Newly Engaged? Here’s How to Know You’ve Found the Right Photographer (Hint: You Might Be Here Already)Quick overview

TLDR: You have just got engaged and already the pressure is building. Choosing a wedding photographer can feel like a big one. This post is here to help you spot that moment when it clicks. When someone’s work starts to feel like it could hold your wedding memories. Not just the way the day looked but the way it felt too. If you are planning your wedding in London, Surrey, Berkshire or Hampshire and want someone who works quietly and notices the moments that she knows will matter, you might have just found her.

You’re Newly Engaged! Congratulations!

There is a moment, not long after the ring, when it all starts to land.

Messages pinging in. Your wedding story begins - Family smiling and asking you when and where the wedding will be. You only just said yes! You catch yourself looking down at your hand more often than usual - engagement rings are weirdly heavy!

Then come the research. The late-night scrolling. The realisation that choosing a wedding photographer is not just about ticking a box. It is about finding someone who will create wedding memories for you, understands what this day means to you and what it will mean to you in the future - as part of your family story. Someone whose work you will keep returning to, long after the day itself has passed.

You want the photographs to be beautiful. You want them to look like your day. You want to recognise yourselves in them, not a styled version of something else. This may be the first time you are making choices like this.

I have photographed weddings for over twenty years, and I understand what matters when the day starts moving quickly. I know the moments couples worry about missing. I know how much weight sits on this decision. I know that advice comes from every direction, while clarity can be hard to find.

Because your wedding does not need to be a performance, it does however, needs to be a show of your love for one another, and your photographs should show the day as it actually was. Those special people you really wanted to come to your wedding - your family especially the older ones, or the ones you don't see that often because of where they live. The atmosphere you created with your choices - the venue, the music the flowers - all of it adds up to how it all looks, and those moments you did not even realise were happening until you saw them again.

What Couples Say When They First See a Full Gallery

The most common thing I hear is “I felt like I was there again.”

That matters because these photographs are not just reminders. They are doorways. You open them and you are back in the room. Back in the noise. Back in the quiet moments you did not even notice at the time.

You see how your partner looked at you. How your friends laughing. How your dad took a slow breath just before walking you in.

When you look through a wedding and you are right there with it, that is not by chance. That comes from knowing when and how to look. From noticing. From staying out of the way and being right where you need me to be.

If you want photographs that carry you back into the day itself, you are in the right place.

Why This Matters More Than You Think Right Now

On your wedding day, everything will move quickly.

You will be everywhere at once. You will miss things. You will not see half of what is happening, not because you are not paying attention, but because the day is so full, busy and fast.

The photographs become the place you return to when it is all over.

Years from now, when someone asks what the day was like, you will open your album and show them. The one that mattered. The version with your people. Your laughter. Your nerves. Your joy.

That is why this choice matters.

Because you are not just choosing a photographer. You are choosing how you will remember it all.

How People Usually Know I Am the Right Choice

Couples do not always start out knowing what they want.

They just know when they have found it.

They pause on certain photographs. I remember a bride looking through some images with me and telling me that she had goosebumps - that it made her feel like she was there. They notice a face in a crowd and imagine their own grandmother there instead.

That moment of recognition matters more than any checklist.

If you are reading this and something has settled in you, that is usually the sign.

What It Is Like to Be Photographed This Way

You do not have to be comfortable in front of a camera, indeed most folk aren't until their big day.

You just have to be there - in your moment with your loved ones. I will take care of the rest.

Most of the day I am simply watching with both my cameras thrown over my shoulders - my arm muscles are amazing during wedding season! The best photographs come from trust not performance.

People often tell me they forgot I was taking photographs at all. For many that would sound terrible but for me - to not be noticed whilst you are having your best day, is the ultimate compliment. I photographed a bride who commented that she didn't remember seeing me at her sister's wedding after the family group photographs had been taken - I was there until well after first dance. To me, that means that I wasn't in the way, I wasn't taking over - I was photographing the day as it was.

The Moments You Will Come Back to Again and Again

The big moments are obvious. But it is the small ones that grow with time.

The moment just before the ceremony. The hand held. The quick glance of of pride, nerves, or relief.

The images that you will come back to. These are the ones that give you goosebumps years later.

You will show them to your children one day. You will laugh, pause and say, “This was one of my favourites.”

How Booking Usually Happens

Most couples get in touch when they already know.

They want to talk. They want to make sure I am available. They want to feel that we are on the same page.

We talk. I listen.

I will send over the details and your date will be secured. Simple. Calm. Clear.

No big pitch. No drama. Just the beginning of something grounded and thoughtful.

Thinking About the Future Version of You

There is a version of you in the future, sitting quietly with your photographs.

You are not in the rush any more. You are not in the noise. You are looking at the day you built together and seeing it clearly.

You will notice things you had forgotten. You will feel them all over again.

That is why this matters. That is why I do this the way I do.

Because these are not just photographs. They are memory. They are story. They are yours.

If You Are Still Here

If this has helped you breathe a little more easily, that's no small thing.

I would love to hear about your plans.

You may already have found the photographer you were hoping to come across all along.

Get in touch and learn about what I can offer you here :https://www.gillflett.com/london-wedding-photography/wedding-photography-prices