Back for round two with Áine and Amal! I photographed part one of their wedding at Shuttleworth House last year, conveniently about ten minutes from my house. Clearly that was too easy, so for part two I had a bit further to travel, and joined them in Manchester for wedding inside a cinema! It was so lovely to be asked back. I had such a good time with these two the first time around, so the fact they liked their photos enough to invite me along for another entire wedding was a very nice feeling.

A relaxed morning

The day started with Áine getting ready with her bridesmaids and family in what might be the fanciest Airbnb I’ve shot in. A huge converted Manchester townhouse/warehouse situation with massive ceilings, loads of space and, most importantly, lovely light. We spent a very relaxed morning there before piling into taxis and heading over to church.

Catholic church wedding in Manchester

The ceremony took place in a huge Catholic church in Manchester with enormous ceilings, beautiful architecture and a brilliant choir. I was restricted to photographing from the back and sides during the ceremony, which always makes things interesting and with it being a slightly longer ceremony it means there is a bit more time to get creative compositionally and also make my way around this incredible building for some interesting view points.

It meant I also had some time to get some incredible overhead views of the ceremony up on the balcony at the back as well as all the little moments happening around the edges, including Áine’s nephew happily playing with a tractor in the aisle while considerably more serious things were happening around him.

A walk across Manchester

After the ceremony we had a bit of time before the cinema reception, so rather than disappear into cars, we walked across Manchester. This ended up being one of my favourite parts of the day. We stopped at one of Áine and Amal’s favourite coffee shops, grabbed coffees with the bridesmaids and groomsmen and then carried on through the city, along the canal and through Manchester’s graffiti-covered streets.

No real posing or awkward standing around required. Just walking, talking, messing about and making pictures on the fly, which is pretty much exactly how I like my fun, relaxed wedding photography to feel. Random people shouted congratulations as we went, we found the obligatory Manchester bee and stopped in one of the squares for some fun group pictures which ended up looking suspiciously like album covers. Quite appropriate, considering about half of this wedding party are ridiculously talented musicians.

Cinema wedding photography – technically challenging but SO much fun!

Then we arrived at The Savoy Cinema in Heaton Moor. Now, cinemas are excellent places for watching films. They are slightly less convenient places for photographing weddings. But I do love a challenge!

Áine and Amal came down through the cinema to a shower of confetti made from old cinema ticket stubs, which was a first for me. In the reception they had made some custom movie posters with various references to different parts of their lives. I was pretty excited to arrive and see one of the pictures I took from wedding part one all framed up and having a moment of its own.

It was a huge room. It was dark. Very dark. Guests were spread across rows of seats, people were appearing on stage, other things were happening at the back of the room and approximately none of the available light was where I actually wanted it to be. So this became a bit of a lighting puzzle.

I had flashes positioned in different parts of the cinema and spent a large chunk of the reception switching between them depending on whether I was photographing the stage, the audience or something happening somewhere completely different.

It was probably one of the most technically challenging weddings I’ve photographed, which also made it one of the most satisfying. And there was plenty going on. There was popcorn, ice cream and cocktails during the reception, and we managed to get the entire wedding party into the cinema seats for one massive group photograph.

Open mic hour

Then came another first: open mic hour at a wedding. Áine and Amal are both musicians, Áine is a composer and it would later appear that a large percentage of their friends are extremely talented too. They kicked things off with a performance themselves and then various friends and members of the wedding party took turns getting up on stage. It was brilliant and a really unique addition to their wedding day that felt very them. I had to keep reminding myself that I was there to take photographs not to join in and watch the performances.

Photographically, it also meant constantly bouncing between whoever was performing on a dark stage and the reactions of guests sitting throughout an even darker cinema. Front of the screen, back of the room, through the seats, up the aisles, basically wherever I could find an interesting angle without becoming part of the performance myself. I did accidentally find myself standing directly in front of the choir earlier in the day, so I’d already had enough experience of that.

Food, speeches, and espresso martinis

Outside there was a Tibetan food truck serving everyone during the reception, which obviously required thorough photographic documentation and absolutely no sampling whatsoever…….

Then everyone headed back inside for the speeches. Again, one person standing on a stage at one end of a massive dark cinema, with all of the reactions happening throughout the seats quite far behind me. There were five or six speeches in total and they were all really heartfelt, with lots of laughter, plenty of emotion and some brilliant reactions to photograph. It was also very obvious from listening to everyone speak just how loved these two are.

Luckily, the cinema were also keeping me supplied with espresso martinis by this point, which I can only assume was an essential part of their photographer support package. After the speeches came the first dance, right in front of the big cinema screen, and then the whole place turned into a dance floor.

And finally, just when I thought this wedding had exhausted its supply of excellent ideas, Áine and Amal had boxes of fish and chips brought in from the chip shop next door. Chips and curry sauce at the end of a wedding. Why is this not standard?

An unusual Manchester wedding venue – an epic day

This whole day felt completely like Áine and Amal. From walking through Manchester and stopping for coffee, to live music in a cinema, Tibetan food, ticket-stub confetti, espresso martinis and late-night chips. Nothing felt like it was there because that’s what you’re “supposed” to do at a wedding.

It was personal, slightly chaotic, incredibly fun and completely unique. Definitely one of the most unusual weddings I’ve photographed, and one of the most enjoyable.

Thank you Áine and Amal for trusting me with round two. I left Manchester with a lot of photographs, a stomach full of chips and, thanks to the lovely people at the cinema, possibly one espresso martini more than was strictly necessary.

If you’re planning an unusual wedding, or looking at unique venues, I would love to join you, whether that’s in Manchester, Hertfordshire, or a destination wedding anywhere else in the world!