My Wedding Photography Story – Part 5

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Button hole duty for Lin whilst grabbing guest shots.

So, on into October and the last two weddings of the first year ahead of us. I say us because by now Lin, my wife, had become my permanent assistant at every wedding. I only shot one wedding without her help and found it a lot more difficult. Originally she was just going to help me with equipment and organising but her role became much more than that.

One of the tips in the Lovegrove training book was to learn how to tie a bow tie, which was a small nudge to say that you’re not just a wedding photographer on the wedding day. How true that was. Lin became chief button hole arranger, a seamstress, wet wipe provider for all sorts of accidents, people organiser, people finder, spare lens/tripod carrier, photo kit clearer upper and second photographer. We took a bag to every wedding containing a sewing kit, scissors, spare buttons, spare ties, mints, spare confetti, safety pins, and a shoe shine. We used something from the kit at nearly every wedding we worked on. Especially the spare confetti!

A typical shot taken by Lin. Emma’s Father escorting her to the wedding ceremony room. I was already in place waiting to capture Emma entering the room. A good example of a shot I could never have taken had I been working on my own.

With every wedding we worked on Lin’s contribution as a photographer became more and more important. We had two 5D mk2’s and spare lenses as backups so there was always spare equipment she could use. I gave her a crash course on shooting in Aperture Priority mode and she took it from there.

We very often doubled up in the ceremony rooms with me shooting things down at the front of the room with Lin capturing everything from the back. This was really useful because quite often the Bride and Groom will turn to face their guests during the ceremony. Once again shots I couldn’t get.

This is one of my favourite images from all the weddings we worked on, and I didn’t take it! I’d left Lin with the Bridal party as I had to be at a church ten miles away to meet up with the Groom and his Best Man.

Lin would also spend time with the Bride and her party getting ready, as I would, more often than not, have to leave in order to shoot the groom arriving and gets some shots of him and his best man etc. I often joke with Lin that some of the best shots we ever produced were not taken by me.

Despite being really competent with the camera Lin never did get the photography bug. She was always more than happy to help me out, and get shots for our clients that I couldn’t but once the wedding day was over she was happy reverting back to her iphone for the odd snap of the Grandchildren or clothing she’s trying sell on Vinted 🙂

All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.

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