If you’d asked me before this wedding whether I thought a prison-themed wedding could actually work, I’d probably have said no.
Then I photographed Helen and Leanne’s.
They’re both prison officers, so at least there was some logic behind the idea. They wanted to do something completely different and essentially handed the brief to one of their mums: we want a prison-themed wedding. Make it happen.
Somehow, she did.
And rather than looking like somebody had emptied the contents of a novelty shop across a wedding venue, there were loads of genuinely thoughtful little details woven through the day.
I joined Helen and Leanne at the Littlebury Hotel before the ceremony while the last bits of getting ready were still happening.
They’d booked the Short Story, so I wasn’t there to turn the morning into a three-hour photoshoot. I just needed enough time to photograph the build-up, people coming and going and whatever was actually happening around them.
Which included meeting Ripley.
Ripley is their dog, named after Sigourney Weaver’s character in Alien.
That was basically all the encouragement I needed.
Alien was one of my favourite films growing up, apparently from an age when I probably shouldn’t have been watching people being chased around spaceships by enormous murderous aliens. I’m not entirely sure what that says about me, but it meant a sizeable chunk of the morning disappeared into Helen, Leanne and me nerding out over sci-fi and horror films.
And that sort of thing is genuinely useful.
I’ve always found people relax around a photographer considerably faster when you stop talking about photography.
Find some common ground, have an actual conversation and suddenly the bloke wandering around with two cameras doesn’t feel quite so much like a stranger anymore.
Then there was the theme.
The tables carried prison references, favours appeared in evidence bags and the place settings were designed as individual charge sheets.
Each guest had their own photograph in front of prison bars with a personalised charge based on their personality.
It was brilliant.
Not just because it was funny, but because it was completely specific to the people sitting around those tables. Everyone effectively went home with a personalised favour that nobody else’s wedding was ever going to have.
There was probably an obvious joke available somewhere about marriage being a life sentence, but the details were actually much more thoughtful than that.
It is still one of the wedding themes I remember most clearly, precisely because I’d gone into the day expecting it not to work.
The ceremony took place outside in the gardens at the Littlebury.
Everyone gathered around the red aisle while Helen and Leanne made their way down to the front, with Ripley naturally finding a way to become part of proceedings as well.
The ceremony itself stayed nicely relaxed.
There were hugs, plenty of laughing between the two of them, the rings and eventually a first kiss surrounded by everyone who had come to celebrate with them.
Then came the paperwork, where the tattoos and rings made for one of my favourite little details from the ceremony.
Nothing complicated.
Just a small outdoor wedding with everyone close enough to actually feel part of it.
Once everything was official, everyone headed straight into the confetti.
This is usually one of those parts of a wedding where you don’t need to interfere very much.
Get people roughly where they need to be, let somebody throw an unreasonable quantity of paper into the air and see what happens.
Helen and Leanne came through laughing, then went straight back to everyone else for hugs, congratulations and drinks.
Exactly where they should be.
I borrowed them for a few minutes afterwards for some photographs together around the Littlebury gardens, but this wasn’t an hour-long portrait session.
A short walk, a few photographs together and then back to the wedding.
That was enough.
The reception moved back inside, where the prison theme really started making sense as a complete idea rather than simply a handful of details.
Guests found their charge sheets, everyone settled around the tables and before long the speeches were underway.
As always, I photographed whoever was speaking, but I spent just as much time watching the rest of the room.
The laughs, the person trying not to cry, the hug after somebody finally sits back down.
Those photographs usually tell you far more about a speech than another frame of someone holding a microphone.
Helen and Leanne had me for four hours with the Short Story.
That was enough to cover the build-up, their outdoor ceremony, confetti, time with their guests, a handful of portraits and the start of the wedding breakfast.
They didn’t need to turn a smaller wedding into a ten-hour production just because they wanted it photographed properly.
And I definitely didn’t expect to leave thinking a prison-themed wedding was one of the more memorable ideas I’d photographed.
But here we are.
If you want your photos to feel like your day actually did.
No awkward posing. No staged moments. No turning your wedding into a photoshoot.
Most couples I work with want to spend the day with their people, not disappear for hours taking photographs. So I keep things simple. I document what’s happening, step in when you need me, and get you back to your wedding.
Big country house, registry office or somewhere in between, the job stays the same. Honest photographs of the people, atmosphere and moments that made the day yours.
Years from now, I want the photographs to take you straight back to it.