Sam and Steve Photography - Award Winners!

Guides for Brides Customer Service Award Winners for Photography, 2019

We were thrilled and honoured to receive the 2019 Guides for Brides Customer Service Award for Wedding Photography on March 28th at the lovely Bodleian Library, Oxford. We were presented with our award by Judy Mansfield, owner and celebrant from Cherish Ceremonies.

Judy Mansfield presenting Sam and Steve with the Guides for Brides Photography award for 2019. Photo by Nigel Chapman Photography

As we described in our news update last month, the Guides For Brides Customers Service Awards are a prestigious award process that is held each year, by the leading wedding industry directory and resource guide. We were shortlisted for the awards event following the 80 (at the time of writing) 5 star reviews our customers have left for us on our Guides for Brides listing , for which we are so thankful for.

Over 120 owners and employees of the nominated wedding industry suppliers attended the awards event, which consisted of a welcome drink and dinner at the Weston Library (formerly the New Bodleian) before the awards ceremony across the road in the main hall of the Bodleian Library (of Harry Potter films fame). It was nice to be back at the Bodleian, having photographed a wedding there the week before. its a wonderful venue. For each category (such as venue, wedding cake, wedding dress supplier, videographer, etc) , a short list was announced followed by the presentation of the award winner. The judging took place by an impartial panel of Judy Mansfield from Cherish Ceremonies, Anthony Stears from the Telephone Assassin , and Kate del Nevo and Hannah Vinten from the Bodleian Library events team. The photography award was one of the last to be presented, which kept us chewing our nails for a little longer! We were of course delighted, and we want to thank our many friends (including fellow photographers) in the wedding supply business who came up to congratulate us. Most of all, our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all of the lovely couples we photographed in 2018, and who voted for us. We are truly humbled; without you there would be no Sam and Steve Photography.

Our thanks to John, Jackie and all the team at Guides for Brides for an excellently run evening, and of course the event team at the Bodleian.

Sam and Steve Photography with the team from Guides for Brides. Photo by Nigel Chapman Photography.

The full list of all winners from the evening can be found on the Guides for Brides site here.

Steve

Why we love wedding wedding fairs!

Wedding Fairs and why they are worth attending

A busy wedding fair at the recent Tythe Barn wedding venue, near Bicester

 We have a confession...we LOVE wedding fairs. (Or fayres if you prefer.)

 Now, we know from the various wedding photography groups we are in on Facebook that not all photographers agree with us on this. For sure, they can be expensive to attend. Photographers are usually the most over subscribed category of wedding suppliers looking to attend a fair, so getting a spot can be a real dogfight. The costs of the flyers, sample albums, pop up banners and other marketing collateral can be prohibitive, especially if you are just starting out. And, they can be a long day standing, especially if the fair is not that busy.

 So, many photographers it seems are more keen these days to invest their marketing budgets elsewhere, for example on Google AdWords, directories, social media campaigns or similar. And we know this works well, as we of course do most of these as well!

Sam chatting with a couple at the Tythe Barn wedding fair

So why are we so keen on wedding fairs?

Firstly, we love meeting couples, and hearing about their plans. Whether they have just got engaged, or they are well down the tracks in getting everything arranged for their big day, its always lovely to meet couples in love, and excited about getting married. 

Secondly, for us they are our best source of enquiries. Our style of documentary wedding photography is still not fully understood by many couples. By explaining how we work, how we won't take over their day and make them and their guests pose for hours, we often find that couples are a) unaware of this style of wedding photography, and b) find this is exactly right for them! My 20+ years in sales and sales management means that we of course know how to work on a stand professionally; however of course no one gets a hard sell! We just ensure we are always pleasant, happy to chat, and our phones stay safely switched off out of the way. 

Finally, they are a great opportunity to network. During set up or break down, or during quieter moments, we always chat with other vendors, exchanging business cards and getting to know their work. We do from time to time get asked by our couples to recommend dress shops, cake makers, florists, etc, and we have an extensive network now of great professionals in these categories.  

A lovely floral arrangement by Penny Blossoms at the Tythe Barn wedding fair.

Last Sunday we attended a wedding fair at one of our favourite wedding venues, the Tythe Barn, which is near where we live, in Bicester. The event was organised by our good friends at the leading on line wedding directory, Guides for Brides. It was probably the best fair we have ever attended! Over 150 brides attended, and we probably chatted to over half of these and took 20 plus good enquiries for 2017, 2018 and 2019 weddings. There was a good mix of different types of suppliers and categories to help those attending. A great day!

We will be attending many more wedding fairs in 2018. The best way to keep in touch regarding  where we will be and when is our Facebook business page, here. We can't wait to see you at our next one!

Steve

Engagement Photo Shoots

Engagement (Pre-wedding) photo shoots from documentary photographers?

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Informal and relaxed engagement photography.

If you looked through our website, and read our about us section,  you will know that we are professional documentary wedding photographers, specialising in natural, un-posed and relaxed wedding photos.  So, how come we offer engagement shoots?  Simply because our customers ask for them!  From our point of view, an engagement shoot (or a pre-wedding shoot if nearer to the wedding day) is a chance to get to know the couple we are photographing on their wedding day.  Although we will be unobtrusive and informal on the wedding day with our approach, we will still be with the bride and groom typically from 10 to 12 hours on the day.  We want them to be comfortable with us, and get used to having us around, even if it will be in the background. Sam is with the bride getting ready from the start of the day, and will be present whilst the bride is getting dressed.  (Sam often lends a hand here, she has been to a few bridal preparations, and did work in a wedding dress shop some time ago when we lived in America. )

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Our approach to engagement shoots is as follows. Firstly, its entirely up to our couples if the have the pre-wedding shoot or not.  We include it in our pricing, so there is no additional cost involved. Typically 50% of our couples take this option.  We leave it to them to suggest a suitable date (for obvious reasons we are busy most Saturdays!), and a location.  Typically the shoot takes place at a country park, or local beauty spot; we have also photographed in the family garden, a hotel grounds and sometimes the wedding venue itself.  Depending on timing and workload, we sometimes work together on the engagement shoot, sometimes just one of us takes the session. We usually suggest to the couple meeting for a coffee beforehand on the day of the engagement shoot; this is to talk through the shoot, but also as a chance to catch up on the wedding plans. 

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The actual shoot itself typically takes between 45 and 90 minutes.  Consistent with our wedding approach, we don't ask the couple to pose formally.  We ask them to try and forget we are there, and interact with each other as if we weren't there; have a walk, hold hands, cuddle, even steal a kiss. We find within a few minutes our couples relax and start to enjoy the session.  We usually take around 100 to 150 images, and provide the couple with around 30 to 40 via our Shootproof hosting site. An example is here.  The couple can use the photos as they wish; often they are used for save the date cards, or for guest signing books, which we can provide for a small cost. 

If you would like a FREE engagement shoot as part of your wedding photography package, we would love to hear from you.