Wedding photography & film FAQs
The useful stuff, without the waffle.
Choosing who photographs your wedding comes with plenty of questions.
Some practical. Some creative. Some you probably hadn’t thought about until now.
We’ve answered the ones we’re asked most often below – from family photographs and bad weather to backup plans, delivery times, albums and how photography and film work together.
Can’t find yours? Ask us. We’d rather have the conversation than leave you wondering.
Before you book
The easiest way is to send us your wedding date and a few details through the enquiry form.
We’ll check availability across the Smiling Tiger team and come back to you personally, usually within 24 hours.
If we’re available, we’ll send over the next steps and, if it feels useful, invite you to a short Zoom call so we can hear what you’re planning and answer any questions.
No pressure. No hard sell. Just a proper conversation about your wedding.
Simply by completing our online contract and the payment of a £500 booking fee. Once we have both our services are secured and the date is yours!
Smiling Tiger Studios is led by Linus, but the studio is built around a carefully selected team of photographers who share the same way of seeing weddings.
Depending on your collection, date and coverage, your wedding may be photographed by Linus, Will or another STS photographer.
What matters is that every photographer representing Smiling Tiger is chosen for the same things – curiosity, anticipation, emotional awareness, timing, humour and the ability to notice what is happening beyond the obvious.
Different photographers. Different personalities.
One recognisable Smiling Tiger eye.
You’ll always know who is covering your wedding well before the day itself.
Absolutely.
In fact, we’d much rather have a proper conversation than try to answer everything through a chain of emails.
Our initial Zoom calls are usually around 20 minutes – enough time to hear what you’re planning, explain how we work, answer your questions and see whether Smiling Tiger feels like the right fit.
There’s no presentation and no hard sell.
Just a conversation.
Planning your wedding
No. Knowing a venue can be useful, but it isn’t necessary.
We arrive early, look at the light, weather and spaces as they actually are that day and work from there. We’d rather respond to your wedding than recreate photographs we’ve made at somebody else’s.
Not a long one.
We don’t work from a checklist of moments because doing that would mean spending the day looking for photographs we’ve already decided should happen, rather than noticing what’s actually unfolding around us.
What we will ask for is a short list of the essential family group photographs you’d like, along with anything important we should know about particular people or relationships.
Beyond that, trust us to watch, anticipate and respond to the day as it happens.
We don’t want to recreate somebody else’s wedding photographs. We want to notice yours.
Yes. Documentary doesn’t mean we’re allergic to organisation. We normally recommend keeping the essential family groups to around 6-8 so they can be photographed efficiently without taking you away from your guests for too long.
Please tell us.
Around a month before the wedding, we’ll send you a short questionnaire where you can let us know about any family circumstances, relationships or dynamics we should be aware of.
We’ll also talk everything through on our final Zoom call shortly before the wedding, so it’s fresh in our minds when the day arrives.
That might mean separated parents, bereavement, difficult relationships, accessibility needs or simply somebody whose importance to you might not be obvious to us.
The more we understand beforehand, the less likely we are to put anyone in an uncomfortable position on the day.
And once the wedding begins, we’ll handle it quietly and discreetly.
Usually, not very much.
We’d much rather take you away for a few short pockets of time than disappear with you for an hour while your wedding carries on without you.
Around ten minutes can be enough to step away, catch your breath and make some beautiful photographs together.
Depending on the light, weather and how the day is unfolding, we may suggest another short wander later on.
We’ll give you direction when it’s useful, but we’re not interested in turning it into a long portrait session.
Your photographs should fit around your wedding. Not the other way around.
On the day
Very little.
We’ll give you direction when it helps – particularly during couple portraits or family photographs – but we’re not interested in spending the day arranging you into poses or repeatedly asking you to recreate moments.
For most of the wedding, we want you concentrating on the people around you rather than the camera.
We’ll watch, anticipate and photograph what happens naturally.
And when we do step in, the aim is always to make things feel easy rather than staged.
Observed, not staged. Felt, not forced.
Read: How to Actually Relax in Front of the Camera on Your Wedding Day
Then it rains.
We’ve photographed enough weddings in Britain to know that weather rarely follows the plan, and it certainly doesn’t need to spoil the photographs.
We’ll work with whatever the day gives us – using the available light, indoor spaces, doorways, covered areas and, when it works, the rain itself.
If there’s a break in the weather, we may suggest slipping outside for ten minutes. If there isn’t, we adapt.
What we won’t do is make you spend the day anxiously watching a weather app or force you outside because a photograph was on our list.
Some of the most atmospheric wedding photographs come from conditions nobody would have chosen beforehand.
The weather changes the day. It doesn’t have to diminish it.
Read: What Happens If It Rains on Our Wedding Day? (And Why It Might Be the Best Thing)
This is one of the advantages of booking a studio rather than relying entirely on one person.
Smiling Tiger Studios is built around a team of experienced photographers who work to the same creative approach and standards.
If the photographer assigned to your wedding became genuinely unable to attend, our first priority would be to arrange suitable replacement cover from within the STS team. If circumstances required us to look beyond the immediate team, we would only use an experienced professional we trust and who fits the way we work.
You would, of course, be kept informed.
Behind the scenes, we take contingency planning seriously precisely because your wedding cannot simply be moved to another day.
The aim is simple: whatever happens to us, your wedding photography remains properly looked after.
It’s very much appreciated to have a warm meal
Absolutely, up to £10m for public liability & professional indemnity for photography & drone operations.
Photography & film
Yes.
You can book Smiling Tiger for photography, film, or both together.
When we cover both, the important thing is that they don’t feel like two separate productions competing for your attention. The photographers and filmmakers work with the same documentary philosophy – observing, anticipating and allowing the wedding to happen naturally.
Photography gives you individual moments you can stop and return to.
Film gives you movement, voices, laughter, speeches and atmosphere.
Different ways of remembering the same wedding.
Observed, not staged. Felt, not forced.
Because a wedding rarely happens in one place at a time.
While one of you is getting ready, the other may be somewhere completely different. During the ceremony, one photographer can concentrate on what’s happening in front while another sees the reactions around it. Later, while you’re talking to guests, another story may be unfolding across the room.
Two photographers give us more perspectives without creating more interference.
More reactions. More relationships. More of the things happening simultaneously.
It also means neither photographer needs to chase every possible moment.
They can stay present, watch properly and allow the story to develop.
More eyes. More of the story.
Yes, where it genuinely adds something.
Linus is CAA licensed and we can use aerial photography or film where the venue, weather, airspace and permissions allow.
But we don’t use a drone simply because we have one.
Sometimes an aerial view beautifully establishes the landscape, architecture or scale of a celebration. Other times it adds very little and the better story is happening on the ground amongst your guests.
Like everything else we do, it should serve the wedding rather than become a distraction from it.
It depends on the length of coverage, the collection you choose and, most importantly, what actually happens during the wedding.
For a full wedding day, you can typically expect around 500-800 carefully selected and finished photographs, with a mixture of colour and black-and-white images where appropriate.
We don’t aim for a particular number simply to hit a quota.
Our job is to remove repetition and weaker frames while keeping the photographs that genuinely contribute to the story.
So you receive a complete record of the wedding without having to work through hundreds of near-identical images.
Enough to tell the whole story. Not padding for the sake of a bigger number.
After the wedding
You won’t be waiting weeks before seeing anything.
We usually send a small preview selection within 48-72 hours of the wedding, giving you a first look while everything still feels fresh.
Your full photography gallery normally follows within around two weeks.
If you’ve booked film, we aim to send a short preview within around three weeks, with the full highlight film usually delivered within around six weeks.
We like the photographs to arrive first so they have room to breathe in their own right, before film brings the wedding back in a completely different way through movement, sound and voices.
Big enough to make poster prints should you wish. All high quality full resolution images.
Absolutely! You are licensed to print for your own purposes as many as you like. Friends and family can also order prints directly from your gallery.
Albums & artwork
Absolutely.
Choosing the right image, size and frame can be surprisingly difficult when you’re trying to imagine it from a screen.
So rather than leaving you to guess, we can help you visualise it.
Send us a photograph of the wall or space you’re considering and we can mock up different images, sizes and frame styles so you can see how they’ll actually look in your home before deciding.
It takes the uncertainty out of the process and helps you choose something that genuinely suits the space.
Because some photographs deserve to become part of the room rather than live permanently on a phone.
Yes – and in many ways, that’s the best time to choose one.
Once you’ve had your gallery for a while, you’ll start to notice which photographs you keep returning to and which moments have become especially important to you.
Rather than asking you to somehow narrow hundreds of photographs down from scratch, we can create an initial album design for you.
You can then review it, make changes and shape it into something that feels completely yours.
An album isn’t just somewhere to store wedding photographs.
It’s a way of turning the whole story into something physical – something you can pick up years from now and experience all over again.
A little more help?
Planning a wedding throws up questions you probably hadn’t considered before. We’ve put together some useful advice based on what we’ve learnt from photographing hundreds of them.
