Muslim Wedding Photographer in Royston

Serving Royston

Booking a Muslim wedding photographer in Royston

Royston is a market town on the Cambridgeshire border. We spend much of the year inside the mosques and banqueting venues of Hertfordshire, so the sites near Baldock, Buntingford and Melbourn rarely hold any surprises for us. As the imam leads the ceremony, we work slowly from the side, keeping our movements low so the words of the nikah are never disturbed.

Everything is agreed in writing before the day. Which events, which rooms, which hours, and what we will not photograph, so nobody is negotiating boundaries while the ceremony is under way. Arriving early lets us read the light in the hall before the guests gather, so once the nikah begins we are already settled rather than searching for our angles. Direction, when it comes at all, comes away from the ceremony. A quiet word before the family lines up, a suggestion during portraits, and nothing whatsoever while the imam is speaking.

Ask us about Royston and we can tell you where the light falls and where the family photographs work best. Royston is a market town on the Cambridgeshire border, and the same holds for Baldock and Letchworth nearby. Close to Royston, we have worked at venues including Burloes Hall and South Farm.

Royston is a North Hertfordshire market town that grew up where the ancient Icknield Way crossed Ermine Street, right on the Cambridgeshire border. Royston railway station sits on the line between London King's Cross and Cambridge, with Thameslink and Great Northern services. When there is time for couple portraits, Therfield Heath, an expanse of chalk grassland and a Site of Special Scientific Interest on the edge of the town is a favourite, and Royston Cave, a mysterious medieval man-made chamber with religious wall carvings beneath Melbourn Street makes a memorable setting.

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Every Muslim ritual

The mehndi, the nikah and the walima

The exchange of the mahr and the signing together form the heart of the contract, and both are photographed so the album remembers how the marriage was sealed. Twenty five years of nikah ceremonies means we know each stage, so we are in place when the khutbah ends, the acceptance is given and the dua begins. Reading the terms aloud gives the couple a moment of real concentration, and we photograph that seriousness. A nikah is a contract, and the pictures should show people treating it as one.

On foot in the middle of the crowd for the baraat, we keep pace with the music without ever getting in the family's way. During the dholki the drum passes from lap to lap, and we photograph the clapping circle, the improvised verses and the women singing late into the evening. Entrances at the walima are stage-managed, announced and applauded, and they happen once. We are set for it well beforehand, with the doors, the walk and the reaction all planned for.