Dorset wedding photographers
Observed, not staged. Felt, not forced.
At Smiling Tiger Studios, we believe your wedding should be experienced, not performed for the camera.
Our couples tell us the same things, wedding after wedding: they barely knew we were there. They got to enjoy their own wedding. And when the photographs arrived, it felt like reliving the day, including the moments they never saw.
“Will has captured all of the precious moments and we totally feel like we’ve relived the day.”
You live it. We pay attention.
Different people. Different traditions. Different ways of doing things.
Our approach starts by understanding what matters to you – then giving it the space to happen.
We don’t orchestrate emotion. We look for it.
A glance between parents. A squeeze of the hand. Someone trying not to laugh during the speeches. We watch the obvious moments, but we’re always looking around the edges too.
We find the story while you’re living it – including the parts you never saw.
Stories in stills
WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
Real moments, real relationships and all the little things happening around the edges. Photographed instinctively, without turning your wedding into a shoot.
Stories in motion
WEDDING FILMS
The voices, movement, laughter and atmosphere that photographs alone can’t hold. Films that bring the feeling of the wedding rushing back.
Culture & tradition
MULTICULTURAL WEDDINGS
We take the time to understand the traditions, people and meaning behind your celebration, then photograph it naturally without losing sight of the human story.
Made to last
ALBUMS & ARTWORK
The photographs you keep coming back to deserve more than a screen. Beautifully made albums and artwork designed to become part of your home and history.
“We cannot express how grateful we are to Smiling Tiger Studios for capturing the most important day of our lives so beautifully.”
This is what we look for
Connection. Chaos. Humour. Nerves. Affection. The obvious moments – and everything happening around them.
Curiosity. Anticipation. Humour. Humanity. Timing. Connection.
The name Smiling Tiger is about awareness, instinct and quiet confidence – reading a room, sensing when something is about to unfold and being ready without ever interrupting it.
Knowing where to be. Knowing when to press the shutter. And knowing when to leave a moment alone.
Your wedding. Your people. Your way.
No assumptions about who does what, how a wedding should look, which traditions you follow or what family is supposed to mean.
We take the time to understand the people in front of us, then photograph the relationships, emotion and wonderfully individual stuff that makes the wedding theirs.
Photographed without assumptions.
Wedding stories across Dorset, Hampshire & Somerset
Beautiful places make wonderful backdrops, but they’re never the story.
The people you bring together are.
From Dorset’s coastline to country houses across Hampshire and Somerset, we photograph weddings with the same relaxed, documentary approach – letting each celebration, each location and, most importantly, each couple have its own personality.
Hampshire
Somerset
Dorset
Your wedding is for living, not performing
Be with your people. Get caught up in it. Laugh, cry, dance, disappear for five minutes when you need to.
We’ll concentrate on everything happening around you – the moments you experience, the ones you miss, and all the little things that make the day unmistakably yours.
Tell us what you’re planning and we’ll take it from there.
Sometimes the best moments are the ones nobody saw coming. 🌈
A little glimpse into Clare & Mat’s wonderful wedding at @tuffonhallvineyard in Essex.
A day that had just about everything. Beautiful people, incredible food, plenty of laughter, a little unpredictable weather and a love story that deserved one hell of a celebration.
After a summer of endless sunshine, the rain finally decided to make an appearance. Not quite what we’d ordered, but as it turned out, Mother Nature had something rather special up her sleeve.
That rainbow. Those vines. Those few precious minutes when everything seemed to fall into place.
But beyond the beautiful setting, what I loved most was the warmth of it all. The familiar faces, the connections, the laughter and those little exchanges that often say far more than words ever could.
Having photographed Clare’s sister Karen’s wedding eight years earlier, being welcomed back to document another chapter in this family’s story made it all the more special.
And that’s what I love about film.
The photographs freeze those fleeting moments, but film brings back the movement, the voices, the laughter and all the wonderful energy that made the day what it was.
Clare & Mat, here’s a little taste of your day. Turn the sound up, sit back and enjoy! 🤍
Observed, not staged. Felt, not forced.
#TuffonHallWedding #EssexWeddingVideographer #DocumentaryWeddingFilm #VineyardWedding #WeddingVideography
Oct 12
Some families have a lovely way of making you feel like you’re picking up right where you left off. 🤍
Seven years ago, I photographed Fiona’s wedding in Newcastle. Last weekend, we headed back up north to capture her sister Fliss marrying Ryan at the beautiful @thebarnonthebay in Northumberland.
To be welcomed back into the same family, seeing familiar faces alongside a whole new generation, is one of those lovely reminders of why I enjoy this job so much.
And what a celebration they gave us!
So many tender moments, proper belly laughs, the family dog making an appearance during the ceremony, and Fliss & Ryan’s gorgeous twins providing some priceless entertainment.
Particularly their little girl, who absolutely owned the dance floor! Watching her throw some outrageous moves, surrounded by a crowd of kilt-wearing gentlemen cheering her on, was pure gold. 😂
We even stole a few quiet minutes with Fliss & Ryan amongst the wild grasses and sand dunes of the Northumberland coastline. Big skies, beautiful light and a stunning setting.
But as ever, it’s the people, their connections and those fleeting, unguarded moments that make the photographs mean something.
Two sisters, seven years apart, and the privilege of documenting another chapter in a family’s story.
Northumberland, we’d happily make that journey again in a heartbeat! 🤍
#NorthumberlandWeddingPhotographer #BarnOnTheBay #DocumentaryWeddingPhotography #WeddingPhotojournalism #NorthumberlandWedding
Oct 10
A trembling voice, a little yellow lion and a barn full of Britpop. Some weddings could only belong to the two people getting married. 💛
Ellie & Ross at Gorwell Barn was one of them.
Such a welcome return to this lovely corner of Abbotsbury, Dorset—and with two people who were absolutely my kind of people. Expressive, full of humour, and happy to let the feelings show. Ross welling up as he exchanged his vows said more than any photograph we could ever arrange.
Their outdoor ceremony had connections woven right through it. A cousin singing. A celebrant who last met Ellie when she was just a couple of weeks old, having worked alongside her dad in teaching many years ago.
And that little yellow lion? A nod to the toy the celebrant gave Ellie when she was born. A small thing carrying a whole lot of history.
Then Ellie’s dad and his friends supplied the evening’s soundtrack, playing the big Britpop tunes and keeping the celebrations very much in the family. 🎸
Ellie & Ross, capturing your story was a complete joy. The laughter, the tears, the people and those wonderfully personal details. So much to see. So much to feel.
Subtle, Emotive & Raw.
#GorwellBarn #DorsetWedding #DorsetWeddingPhotographer #DocumentaryWeddingPhotography #smilingtigerstudiosuk
Oct 2
Some photographs become more important with time.
Earlier this year, at Rhiannon & Andy`s wedding at North Cadbury Court, Will captured this.
Rhiannon had just walked down the aisle. Andy was waiting for her. And for the briefest moment, there was nothing else.
Just that face.
Utter, unfiltered joy.
It`s since been recognised with awards from both Fearless Photographers and Masters of Wedding Photography — two brilliant acknowledgements of Will Bazlinton`s instinct for seeing a moment, anticipating it and being exactly where he needs to be when it happens.
We`re immensely proud of him.
But this photograph means considerably more to us now.
Andy is sadly no longer with us, and that makes sharing it something we do with care.
When we photograph a wedding, none of us knows where life will take the people in front of our cameras. We enter their world for a while — sometimes only for the months around a wedding, sometimes our paths cross again through other chapters of their lives.
Some joyful. Some unimaginably difficult.
That`s why photographs like this matter.
This isn`t really a photograph of someone walking down an aisle.
It`s a photograph of how Rhiannon felt when she saw Andy waiting for her.
Their connection. Their excitement. Their love.
A fraction of a second that happened once — and now exists forever.
And perhaps that`s the greatest recognition Will`s photograph could ever receive.
The awards are richly deserved. But the moment is everything.
#NorthCadburyCourt #FearlessPhotographers #DocumentaryWeddingPhotography #SmilingTigerStudios
Sep 18
**NO SPARKLERS. SO THE SKY STEPPED IN. 🌈**
Last week took us over to Essex and the beautiful @tuffonhallvineyard for Clare & Mat’s wedding - a day built around two people with a shared love of good wine, good food and the people closest to them.
It was also a rather special one for me.
Eight years ago I photographed Clare’s sister Karen marrying Graham at the Matara Centre in Wiltshire. Being invited back into a family to photograph another chapter all these years later is something I’ll never take for granted.
After one of the driest, hottest summers we’ve had, naturally the forecast decided **this** was the week to change. Showers. Sunshine. More showers. ☀️🌧️
And with the ground officially in drought, the sparkler dash Clare & Mat had planned had to be cancelled.
Disappointing? Absolutely.
But weddings have a habit of reminding you that the unplanned stuff can be far better than anything on the schedule.
Because somewhere between the rain and sunshine, the sky delivered something we couldn’t have ordered if we’d tried.
**A huge rainbow, right across the vineyard.**
So we grabbed Clare & Mat, headed into the vines and had a few glorious minutes to play.
No Photoshop. No AI. No elaborate setup.
Just two newlyweds, an Essex vineyard and Mother Nature showing off at precisely the right moment.
I think we’ll take that over the sparklers. 🌈
#TuffonHallWedding #EssexWeddingPhotographer #VineyardWedding #DocumentaryWeddingPhotography #UKWeddingPhotographer
Aug 24
**Sometimes you just have to miss the flight. ✈️**
Six years ago, Rich was sitting airside at an American airport, waiting to board his flight home to the UK.
The night before, he’d been on a date with Katie. Not exactly your conventional first date either - they’d gone for a bike ride and, by all accounts, it had got just a little competitive. 😂
As Rich waited to fly home, Katie casually suggested that perhaps he was about to miss out on something pretty big.
So he took a gamble.
He pulled his luggage from the flight, cancelled his journey home and stayed.
Turns out, she had a point.
What followed was a transatlantic relationship, Covid, lockdowns, a move to the UK, a legal ceremony six years ago... and finally, last weekend, **the celebration they’d never really had.**
And what a celebration.
@thesecretbarnweddings, just outside Brighton, couldn’t have suited these two better. Hidden away in the Sussex countryside, a collection of beautiful old timber barns carried the day from ceremony through to dinner and one hell of an evening party.
@petal_and_feast transformed the place with incredible florals, before doing what they do equally brilliantly - feeding everyone with a proper feast from the fire and BBQ.
But underneath all of that was the bit I love photographing most.
Two people surrounded by the family and friends who’ve watched their slightly improbable love story unfold over six years, finally getting the chance to stop and celebrate it properly.
All because one bloke decided his flight home could wait.
**Sometimes the impulsive decisions really are the good ones.**
Rich & Katie - The Secret Barn, Sussex.
#SecretBarnWedding #SussexWeddingPhotographer #DocumentaryWeddingPhotography #BrightonWeddingPhotographer #WeddingPhotojournalism
Aug 19
