Benjamin Wheeler: The Wedding Photos You’ll Actually Care About in 20 Years

Here Comes the Bride

In this episode of Here Comes the Bride, high-end wedding photographer Benjamin Wheeler joins host Georgie to discuss the artistry and logistics of luxury

Key takeaways

• Benjamin Wheeler's photography fees start at £20,000 for 2027 bookings.
• Couples should request to see full galleries rather than just judging a photographer by their Instagram grid to ensure trust and consistency.

Main topics

• Selecting a wedding photographer
• Wedding photography budgets

Notable quotes

Finding the photographer that you most connect with is probably the most important part of your wedding planning outside who you're marrying, the date and the venue.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a guide for couples to prioritize authentic conn

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) My fee starts at £20,000. Wow. If they do not want to invest in a second photographer, I won't make it like mandatory, but... If Speaker 2 (0:08) it's a 400 person wedding. If Speaker 1 (0:09) it's a 400 person wedding, we're going to need a chat. Speaker 2 (0:11) I Speaker 1 (0:12) think finding the photographer that you most connect with is probably the most important part of your wedding planning outside who you're marrying, the date and the venue. I kind of fell into weddings through the fashion world. My following grew after doing, really luckily, quite a big wedding, which was really, really beautiful. Can Speaker 2 (0:30) we say what that wedding is? Speaker 2 (0:41) My guest today is one of the most accomplished wedding photographers working in the world. Benjamin Wheeler began his career in luxury fashion, shooting for Net-A-Porter and brought the editorial edge with him when he turned his lens to weddings. His work is defined by a signature use of intentional movement, images that carry the feeling of a moment rather than simply the record of it. And it has earned him a client list running from British royalty to A-list celebrities. There are very few people better placed to tell us what a wedding truly looks like from behind the camera. Speaker 1 (1:11) Welcome to Benjamin. Wow, what an intro. Thank Speaker 2 (1:14) you so much for joining us. Welcome to Here Comes the Bride. Pleasure. Thank Speaker 1 (1:18) you for having me. Speaker 2 (1:19) So tell us who you are and what you do. So Speaker 1 (1:22) as you kindly introduced me, my name is Benjamin. I've been shooting weddings for pretty much 20 years, but the first few not kind of with business. just for friends. They Speaker 2 (1:35) must be thrilled now. Yeah, Speaker 1 (1:36) well, they're probably not very good. But officially for sort of 10, 11 years, my business is sort of 10 years old. So yeah, I kind of fell into weddings through the fashion world, early sort of... After 2020, kind of my following grew after doing really luckily quite a big wedding, which was really, really beautiful. Can we say what that wedding is? Yeah, that was Princess Beatrice and Edo wedding. Those photos were amazing. Thank you. And it was like by Speaker 2 (2:07) COVID, no? Yeah, it was Speaker 1 (2:09) slap bang in the middle of 2020, which was amazing. And it was just... perfect kind of heat wave weather so everything could be outside and it was lovely yeah that was gorgeous it was beautiful and Speaker 2 (2:19) what made you sort of leave fashion and go into weddings in the first place well Speaker 1 (2:24) like i said like almost like fell into things so when i was just starting out in fashion and doing kind of freelance work for like great brands in london like burberry as well um i was finding that couples would find me literally in those studios that were stylists and models which is even like even better when you're kind of starting out and bringing a portfolio to things but um it was i was quite lucky to find couples that actually wanted the real moments and real kind of artistry to come back into what weddings were rather than just like i need someone to take photos at my wedding I need someone to capture it as it felt rather than just the generic wedding. So Speaker 2 (3:10) it Speaker 1 (3:10) was those little things that kind of escalated to grow into my own brand. And then going freelance sort of 2014, 2015 was a big leap of faith. But it was the best decision I've ever made. Yeah, it was nice. Speaker 2 (3:25) Okay. And so how do couples today find you in 2026? Is it referral? Is it social media? Speaker 1 (3:32) I think like the social media discoveries, they're really strong. I used to kind of track my inquiries back through my kind of back system. And those used to be around like 80 % Instagram and like maybe 5 % Pinterest or directories and things like that. But a huge amount of what I kind of convert into jobs are referrals and like people who have kind of seen me at a wedding or a friend of a friend. Speaker 2 (3:59) So walk us through what a wedding day looks like from behind your lens, from first shot to last shot. Speaker 1 (4:05) So probably like planning starts way before the first kind of arrival at the maybe the pre-event or on the wedding day itself. It's kind of like the discussions with the wedding planner, running through everything with the couple in terms of like touch points. And obviously timeline is a huge, huge part of it and the schedule. it's understanding from a really early point what they resonate with and what kind of led them to my work what do they love about my work and just like finding a little bit of a connection beforehand but so i like to say to couples do you find a connection with my work as much as i connect with what they're kind of like uh their vision for the day and what they're kind of vibing with but i think it's really important to like not get bogged down too much in schedules because as we know things don't always run on time you have to be like so so flexible with like okay that's a rough time stamp of when we're going to do family portraits but if things aren't happening happening to schedule or you need a little bit longer or a little bit less time you can actually yeah that's okay and things like will run under or before or ahead of schedule as well as run to time so it's it's almost like getting this understanding from the wedding planner beforehand if they are having a wedding planner um just understanding the real nuts and bolts of the day before the kind of photography talk comes in so actually the artistry is a separate kind of conversation for me so really drilling down in like what they resonate with and what they love about firstly like photography as a whole and like um the whole picture of what the wedding looks like and not just how they see their photography but things like what um fashion are you going to be interested like how does that look on your wedding day what's the styling going to be like are you working with a florist are you working with a planner obviously is a huge huge aspect and my first kind of like um aspect to digging a little bit deeper into a couple's day is finding out who their planner may be what florist they may be working with um dress designers suit designers like everything kind of in between helps build that really nice picture of what their day looks like and it feels like hey do i want to be a part of this as much as they want me to be a part of it because i'm not for everyone like there are photographers out there who aren't good fits with every single couple. So it's actually finding people who you connect with is like a huge, huge part of what I do. Do you Speaker 2 (6:47) think it's a lot about vibe? Like, you know, when you meet someone, because the thing is you're as a bride and a groom, like as the couple, you're with your photographer a lot on your wedding day. So like you do have to connect. Speaker 1 (6:59) I call it like being on socially and connecting with the couple beforehand may be a little bit tricky because it may be. a planner-led wedding booking. So for example... Do Speaker 2 (7:10) you not meet the couple then? Speaker 1 (7:12) I've had occasions where I've just had a Zoom call and one call over two years and then you turn up on the wedding day or the pre-wedding and you're like, hey, nice to actually meet you. I didn't know what you really looked like. It's like going back to what we were saying, like 50 % of what I feel like most photographers do is like social. It's so social. Yeah. And it's literally like building that energy on the day and helping. kind of family through moments that they're not used to like what a wedding day is and like dad's first look and mum's getting the girl's dress like and Speaker 2 (7:47) if things aren't running to plan on the day or running to sort of like the the timeline you've been given do you then like is it a photographer's responsibility to kind of like jump in and and kind of say okay we really need to get these shots or do you sort of at the mercy of the of the um wedding planner so Speaker 1 (8:05) That's a really difficult one. Quite case by Speaker 2 (8:08) case. Speaker 1 (8:08) I'd say a little bit, yeah, it's a little bit case by case, but also it's quite a kind of delicate moment because I'm completely, my focus is not kind of upsetting the flow of things. So I'm completely documentary with a slice of kind of those fashion focused moments and like actually looking for the moments to happen rather than dictating. I will never be in a room with a couple getting ready, whether they're getting ready together or they're getting ready separately. I will never be in the room and dictating the pace because it is their day. I think that's kind of up to the planning team or coordination team to kind of like move things along. And like you'll be getting daggers from the amazing planners that lots of people work with. Like, can you hurry this up? Speaker 2 (8:56) Yeah. Speaker 1 (8:56) But also. But Speaker 2 (8:58) you don't want to miss the shot. Exactly. It Speaker 1 (9:00) would Speaker 2 (9:00) like lighting and timing and that kind of thing. Yeah. Speaker 1 (9:03) Always. giving like a strong sense of like, if we don't get this now. Yeah, it's not happening. It's kind of like fulfilling the couple's expectations of my own work and why they invested. Speaker 2 (9:14) So tell me, how do couples actually choose wedding photographers and what should they ask in that first conversation? Speaker 1 (9:21) So for myself, I am getting inquiries through mostly online or Instagram. So mostly the questions are driven. by availability so that would be the first obviously very key um point if you're available i always try and make sure that i respond very quickly but obviously being high season most of the time that seasons run like march to yeah october now november in some cases it's getting longer and longer yeah the season is just not a thing anymore i don't think especially the uk destination weddings everything i agree it's the whole year so um For myself, I only take a select number of weddings because of capacity every year because it is just myself plus a small team. I don't have a huge studio team, so I can't, you know, if I can't photograph one wedding, then I won't just send someone else to do it. It doesn't kind of work like that for me. So I am always hopefully the lead photographer. But yeah, the questions that come in are like really varied from people that are very upfront and say, how much are you? How much do you cost? of which is not off-putting really candidly it's it's quite natural to like want to know the investment such as you know finding our own wedding photographer for next year yes Speaker 2 (10:42) because Ben is engaged himself which is so exciting also he's engaged to another wedding photographer so that is also on my question later but we can just jump in but how do you go about finding like your wedding photographer I Speaker 1 (10:57) think the questions we asked ourselves, Sophie and I were really clear with... what we want it to feel like so we really want it to be so relaxed and so us and focus on you know why we are getting married it's not just the wedding day and looking for our wedding photographer I think I already kind of knew who that was going to be okay he's amazing yeah he's coming from California his name is Nirav Patel oh my god you'll know him so excited he's amazing he is not just an amazing photographer he's literally like an artist if you look through his like portrait gallery so not his wedding yeah kind of um imagery heavy weddings um they're amazing they're just like works of art so it was those aspects that we knew were like hey if we are investing in one two days how do we want that to kind of feel yeah Speaker 2 (11:48) and Speaker 1 (11:49) not just like oh it's you know confetti and walking out of a you know ceremony and you've now seen Speaker 2 (11:55) like I mean, hundreds of weddings and also like luxury weddings. You've seen like the top, top weddings that occur. So you've probably seen a lot of what you'd like and also what you don't like as well. So I'm sure now getting married yourself, you probably have a clearer idea almost. Like that's both the curse and the benefit of being like a wedding supplier, isn't Speaker 1 (12:16) it? Yeah. And you're right. It is like a blessing and a curse at the same time. we didn't want it to be completely like anti-bride yeah but we wanted it to feel like our guests are having like an amazing day and experience and experience of like those like touch points when you walk into a wedding we didn't want to feel uh like pass people by yeah so it's keeping people's attention is i think probably our biggest stress at the moment is like that's Speaker 2 (12:44) interesting actually Speaker 1 (12:46) how does one transition from like the ceremony