What I am about to suggest is probably going to make you all shriek in horror. However one of the most stressful moments on a wedding day is the time just after the ceremony, so much to do with so little time to do it in. You need to get a hug and kiss from all the guests, groups, cocktails, get to the venue and then still take great pictures together. This all usually has to be done in about an hour but extra pressure is added with late ceremonies and long travelling distances. Solution? Do your portraits individually and together before the ceremony. Or better yet on a separate day. I can hear the Italian brides shrieking in horror.

Few of us are virgins when we walk down the isle, why let another tradition stand in the way of your fun and great pictures.

Quieter surroundings in tourist areas in high season. Remember to consider this if you are getting married in public gardens, a public church, or any area which might be open to the public at the same time as your ceremony. Ceremony grounds need to be prepared for set up (chairs, flowers, sound systems etc etc), and they can only start preparing when the grounds are not flooded with tourist crowds. Although during your ceremony, public access can usually be denied, venue grounds may restrict ceremo ny times, especially during the weekends, allowing time to clear the public out.

Food is Italy’s religion and it is taken very seriously. Regular worship and ceremonial rituals are performed by ninety five percent of the population. The five percent who do not take part are homeless or have an eating disorder. So if you need to know where to eat, anywhere in Italy, you just need to spot the right person to ask. The right person will be slightly to very overweight and have a good watch and an expensive pair of shoes. Particularly businessmen in their fifties who eat out a lot and have no interest in sending you to their Aunty Maria’s trattoria. If there are no such men about, ask a local. It is completely useless asking an Italian Mamma who is overloaded with grocery shopping, though it may get you an invitation to lunch, especially in south Italy.

What to order?
A few days before:

3.Nourishing or Cleansing facial

This should be at least your second facial when preparing for your big day. Your facial should include exfoliating, cleansing and nourishing. If you can get a little face, head, neck and shoulder massaging with the package it will make all the difference.

4.Eyebrow shaping (don’t think this needs much explaining)

5.Eyebrow & eyelash dying

You know how mascara can give you two back eyes at the sea or if it withstands the pool, it will probably be very difficult to get off. By dying your eyebrows and lashes you can withstand the pool test and the effect is flatteringly natural.

1. Drink at least two litres of water
2. No drinking coffee or alcohol
3. Avoid salts, artificial additives, preservatives, colorants – basically toxins
4. Go to bed early, try to have at least eight hours sleep a day
5. Keeping to a healthy routine will restore your body and mind
6. Workout a lot and rest a lot
7. Apply a hardcore anti cellulite cream twice daily, massaging the way you wish your beautician would.
8. If you can get anywhere near a sauna or a steam room make your body sweat but drink extra water.
9. Walk whenever you can, stairs are especially good for bottoms
10. Be extra good to yourself, give yourself non food rewards e.g facials, pedicures, a small lie in.

Tricks to help you get into exercise C

5.Music

There is absolutely no way I can do any form of exercise without music. If my iPod is flat, I don’t work out. It’s also about the only chance I get to hear some really great music. It’s so easy to hear and purchase individual songs from the Internet.

6.Spending money on exercising

Guilt has been our chain and shackles for years. For the first time guilt can be used to one’s advantage. Not sure about you but I hate wasting money. If I spend money on new sexy exercise gear, a gym contract and a fab baby blue gym bag, I am more likely to go to gym. I just can’t bear letting the money go to waste. Strange how I don’t see it as my body going to waste or if I do, I really do not seem to care.

“I hate exercise”

Girls often tell me that they hate exercise. I hated exercise too, until I finally gave it a chance. The secret is not to be doing it to get thin but rather for the act of exercise its self. One needs to tune into one’s body when one exercises. Stop repeating to yourself that you hate exercising.

Instead notice your feelings; tired, pain, uncomfortable, bored and keep pushing. See if you can challenge those feelings keep going, focusing on getting plenty of oxygen into the trouble stops. Imagine breathing oxygen into your brain, legs and tummy. Feel the oxygen creating the burn, burning the fat, creating energy. Just when you want to give up, do another five minutes. Then one day (depending on how unfit you are) after fifteen minutes of suffering it all lifts and something magical happens. Your body and breathing go on auto and you feel like you are flying.

You will feel happier because your body is being pumped full of endorphins. Then as the added bonus you will start to look great. But if you do it for the effect, you will give up before you start. You need to get into doing exercise for the sake of the exercise itself.

I know I go on and on about exercise but I cannot help it. More than once I have been very overweight, and I have tried every diet available. I promise you with my heart and thighs; diets make you fat. The only way to stay slim and healthy is by doing regular exercise. Besides I prefer to workout and be able to eat what I fancy with no guilt.

Metabolism Stimulating Diet

If you MUST have chocolate because you are a chocoholic, it’s not a problem. For every one hundred grams of chocolate you need to do one hour of exercise, the sweaty kind. SO you do the maths, personally I am prepared to do three hours a day, everyday. As I have mentioned before it’s just really important to balance what goes in with what goes out. If you fall off the wagon and over do the energy intake time to going dancing all night long.

Metabolism Stimulating Diet

Then there is the most difficult but most important rule of all; try not to eat after seven (if you go to bed at ten). Most of the weight we put on we do so when we eat and go to bed. The same goes for afternoon naps. If you have a little binge, no need to panic, just go for a long walk. Try to see your body as a machine and try to balance what goes in and out. Eating an hour before exercise is ideal and not napping before a three hour time period has passed since your last meal. If you manage nothing else at all this is guaranteed to help you loose around a kilo in a week.

Metabolism Stimulating Diet

I am not a fan of low carbohydrate diets because they sap your energy levels and can be dangerous for kidney and liver functions. So I recommend having your carbohydrates in the morning for energy and you will have the whole day to burn off the sugar. I highly recommend unrefined cooked oats. They are slow burning carbohydrates and being unrefined they will keep hunger away and stimulate metabolism. This is because your metabolism will have to work hard to digest the unrefined oats. (Note: A helpful hint is always to choose unrefined wholegrain when ever choosing rice, pasta or bread.) Wholegrain rice is a good substitute for the oats. I know it’s not exactly what you imagined for breakfast but this is an emergency plan.

You have suddenly realised you are getting married in two weeks. Where have the last six months gone? You have been caught up in plans and no doubt neglected your beauty plan. Never mind let’s make use of what we have. The suggestions I have made may need to be toned down a little if you are very unfit. If you are more than ten kilograms overweight I recommend you see a doctor before you follow my “Bridal Beauty Plan”. Unfortunately like most things in life the more money you throw at the problem the better the outcome. However no high tech massage can ever compete with a dedicated run. Clearly if you wake up a little earlier than two weeks before your wedding all the better.

The plan is divided into different strategies, which each require dedication and determination. The results will be evident from the first day. Especially psychologically, since the exercise will instantly increase your endorphin levels. Although one may experience a light headache and a little tiredness from the detox, it will be short lived. Unless you have been bombing your body with toxins for years. For this reason I recommend starting the plan on a Saturday.

Oil has always been used to accentuate the body. But unless you have rippling muscles and even then, I highly recommend you go easy on the oil. Sprinkling water over andoiled body can look good but again only if you are not too bumpy and dimply.

Here we go again with the tanning debate. Yes during the day on the beach we do look better with a bit of colour. And although I generally prefer models who are not too tanned, a little colour with boudoir photography is acceptable. But I generally prefer working with the skin colour girls are born with. The reason is that the camera tends to accentuate the uneven skin tones caused by sun tanning. The older you are the greater these differences are. There are some girls who can tan evenly but there is one in every hundred I shoot.

It’s sad when one can’t take portraits of people in the church or at cocktail hour because they have camera’s in front of their faces. Often they shoot with those disposable cameras and the pictures won’t be that good anyway. Then you get the semi pros who have the same or better equipment than me that always manage to be between myself and the couple during important moments. They also often get furious if I politely ask them to move over. They upset the priest because they are not aware of how strict the Italian church is. Then the priest gets angry with me because they think the guy with the big gun must be with me. I work hard on my relationship with the priests because if you get a bad wrap they clamp down on one.

I have never had the courage to do what many other photographers do and ban all other shooters. However if you are buying all the pictures on dvd, there will be plenty of pictures of everyone and some really nice portraits of the guests. If you can ban cameras, at least in the church when you can blame the priest.

How can I remember my parents on my wedding day?

1. By speaking to them kindly and with respect
2. A small gift with a thank you card
3. Take a moment before you walk down the aisle to look them in the eye
4. When you leave them at the end of the aisle whisper “I love you” in their ear.
5. Make sure you let the photographer know which photographs are important to them and make sure you have a special picture taken with them. It will be such a priceless gift to them.
6. Do not belittle or get irritated if they get a little demanding or emotional on the day, remember it’s a very difficult milestone the end of an era.
7. Remember to dance with your parents after the first dance.

But if you can’t manage any of these don’t worry they are probably happy to be rid of you any way. One day when you have children they will take your parents’ revenge. There is nothing uglier in the world than a bride who treats her mother and father badly on her wedding day.

My heart breaks when a see an already suffering father take his daughter to the alter and she forgets to kiss him goodbye or the groom forgets to shake his hand. I absolutely cringe. For some parents it’s easier when the couple are older, sometimes they can be relived. Or if their child has already been living far from home for some time. But nearly every wedding the most likely person to cry is the daddy.

This is a question I am regularly asked. The answer really depends on many factors. Clearly the first being if you can see without them. If you are completely blind without your glasses, then clearly you have to wear them or consider contacts.

Girls with big noses may want to keep them on since it can break the line of the nose. Girls I never realised had big noses, took off their glasses on their wedding day and well there it was.

I always try to take a few without glasses since glasses reflect light and the flash. This can make it hard to see the eyes, which are generally the focal point of a portrait.

There are always brides who will take it to the opposite extreme. They will insult some poor guest by putting the photographer on their table. Spelling out, you are on the bottom ranking old chap. Although I am very grateful for the kind gesture of putting me on a guests table I find it does distract me from my work. I do have to loose a little time to socialise when I sit with guests, even if it’s just enough not to be rude. During dinner between courses I like to be on the hunt and during the food I download and check photos. It’s best to organise a separate room, even the hotel’s staff quarters, so that I don’t have to be spreading out equipment at the table.