There are several different styles of wedding photography, from traditional and formal, through creative posing to the unobtrusive ethos of the documentary style.

The documentary approach emphasises respect for the integrity of the day. This means that rather than dictating how the day unfolds, bossing you around or getting you to 'play' to the camera, a documentary photographer takes a hands off approach...

...this means you can relax, carry on with whatever you would naturally be doing and basically ignore the camera totally.

Working this way allows a documentary photographer to capture powerful, natural moments that burst with emotion and connect strongly with your real feelings from the day. It also avoids manufacturing fake scenarios that don't relate to the emotion of the day at all, avoids putting you under pressure to 'perform' and lets you continue to just be yourself whilst the photographer deals with capturing the story of the day.

The documentary style also focuses on narrative and context, which is a fancy way of saying it builds a comprehensive story of the wedding; from the preparations in the morning right through to the guests dancing (usually badly!) in the evening.

The underlying principle is always to create authentic photographs that capture real events and real moments. Doing this creates a powerful and consistent body of work that is free from gimmicks or fads and will stand the test of time, looking as good in 20 years as it does today.