Where possible (time permitting) I always like to photograph the groom and his best man together before the wedding ceremony.
There are a number of reasons as to why this isn't always possible, and unfortunately the most common reason is because the bride is late. Another common reason as to why it's not always possible to take these photos before the wedding is bad management on the side of the wedding venue, which sadly is something that's becoming more and more common these days. After speaking with a registrar recently from my home county, there's expected to be 10% more weddings in 2019 and 2020 than there were in 2018. Across the county that's an additional 250 weddings, taking place over the same number of days in the year and in the same number of wedding venues. This has resulted in some venues becoming very stretched and mismanaged. I was at a wedding only recently where the wedding coordinator had told me to be in a certain place at a certain time to photograph the groom, only when I got there, the venue staff had moved the groom to the other side of the building to meet with the registrars - who weren't even in the venue yet!
The Wood Norton however is no such place, and I always feel assured that the weddings that take place there are in the best hands.
For Alison and Nick's wedding, I had arranged for a time that I would go back into reception and meet with the groom and his ushers. We had plenty of time, so I was really able to make the most out of the opportunity that we had.
I started by taking a formal photo of both the groom and the best man individually (I know they look the same but I don't think they're twins - I get this question a lot whilst showing people this album!)
Once these images had been taken, I then turned my attention, and my lens, to the group of groomsmen as a whole. I thought I'd begin with a photo of all of the men together in the sunglasses that they had been bought for the wedding specially. I noticed that some of the men gave a rather stern face which actually worked rather well; for the first image I asked the guys all to smile, but for the second photo I wanted to play on the straight-faced look and go for something a little more 'Reservoir Dogs.' To finish the look, I asked the groomsmen to walk towards the camera whilst chatting amongst themselves. I really like walking photos like this as they add so much dynamicism to the page.
