Congratulations on your engagement and welcome to Vivid wedding photography. My name is Cathy Teesdale and I am an award-winning photojournalist, and incurable romantic, who takes great pride in using my many years of experience in professional photography and design to create a superbly printed, living, breathing record of the best day of your lives.

After all the months of careful planning and preparation, with all your nearest and dearest coming to help you celebrate, and knowing that the day itself will rush by all too fast in a blur of nerves, excitement, euphoria and happy tears, I'd want to be certain of 3 crucial things before booking my wedding photographer:

1. That they are truly expert at, and really care about, capturing the true spirit, emotion, tones and touches, and all the natural, spontaneous moments that will make your wedding unique to you.

2. That they shoot fast and unobtrusively and won’t leave anyone standing around feeling stiff and self-conscious for endless minutes before releasing the shutter.

3. That you really like them during your pre-booking consultation and establish a great rapport, so you can trust that they’ll be fun and easy to have along for the ride, and that they’ll help you feel completely confident and beautiful in front of the camera too.

Given all about the wonderful design possibilities offered these days by desktop publishing, I'd also seize the chance to have all our favourite images beautifully laid out in a printed hardback wedding storybook, so that every time we leaf through it together and with family and friends, it brings the whole day flooding back in vivid, emotional detail.

So that’s what I’ll be only too happy to do for you if we decide we're a match. Once you've given me the privilege of booking me as your wedding photographer, I use 150% of my skills in photography, lighting, invisibility, charm, efficiency, editing, and artistic book design (all drawn from years of dedicated practice!) to create a moving, magical and totally unique record of your day.

When we have our free, face-to-face consultation, I’ll show you an inspiring selection of Vivid wedding storybooks, discuss and note down all your photographic preferences, and suggest the best packages and prices to fit your budget. Because I know how easily wedding costs can spiral, we also offer the option of staggered payment, or CD and online gallery first, storybook, enlargements or canvases later, where you’d like to have it all but can't afford it just now!

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:

How does the free, pre-booking consultation work?

We'll pick an evening that suits everyone and I'll come to you at your home (or elsewhere if you prefer) and spend at least an hour chatting with you both so that we can get a really good sense of each other. I can then also find out just what you're looking for, what's going to happen when throughout your day, and what your final presentation preferences are (hi-res DVD, prints-only, traditional leather glassine-interleaved album or printed wedding storybook), and talk you through some Vivid storybooks so that you can visualise just how yours might look.

I've got a friend/relative who's pretty handy with a camera. Should I just ask them to do it and save myself loads of money?

Great wedding photography doesn't come cheap as it takes years of dedicated practice to feel comfortable with the pressure and considerable technical demands, to learn how to be invisible most of the time but also charm people into smiles and laughter when needed, and to acquire all the skills necessary to produce a magically-evocative and coherent record. So I'd say you can only afford to ask a non-professional to photograph your day for you if you’re sure you’ve got an amazing memory and will still be able to fill in all the gaps left between the snaps for decades to come!

How can you guarantee you’ll be in all the right places at all the right times?

I'll take detailed notes of your planned timeline during our meeting and will then e-mail you my notes so that you can amend or change anything as you like before the wedding day. Then I'll carefully re-read those notes the day before your wedding and bring them with me too, to ensure I'm always just where I should be.

How many photos will I get?

I shoot fast and intuitively, capturing an average of 2-3 frames a minute, or roughly 120-180 images an hour. I'll then spend twice as long again choosing, editing and enhancing the very best 50-100 images per hour of shooting. These will then be presented to you, within 2 weeks of your wedding, both in a dedicated online gallery on the Vivid site for all your family and friends to view and order their optimised hand prints, and as a beautifully finished CD slideshow for you to keep. For each hour of shooting, 25 optimised images (as loose prints, invisibly mounted in a traditional album, or evocatively designed and printed in the storybook) are included as part of your package.

What's the best way to organise the formal group pictures I’d like?

I always recommend that you decide beforehand which group pictures you'd like, and at what stage in the day you'd like them to be taken, then write a list of them and e-mail it to me, and ask a good friend who knows all the key people to bring their own copy of the list and help me draw all of them together at the appropriate time on the day. This then means you don’t have to worry about it on the day, knowing it's all in hand, and can concentrate on savouring each moment.

I make a point of photographing all your formals just as swiftly and efficiently as possible, firing off 4-6 shots per group to ensure at least one where everyone is looking happy and relaxed with their eyes fully open. What I don't do is spend ages tweaking your veil or train or people's elbows or position as this usually leads to fixed grins and boredom and delays the party.

If you'd like a group shot of everyone at your wedding, this can easily be achieved using steps or an upstairs window and I've found a little gentle direction can create a lovely heart shape too. Also, here are 2 great little posing tips: trusting your photographer to capture you looking beautiful is the best way to ensure they do just that, and positioning your body at a slight angle to the camera, with one hip further forward than the other, tends to look much more relaxed and elegant than facing it straight-on!

Are there any hidden extras?

My package prices include all pre- and post-wedding consultations, unlimited shooting during the hours booked, all the hours of careful and artistic post-production, editing, design, mounting and hand printing, and VAT. If your wedding is outside a 60-mile radius from London, my travel expenses will be charged at cost and, if you'd like me to stay late for the evening festivities and so sleep in a local B&B, this will also only be charged at cost.

Please have a look through my wedding galleries and testimonials pages to get a really good idea of my working and photographic style and call the studio on 0208 992 3557 or fill in the contact form to see if I’m still available on your chosen date. And if you’d like to learn a little more about me and my background and put a face to the name, please see my about page.

Thankyou for visiting the Vivid site and I look forward very much to meeting you.