About
Style
I’ve been photographing weddings now for over 18 years, gradually honing a unique style that’s simple, uncontrived and contemporary. I have a mostly informal approach which I think strikes that perfect balance between the unposed, natural, documentary-style images you might not even realise I’m taking, and a few breathtakingly beautiful posed creative photos. My style is not awkward posing that you’re uncomfortable with, and I won’t overdo the Photoshop afterwards either to create a ‘fantasy’ wedding. I’ll just tell the story of your big day simply and more or less as it happened, but with my own unique visual twist and style, resulting in stunning wedding memories that will last a lifetime.
Service
I also provide an exemplary service that’s friendly, unobtrusive and fun, yet highly professional and attentive – you can be sure that I’ll turn up on time, that I’ll be polite, that I’ll know your exact expectations beforehand, but that I’ll also be professional enough to advise you if I feel you’re being unrealistic about something too. It’s an experienced and planned approach, but also a relaxed one which just gets the job done, and is designed to allow you to spend most of your big day with your family and friends and not the photographer. And throughout, I’ll never forget just how privileged I am to be asked to be part of your special day.
Packages
I provide USB and stunning contemporary album packages, with all day or limited period coverage, and I’m flexible enough to accommodate most schedules and budgets within reason. I’m also very comfortable photographing same-sex weddings.
Location
I’m based in beautiful Anglesey, north west Wales, but have photographed weddings throughout Wales and England, and in places as far afield as Shetland, Sweden and Poland, so I’m always happy to consider that destination wedding.
So if you want stunning photos and a highly professional and experienced service, combined with outstanding value for your money, then I’m probably the photographer for you. I come highly recommended, but don’t just take my word for it, click here to read some recent reviews.
Gyda llaw, ‘rwyf yn Gymro Gymraeg a dwi’n hapus iawn i ddarparu wasanaeth drwy’r gyfrwng Gymraeg os well gennych hynny.
Pricing
For a service that’s highly accomplished and provides consistently high quality results, I offer outstanding value for money.
All the following packages include your photos fully edited and posted to your own password-protected gallery on my website to share as you please.
Full Day Coverage
On my full day packages I make myself available to you from as early as you require me (usually the morning preps) until just after the first dance, so we also get some photos of the evening party included as well.
All three Full Day price packages above also include an informal pre-wedding shoot before the wedding – find out more here
6 Hour Coverage
Suitable for shorter coverage of a church wedding, this would typically cover the morning preps until the wedding breakfast; or alternatively from just before the ceremony until the first dance, whatever suits you best.
1) USB 6hr Package: £675.00
2) Album 6hr Package: £895.00
3) USB and Album 6hr Package: £1075.00
3.5 Hour Coverage
Designed mainly for a registrar wedding and a reception all within the one venue, this would typically cover approx. 45 mins pre-ceremony, the ceremony itself, post-ceremony congratulations and champagne, a posed photoshoot for the bride and groom, and also some formal photos of the whole wedding party.
1) USB 3.5hr Package: £475.00
2) Album 3.5hr Package: £675.00
3) USB and Album 3.5hr Package: £895.00
If required, for an agreed cost I can arrange for a second photographer for any part of the day for any package, for example to cover both the bride and groom’s morning preps at different locations.
I ask for a deposit of approx. 15% of the full cost, and once received I will close my diary to everybody else on your wedding day. I’m happy to take payments in instalments, and for any payments made I will supply you with official email receipts throughout the process. I will also ask you to sign and return my standard wedding photographer’s Ts & Cs / contract.
Pre-wedding Shoots
Sometimes called ‘Engagement Shoots’, an informal pre-wedding photo shoot is INCLUDED WITHIN THE COST of any of my full-day wedding bookings. Ideally done approximately a month or so before the wedding, you can bring your kids, your dog, wear what you want, have it wherever you’d like – it’s just a very informal gathering, but important for the following reasons:
Firstly, it gets you used to being photographed, so that on the wedding day itself, if you or your fiancé are naturally a bit camera-shy, you’ll be a lot more relaxed with me and we’ll get much more natural and better photos.
Secondly, it’s an ideal opportunity for both parties to get to know each other, to chat about the schedule for your big day in detail and discuss exactly what your requirements are, for example any specific photos you’d like taking. It’s also a great chance for me to come up with a photography schedule for you based on the day’s running order, and to advise on your expectations if I feel the need to.
All-in-all I feel it’s an important part of the whole process, and an essential investment of my time into providing you with the best possible service I can. You can see samples of some of my previous pre-wedding shoots below.
Albums
My albums are stunning contemporary Photobooks printed in Italy by Graphistudio and are beautiful heirlooms that you will treasure for years to come. Hand-made by artisans, they are of outstanding quality, have flush-mounted pages (so any photos that span the middle of the album still look perfectly flat), come with a lifetime guarantee and have that made-in-Italy wow-factor. With decades of professional graphic design experience under my belt, I bespoke-design every page uniquely in order to display your photos in their very best light. I offer TWO basic styles:
Style 1 – ‘The Wedding Book’
A stunning, contemporary design that still retains a traditional feel.
Click here for more details.
Style 2 – ‘The Young Book’
A more modern, chic design combined with traditional craftsmanship.
Click here for more details.
Both styles can be tweaked into many different stunning combinations of sizes, styles, page formats, page quantities and cover materials etc. The album package prices in my Pricing section are based on the page quantities, cover and album styles of my most popular choices, however I’d be very happy to provide you with a cost for any other bespoke spec you’d like; for example you may prefer your Wedding Book cover to be leather instead of metallic, etc.
Samples to View
Click here to see a digital Flip-book layout of a recent beautiful Wedding Book design of mine, and here for a Young Book design (please note these Flip-book samples open in new tabs).
How does the process work?
When your photos are ready, I will ask you to choose a certain number of your favourite photos (depending on your chosen package). I will then design the album and send you a PDF proof of the layout. Nothing will get printed until you’re 100% happy with the design and approve it, and once signed off, the artwork will then be sent to Graphistudio in Italy for the album to be printed and put together, usually taking between four and six weeks.
Recent Wedding Galleries
If there’s a particular recent or past wedding gallery of mine you’d like to view, click here to access all the complete past galleries on my ‘Weddings Showcase’ site (based within my E-commerce platform which is separate to this site and opens in a new tab).
All these galleries are PASSWORD-PROTECTED, so please contact myself or the bride and groom themselves for the password.
Testimonials
Diolch yn fawr iawn i chdi Mel gan Mr & Mrs Pugh xxx…”
Diolch o waelod calon Mel. Mr a Mrs Williams xx…”
“Can’t leave anything here but 5 star review. Right from the very first moment we met Mel at a Wedding Fayre he was so professional and we fell in love with his pictures. When we met up with him we booked him there and then… He always got back to me straight away when I messaged and even when we hit a problem and had to delay the wedding by a year he managed to change my date for us with no issues at all and for that I can’t thank him enough. We absolutely love our pictures and really can’t recommend him enough. Thank you so much from Mr & Mrs Thompson…”
Gallery
Click on the first image below to view a gallery slideshow of more of my wedding images.