One day while shooting the brides prep with hair and make up and champagne and everything that goes along with it, the bride’s mother turned to me with a shocked look on her face and said: ‘I haven’t taken a single photo yet!’ She had been conditioned, as many of us are, to think that the key to making great, lasting memories is to make photographs of everything and everyone in that moment.

It’s a common but seriously flawed concept and we tend to do it more than we realize. How many times have you perhaps been to a wedding where everyone has their smartphone out taking images of the bridal procession, the vows, the first kiss, the confetti…? Or have you perhaps been to a rock concert where everyone is holding their mobile phones up recording the performance?

As you may already know more and more musicians are insisting that you put your phones and cameras away and I think it should be the same on your or your friends, or cousins wedding day.

‘Essentially, the bottom line is that we commit things to memory better when we give singular focus to the thing we want to remember. Taking out our phone or camera and trying to take a picture fractures that focus, and makes it more difficult for our brains to cement the memory.’

Here’s a short clip explaining my approach: Make Memories. Not photos.

So don’t take photos at your wedding, something I’ve even seen brides doing and also ask your guests to instead simply enjoy the day with you, making real, genuine memory’s the old fashioned way. Then make sure you have a great documentary wedding photographer who has the ability and style to capture your wedding day as sincerely and beautifully as you will remember it.