What a year 2022 has been! Thanks so much to all the couples that have put their faith in me. Thanks to everyone that’s cheered me on as I made it on to This is Reportage’s top 100 wedding photographers in the world 2022 (placed 87th), making me one the best documentary wedding photographers in the UK!
“We absolutely LOVE our photos! Nathan captured the day perfectly, getting shots of all the little (and big!) moments. He was professional and organised at the planning stages and spent time understanding what we did (and didn’t) want. We have had so many compliments about the pictures, and I would honestly say it was some of the best money we spent for the wedding, I couldn’t thank Nathan more!!” Hattie and Dan 2022.
Here are some of the things I’ve seen at weddings this year that I didn’t expect (I shot over 30 weddings this year)
- Grandma stuffing confetti down the bride’s top
- Children hitting each other with skittles under a table
- A guest getting trapped in the bride’s veil
- Guests leaving in ambulances
- Bride leaving mid speeches to go to the toilet to return absolutely embarrassed
- Bridesmaid’s dresses being trimmed with scissors
- Horrendous shoes – hippos for heals, seriously?! (at two weddings)
- A Bride being 40 mins late for the ceremony, even the vicar said ‘nice that you showed up’
- Burnt fingers from smoke bombs
- Bride cried at how amazing her wedding cake looked (made by a family member)
- A small maid of honour standing on a footstool to conduct the ceremony…
- Grandma eating crisps out of grandchild’s mouth
- An enormous spider
Things I did at weddings that I never expected:
- Fell 5ft off a wall and into a ditch…
- Dropped my camera
- Drank some of the bride’s prosecco (accidentally) before the ceremony
These are just some of the things that make weddings the wonderful human safari that they are. I’ve selected some of my best documentary wedding photos from in and around Nottingham.
To help with the selection (which was SO difficult) I selected images based on 1) does it make me feel happy 2) do I think it’s cool and 3) context – can you tell what was going on from the photo (because you weren’t there so can’t fill in the banks, this is all part of good storytelling).
Children feature a lot in my selection because they always get up to something mad and my love for family photography led me to wedding photography.
This year I’ve loved photographing weddings at Doddington Hall, Stanford Hall, the West Mill and Whatton House and Gardens. It was great to shoot at some new wedding venues like Foxtail barns. But my favourite weddings of all have been the blank canvas rock up a marquee in the field sort of weddings, which have been the most relaxed. It just goes to show that you can have awesome wedding photos wherever you decide to celebrate because weddings are all about the people!
You might be thinking, where are all the ‘couple time’ photos? I do shoot these photos and I absolutely smash them too (I’ll be writing a separate post on this soon). Couples love my hands-off approach because they get photos that are the ‘real’ them and not ones of them being jammed into a pose because it’s their wedding However, it’s not what weddings are about. Weddings aren’t about taking pretty pictures all day. Here, I only want to show the best of the unscripted wedding moments. 95% of what I shoot at weddings is the in-between stuff.
The big question is, did these photos make you smile?
If the answer is YES, I’m probably the right photographer for you because you want the best documentary wedding photography to capture the vibe of your big day. My diary is open for 2024 and I have a hand full of dates left in 2023 (you can check my availability HERE), so get in touch before your date disappears.