Most of the weddings I photograph feature hundreds of guests, start in the early afternoon and continue long into the evening. But occasionally I work with couples who have something a little smaller, perhaps a little bit less formal in mind. Lisa and Michael's DIY wedding at the Blue Cactus was just such an occasion.
Although it's no surprise to me anymore, it should be said that weddings scaled down in size aren't at all necessarily scaled down in terms of emotion. Because I'm often shooting these in smaller venues (the Blue Cactus is a restaurant), everything and everyone is just a little bit closer--I'm often a little closer. It's also true that when there are 10 or 12 wedding guests rather than 100 or 200, the connection between them seems to be more powerful: the bride and groom can actually talk with, share smiles with and connect to all of their guests.
One of the challenging aspects to photographing intimate weddings is that I'm generally working with serious time limitations. In a way this limitation is helpful in terms of becoming better at prioritizing, working quickly and planning.
Because I know the Byward Market fairly well now, I took the bride and groom for a stroll through it, past the shops, through alleys, stopping at locations to shoot but also capturing the movement through the Market itself. And as I discovered, even if you think you've seen everything in the Byward Market, you will inevitably see something you never anticipated.