Caroline Smyth Photography, Larne

They all are. Each & every one of my weddings is memorable in its own way

natural, relaxed, unobtrusive, friendly, romantic

I am proud of how far my business has come in the past 5 years when I first picked up a DSLR camera. I have had the privilege of being part of so many couples' special days & I love every second of it.

Research... do your research, get a feel for how your prospective wedding supplier interacts with their customers, or even just their followers on social media. If you can, meet up with your wedding photographer. You spend most of your day with them, so you need to see whether you all "click"

This is a hard one.. but one that sticks out in my mind was, instead of placecards, the couple had a framed photograph of each and every guest. This created such an amazing atmosphere when guests entered the room to be seated.

Once a contract is signed and booking fee is paid, the wedding date is confirmed. I love keeping in touch with my couples in the interim period between booking and their actual wedding date. Social media is a great platform for this. I feel that it helps me and the couple build that relationship which is so important to enable me to get the very best photographs of them on their wedding day. Approx 1 month before the wedding I send out a pre-wed questionnaire & invite the couple to visit me at my studio to go through the plans for the day.

Family photographs - this is possibly the part of the day that is fairly traditional & people generally get bored doing these but to me these are some of the most treasured photographs you will have taken on your wedding day. These are the ones you will look back on fondly in years to come

be brave.. umbrella's & welly boots can result in really individual photographs

I fell into photography completely by chance, when someone lent me their DSLR, in Sept 2012, to help me deal with stress at work. I fell in love with photography but it wasn't until someone co-erced me into photographing their wedding, in 2013, that I truly fell head over heels in love with what I could do with a camera in my hand. I left my job at the end of 2012 & set up business on 2nd January 2013. In June 2016 I opened my first studio & am now able to continue being a part of my couples lives, by capturing their newborn babies & children