Last week I showed the photo above to a friend. She didn’t know the couple in the photo. Her reaction was unexpected: she started crying. I had showed her the gallery of photos from this wedding, and this was one of the last shots in the gallery. No other photo made her cry. I asked her what made her cry. It isn’t a particularly emotive photo in the traditional way - it’s not an extreme expression or a crazy, love-y moment. She couldn’t explain why the photo made her cry.

An important person once said "timing is everything". Actually, I looked it up, and it's probably more correct to say that many important people (and many more not-so-important-people) said something along those lines: “The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.” “Time is an illusion, timing is an art.” "You don't have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you've got the timing, it'll go." If you are looking for a butterfly but dismiss it as a caterpillar, you haven't missed finding a butterfly, you have just arrived at the wrong time! With photography, timing can be very important. The reason is mostly down to lighting. I've had quite a lot of couples ask me to help set their timing for their wedding day, based around the best available light for photographs.

Choosing a wedding venue can be one of the most stressful parts about planning a wedding. Venues are often booked-out early, and some can be surprisingly difficult to deal with. It's easy to quickly find yourself in a position where your favourite venue is unavailable, and the alternatives are both shockingly expensive and not quite what you had in mind. You then find it hard justifying spending extra money on something that is a compromise. Here are a few tips and tricks to choosing a wedding venue in your budget.