Lisa Faulkner and John Torode's Wedding at Aynhoe Park!!!!

Am I now a Celebrity Wedding Photographer?

I'm not going to lie, all wedding photographer based in the Cotswolds, the UK and probably worldwide want to shoot at least one wedding at Aynhoe Park. Even only three years ago it seemed out of reach, but here I am shooting a bonafide celebrity wedding there... Head blown!

I suppose I am!

People ask me all the time how I got the job, was I scared, that sort of thing...

The way I bagged John and Lisa's wedding was in some ways is easy to explain. James and Sophie Perkins, the owners of Aynhoe Park, recommended me, as I shot their wedding six months previously. The more challenging question is, how did I get to shoot their wedding? The truth is this isn't by luck, SEO or anything many inspiring photographers would love to believe. Instead, a ten-year journey of doing the best job I can, for the best price I can and honing and honing every element to produce work people believed in and happily recommended to others.

Can I pull this thing off...?

I mean its John bloody Torode! I've watched him for years on Master Chef, and his drive for perfection is even bigger than mine! Was I scared? Yeah, a bit. However, maybe not for the reasons you think. My Fear (no pun intended) was could I lead the ship. Could I create enough comfort and confidence needed? To produce the goods, I need to create an environment where trust and confidence are established very quickly. It is key to wedding photography. Without this, the triggers necessary to produce the photographs, can't be pulled. It is a deep subject which I don't want to bore you with, but it's critical to my work.

Until this day I never really met anyone off the telly, I didn't know how it would feel to be them. I had no idea. Would it be so alien, I wouldn't know how to behave to create the trust and confidence needed? I mean stuff like that was zipping around my head for weeks before. At times I couldn't sleep if I'm honest.