In the mid 1990′s I used to drive past Saint Peter’s almost every night on my way home from my then girlfriends house. I’d always wondered what it looked like on the inside because from the outside it had always caught my eye.

It didn’t disappoint and was such a pleasure to photograph in – with great colour and light!

Tthe other factor in play at this wedding was the people. I knew the family and friends would be fantastic and that the day would hold a lot of special emotions for everyone involved and that, for me, is the most important thing on a wedding day.

So having just finished the post production on the images I’ve pulled out a few of my personal favourites. Here they are!

Whilst some photographs are previsualised, others are purely reactive.

As she paused to speak, the other flowergirl whispered something – I wonder what she said?

The challenge for the documentary wedding photographer is in staying invisible and in being at the right place at the right time so that when a moment happens you have the opportunity to capture it. Then, it’s a question of composition and of timing the exact moment you press the shutter release. Often, you have to previsualise a photograph before it appears.

This is an example of just such an image. I’d initially seen it on the way upstairs to photograph the fitting of the brides dress and veil. Whilst these were all lovely pictures, the image I was really hoping for was this one.

For it to materialise, on the way back down I knew that the hallway would need to be clear from bridesmaids, flowergirls and parents and that the bride would need to stop at the mirror.

Moments later that’s exactly what happened – with the hallway quiet, Nicola stopped momentarily to check her veil and I took two, maybe three frames.

Seconds later she was in the car and on her way to the church!

Last week I had the pleasure of travelling over from Northern Ireland to London to photograph Tamsin and Paul’s wedding day.

Tamsin and Paul married at the beautiful 15th century church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Monken Hadley in North London before heading over to Gaynes Park in Epping for their wedding reception. Both venues were absolutely stunning and the early summer weather was just fantastic to work in.

The day was very relaxed and we had everything; double decker buses, silly sock contests and lots of tears and laughter.

Here are some more of my personal favourites from their day.