Wacky Weddings
It seems you can tie the knot almost anywhere these days, meaning photographers are working in ever more unusual locations
Words Gavin Stoker
With popular wedding venues booked solid up to two years in advance, for your clients, getting their preferred location for the biggest day of their lives is getting increasingly competitive. For those wanting a secular service, more esoteric, unusual locations are becoming popular, with venues like the London Eye, London Aquarium and even HMS Belfast on the Thames offering themselves as wedding locations with a difference.
While each of these presents the wedding photographer with a challenge, perhaps be thankful that the couple in question hasn't decided to get hitched while wing walking on a plane, or in temperatures of -5°C at London's trendy Absolut Icebar.
It doesn't even have to be a left-field location for the nuptials themselves, though. Couples are typically performing the legal requirements in the traditional registry office or hotel, and then injecting their own personality by holding the reception somewhere more imaginative - be it on a boat, high among the clouds in a balloon, in a medieval gaol or gathered in the woods drinking mead from an animal horn.
"Couples are definitely trying different options for wedding venues," says acclaimed UK photographer Klarke Caplin, whose jet-setting commissions have taken her to the likes of Australia, Hong Kong, and who had just arrived back from shooting a beach ceremony in Jamaica when we spoke. So she should know what she's talking about.
Supply and demand
Presently, according to the General Registrar Office, in England and Wales marriages can only be solemnized in a registry office, a building approved for civil marriage such as a hotel or castle, an Anglican Church, "or other religious building registered for marriage". This means that at present couples can't ape the wedding of their favourite celebrity and tie the knot on a beach with the waves lapping round the bride's garter.
However in Scotland there is seemingly more scope. Scottish couples can apply for a one-off licence - say to get married on the shores of Loch Ness. "I'm not sure about getting married in a hot air balloon though," says the Scottish Registrar Office spokeswoman, "you'd first have to find a registrar willing to get into the balloon, and the area itself would have to have prior approval."
Dorset-based veteran wedding photographer Courtenay Hitchcock however has no truck with such stuffiness, hoping that once such a diversification of the wedding licence comes in for England and Wales - no official date yet - a wider range of venues will likewise become available. "I think getting married on a beach, your back garden or pretty much anywhere would add a lot of spice to it," he grumbles.
"At the moment basically what you've got are registry offices - not the prettiest of places - and licensed premises, beautiful country hotels and castles, but these can be prohibitive on the cost side. Then you've got the churches, but some people may not feel comfortable with this."
He does, however, draw the line somewhere when it comes to aesthetics: "I'm not sure we want it to go the way of the US, with drive-through style services, but the freedom to get married at your favourite beauty spot would be very nice and add something different."
Among the more esoteric venues Hitchcock has shot at (or in) is a 1920s boat on the River Dart in Devon. "Which was quite fun: they went on the boat to get married and had their reception in a hotel," he explains. "The boat was designed for pleasure cruises and discos on the river and held 100 people. Part of the reason for their choosing to get married there was because they always had a pull to the river, but moreover it was because they didn't want to be conventional. "The technicalities of shooting were interesting when we were moving, because it was bit choppy and space was limited. We got some really great shots, though. We cruised all evening, passing a lot of good sites. There was always something interesting going on. We shot lots of contemporary angles and arty shots too."
A wedding on a moving steam train in Dorset gave rise to another memorable shoot: "You hire the train and get married in one of the carriages but it's all inter-linked so the wedding party are free to roam through the whole train."
There was no delay to the service due to a cow on the line?
"There were no dangers," he chuckles, "but it was nice to look out of the window and see smoke flying past. We've done other things on the SS Great Britain; obviously that's a ship in dock, but it lends a nautical theme and you can do things with the rigging and shoot beneath deck. Your images have a different feel and it makes the shoot more exciting because it's a challenge - it's better than the bog standard church. We do shoot natural light wherever possible, there's always some coming through portholes and hatches, and the wood lends itself to a very golden light."
Since many photographers have now gone digital, problems with lighting in such tricky situations are not so insurmountable - partly because the results can be immediately reviewed on the back of the camera and also because ISO speed can be bumped up when necessary at the press of a button. Hitchcock currently favours Canon's EOS-1Ds Mark II. "The ISO range of the 1Ds is fabulous, and, possibly with a bit of fill-flash, allows me to achieve the natural look," he says.
And has Hitchcock noticed a trend towards more unusual places? "There are some fabulous venues around - football stadiums and Pinewood Studios we've done - but along with castles and hotels that's pretty much the extent of venues at the moment. There's nothing overly outrageous, though I know a company exists that has an inflatable chapel with a full blown steeple and stained glass windows that can fit around 30 or 40 guests. So the imagination is out there and people would be prepared to do it, given the opportunity to do so."
Different strokes for different folks. Of course, unusual locations don't just exist within the UK, and increasingly there seems to be a trend for ‘destination weddings' - couples flying abroad to tie the knot if they can't find that somewhere special in the UK.
While such an idea may sound glamorous to the bride, groom and guests, for the photographer it can turn into a bit of a nightmare. "Weddings abroad are difficult, because you've got travel and customs and a whole new set of issues just in terms of handling the equipment," comments social snapper St John Pope. "I had one set of images with me and another in the hold for a wedding I did in Spain, and the one in the hold got stolen on the way back. So there's an argument for covering yourself by burning a disc and posting it back."
Up-and-coming social photographer Klarke Caplin takes a more positive view and, she notes, it's an idea that is on the up. "I think there's a trend for destination weddings for two reasons: one is guaranteed weather and two, people like the idea of it being more than one day because they are spending a lot."
But destination weddings do bring their particular quirks. A lot of the planning doesn't take place until a couple of days before, and, whereas there's a long build up to more traditional weddings, sometimes couples don't meet suppliers until the actual day. If the photographer is photographing both engagement shoot and actual wedding at the destination, it can also be quite concentrated, with little time to seek out locations. "I did one in Jamaica and it was just fabulous," Kaplin nevertheless enthuses. "The ceremony was in a Baptist church and then we went to a big hotel, which was on the beach.
"One of the most photographically challenging locations is the beach itself, because you've got harsh light, a lot of reflective surfaces like water and skin, and particularly if the couple are dark skinned the camera is having to do so many different things at once. There's no getting away with shooting on ‘P for Professional' mode," she jokes. "Shooting digitally on the EOS 5D does make things easier, but you can't even check the lighting on the back of the camera because it is so bright. So you're shooting digital like film. The fact that you're nearer the Equator also means the light drops very quickly, so you need to make sure the ceremony's scheduled at least an hour before sunset, otherwise you're shooting in pitch black," she laughs. "It's more like travel photography in a way."
Other memorable events for Kaplin include London Zoo - "but they wouldn't let us near the animals, which was a shame" - a blessing conducted in the middle of the road on Tower Bridge, a marriage of young farmers in a marquee in a forest and another of a couple in the school in which they met as childhood sweethearts.
She has also covered a wedding at the Ritz, which, as the bride wasn't wearing a conventional wedding dress, turned into more of a fashion shoot in nearby Hyde Park. "There was just them and me and my assistant at their wedding. I've also shot a bride in a red wedding dress, but she was a porn star.
"Somewhere like the London Eye is very tricky because you've got a lot of reflections there, and if you have to use flash there's a lot of bounce. And the thing about castles and stately homes is - though they're not particularly unusual - they may have restrictions regarding their artwork. If you end up photographing the couple in front of an expensive painting the venue gets worried about the pictures getting into general circulation and getting robbed. So it's always worth checking with the venue beforehand. "I try not to use many artificial lights in venues like that. I use flash if I'm going for a particular effect and use a lot of ringflash. "From my perspective, people have the hunger to do something a bit different, and I'm a bit different in the way I shoot. Maybe I attract these kinds of jobs," she concludes, laughing.
Where the more unusual venues are concerned, such a marriage of location and photographer sounds about perfect.
