Weddings : Frequently Asked Questions

I truly love what I do. My enjoyment of documenting weddings stems from a curiosity of capturing the world around me. It started with photographing the natural landscape and through chance; became all about photographing people.

I want people to look at my photos and have a feeling about the moment that was captured. I want people to look at my photos and see themselves. Much of the industry is built around creating the perfect image or trend of the time. I find each couple to be unique and I want to create photos that look and feel like them.

I also pride myself on creating a safe, inclusive and comfortable space for my clients. Where they feel free to let their guard down, be themselves and be able to simply connect with each other, their family and friends. Often people will comment about how natural people look in my photos and that simply comes from creating this connection from the very beginning.

I believe combining all of this with my love of creating unique and beautiful photographs in my own style and approach makes me standout on my own.

Booking is very simple! Simply head to my booking form to get your date locked in – https://www.jackchauvel.com.au/book/

Your date is secured after I have received a signed digital contract and a booking retainer (50% of your booking total).

Your booking will be managed by me via my secure booking website.

I have a Pricing Guide which includes information about myself, my photography and the packages I offer. Once you enquire with me I will email this directly to you.

For intimate weddings and elopements; coverage starts at 2 hours and varies based on the amount of photography coverage you want for your intimate event.

Half day wedding photography coverage starts at 5 hours.

All day wedding photography coverage starts at 8 hours.

Destination weddings are quoted on a per job basis. This includes a full breakdown of the costs involved in having me capture your destination wedding, anywhere in the world.

Please get in touch and I can send you my current pricing guide before you book me in.

YES! I love to travel and document weddings and elopements. It is one of my favourite things to do.

I include travel (no charge) for weddings within 3 hours drive of Newcastle (this includes Sydney, Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands, Hunter Valley and the Central Coast).

I am more than happy to travel within Australia or overseas to document your wedding or elopement. I also offer the ability to have me photograph multiple events for you. If you have one in Australia and overseas, I can provide a custom quote to be able to cover it all for you and provide a cohesive story across all of your events.

I have already been involved with destination weddings and elopements within Australia, Iceland (x2), Italy, Croatia, Fiji and destination pre-weddings in Hong Kong, Bali, Scotland, Croatia and England.

Click here to see some of these Destination Weddings.

I am based in Newcastle, NSW Australia. You will find me most weekends documenting weddings in the Hunter Valley, Sydney, Newcastle, Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands.

As you can see, I love to travel and regularly travel around Australia and overseas to document weddings and elopements.

I can! I have been shooting on film for many years as a big part of my personal photography and projects. I have a beautiful collection of 35mm, medium format and large format cameras. My personal favourite is my Plaubel Makina 67 but I regularly use my Mamiya 645 AFD, Leica M6, Contax T2 and Canon 1n film setups.

The process of shooting film and the result is very special and something I do not take lightly. I always like to explain that having film involved in the wedding will add to your coverage; but also requires time and space to be done properly. This is why I love to have the discussion with clients and give a quote for adding film photography that suits what they are looking for.

I have been photographing weddings since 2011. What initially started as a challenge in trying to photograph something different, turned into a love of weddings and storytelling.

I have been a full time wedding photographer since June 2014.

I include up to 8 hours of photography in each of my all day wedding photo packages. From there you can as much additional photography coverage as you need.

Every wedding is different, and every wedding celebration follows its own schedule and I like to be flexible so I can make sure I capture everything you want photographed.

I can also offer coverage for elopements, intimate weddings, half day coverage and destination weddings. It’s best to get in touch and I can tailor a quote to suit exactly what you need.

The printed fine art wedding albums I create and deliver are bespoke albums which means they are made to suit your style and personality. They are designed in a way to tell your story and become a family heirloom. The process is quite in depth, ensuring that we get the design to be exactly how you want it before it goes to print.

Click here to see my gallery of wedding albums I have created for clients over the years.

I offer (as a base) 10″ x 10″ and 9″ x 12″ sized albums which all compliment each other in the way they tell a story. All of my albums come with 30 spreads (60 pages) as standard which is plenty of spreads to tell your wedding story in. The albums can be upgraded to a total of 40 spreads (80 pages) if you’d like to fit even more in.

The albums are printed on a fine-art matte paper with beautiful colour reproduction and presentation.

There are a number of album cover and embossing options that you can choose from. As standard; included in my album pricing is one of the of the linen/book cloth options as well as front cover embossing.

There are additional album upgrades that you can purchase for your album including embossing, custom embossed designs, album slip cases and additional album spreads.

My pricing guide has all of the album information you need.

I have samples of each album that I offer which can be viewed and handled during an in person meeting. You can order a wedding album at any time before or after your wedding.

Based on your chosen wedding album format, I can create parent albums (which are a duplicates of a main album) upon request.

All albums include the album design process (with me) and a 3 stage process of design and delivery.

Whilst these days I shoot 99% of my weddings on my own; I can always arrange a second photographer/second shooter for you if it’s important to you or your wedding requires it. Whilst a second photographer is an optional extra; it can be a great addition to your wedding. It not only provides another creative and artistic view of the day, but can help with logistics and being able to capture different moments throughout the day.

Simply let me know you are interested in a second photographer when you enquire with me and we can discuss further.

I do not offer video or content creation for weddings and elopements. I am a one man band who focuses on what he does best (photos!). However I regularly work with many wonderful videographers and content creators on a regular basis and I am always happy to recommend vendors that I enjoy working with.

Click here for some of these recommendations.

This is a very important topic and one that every photographer needs to take seriously. I have never lost a photo and never plan on losing any.

Below is a detailed backup summary that covers 3 backup periods (at the shoot, after the shoot and after the delivery).

At the shoot: Anytime I am shooting a wedding/elopement/assignment I am photographing on two cameras which are writing simultaneously to two memory cards in each camera.  This means if there is a fail point with one memory card/camera I have a backup of the data available straight away.

After the shoot: The most crucial backup period is between the shoot date and the photo delivery date. After the shoot I make 3 ‘local’ copies of your photos to my home NAS (Network Area Storage) as well as my editing machine and backup drive. I also keep an offsite copy of your photos on the original memory cards and keep this offsite until the photo delivery is complete. This means I have 5 copies of your photographs in multiple locations until your final set of photographs are safely delivered.

After the delivery: It is important to me that you have access to your photos at anytime after your final photo delivery. I keep your final set of photos backed up in your online gallery (in the cloud) as well as two local copies of the delivered photos on my NAS (Network Area Storage) and my yearly backup storage. I also keep a copy of your delivered RAW files on my local storage.

To date I have the final RAW and final photo files of every shoot since I started my business. It is over 30TB of data and I have built an archive system to ensure this data is securely stored for years to come.

YES! I have backup equipment that I take to each and every shoot. This includes additional camera bodies, lenses, memory cards, batteries, flashes and everything I need to safely capture your wedding celebration. This is an important question to be asking any photographer, and is something I take very seriously.

Yes, I am fully insured and ready to work. I have my own public liability insurance (20 million in coverage) and I can provide this to your wedding venue as required. I renew this policy in July each year, and therefore if your wedding is taking place after July (in the current calendar year) I will provide my updated certificate of currency for the policy once it renews.

I will be happy with any amount of time you give me for portraits on your wedding day.

One of the most enjoyable and fun parts of the day is my session capturing some lovely portrait photos with you. Couples can often be a little hesitant about these photos; but it is the only time during the whole wedding day that you will have to yourselves. I like to focus on these photos as a time for you both to quietly enjoy the moment, slow things down and get ready for the party to come.

I understand a wedding day can be full on and busy, but I sure do appreciate having an adequate amount of time for portraits. I will make the most of any time you will give me for photos.. but since you asked…

Ideally I  need 15 – 30 minutes for group/family photos, 15 – 30 minutes for wedding party photos (with your wedding party) and up to 1 hour with your good selves on your own (so let’s say 2 hours total, 90mins for the portraits). This is generally enough time with a buffer if we run over time. The last thing you want to do is rush around on your wedding day, but if things run a little bit late, then we usually lose some time for portraits.

I wrote a little article about ‘light’ and how to make the most of it for Wedshed.

I know a lot about light and am always happy to plan a location and time to make the most of it. I love shooting in amazing light, and my photos certainly reflect this.

I actually wrote an article about this very subject for Wedshed. First and foremost, the weather has to be right for this on the wedding day. It cannot be done when it is overcast, or raining. Second of all it is all about timing, the best light is during the golden hour, which is the 30mins before and after sunset.

You can quite easily search for the sunset times and check when sunset will be on your wedding day. Thirdly it comes down to timing, there needs to be enough time during this ‘golden hour’ or around that time of the day to be able to capture the light as it dramatically changes. Quite often it might be a few minutes after you leave that the light gets truly amazing, so it is worth having a buffer of time to be able to accommodate and utilize this to the fullest.

Finally it comes down to location, a spot where you can see the setting sun or catch the last of that light as it warms up the landscape and falls away behind the horizon. It can be quite easy to be hidden in the shade or in a spot where that light never really falls (think beach in the East with hills/cliffs blocking the afternoon light).

The one thing you have absolutely no control over on your wedding day is the weather. Not everything is lost with a little bit of rain. I love the mood and drama and feels that you can get with inclement weather.

You need to (in your planning phase) of your wedding day, have a wet weather plan. This is location based (indoor wedding/outdoor wedding) but also the type of weather the area of your wedding attracts. Shooting in the rain is fine, I have done so many times.. but shooting in the rain with gale force winds is difficult. I will do it, but will you stand in it? I am more than happy to discuss your wet weather plan and add my own point of view of how we can approach photos if the weather does not come to the party.

In the majority of cases everything pans out and all the shots are captured, but if we get rained/weathered out for the wedding portrait photos (just the two of you) then I offer a post-wedding shoot. This means we can go back to the wedding location and shoot in the surrounding area, OR shoot an area which will compliment the both of you and your wedding day.

I like to keep things simple and do my best to gather all of the information I require in advance of the wedding day. I do this by sending out a ‘Wedding Questionnaire’ around 6 weeks from the wedding.

I am in regular contact with you throughout the planning phase in the lead up to your wedding. This means I can assist with the wedding planning as well as make sure everything is covered ahead of the wedding.

• Run sheet: A basic running schedule of the day. It must cover the times of arrivals/departures, significant events and allocated times for portions of the day.
• Significant photo list: As much as I would love to be, I am not a mind reader. I will capture your day as I see it, however if you have some significant moments, items, people that you would like an emphasis on then please communicate this with me before the wedding day. Communication is key for both of us, so that I understand your expectations and you understand my knowledge of your wedding day.
• Group photos & allocated time: If you want group photos on your wedding day, having some allocated time and a list of groups will make this process much easier. It should take no more than 15 – 20 minutes and be stress free. Taking the casual approach usually leads to a lot of stress and potentially missing out some groups.
• Photo locations (onsite and offsite): We collaborate in working out the best location(s) we can utilize for photos on the day of the wedding and build this into the plan of the day. This saves us time and gives us a great plan of attack for making the most of our time on the wedding day.
• All of the locations (exact addresses): I use this information to plan how I am getting around, and this can be a bit tricky especially if in a different city, state or country so the right information is always appreciated. I have knocked on the wrong house before, due to getting an incomplete address!
• The important contacts: There are times that I need to get in touch with people in a rush, so it is always handy if I have not only your immediate contact numbers but those of others who are playing a big role in the day (parents, bridesmaids/groomsmen). This is usually all covered in the Wedding Questionnaire.

Whilst I love sharing the work that I create and capture for my clients (as it helps me find other liked minded clients). Your privacy is far more important to me. If you are private and you do not want your photos shared on socials/the internet then please let me know. There is no fee or penalty, we simply keep it private!

I have spent a long time designing how I deliver your wedding photos, to suit the style of photographs I shoot and the presentation I feel my clients deserve. The images are edited and print ready, in high resolution and web resolution sizes. They are delivered on USB and in an Online Gallery in a beautiful bespoke package. Without giving the surprise away, I want it to feel like an experience and for it to be something that you keep and enjoy for years to come.

Until the end of 2025 all bookings will still receive a USB of the images delivered on them (along with their online gallery). From 2026 onwards; I will deliver all photos via online gallery and provide a USB/hard copy of photos if requested.

The number varies greatly from wedding to wedding (and I never put a cap on the photos I deliver). Your story is unique, and that is all that matters to me. I won’t reject photos to simply save myself a little time in editing.

On average I deliver 1000-1500 edited photographs in a mixture of colour and black & white.

I edit all of my photos one by one. Rest assured, I spend a great amount of time on each wedding making sure they are just right for delivery. I am a firm believer that the time spent is worth it for the final product (even if it means a little wait to receive them).

They are delivered in high resolution and web resolution sizes with no watermarks at all. They are your photographs to enjoy and use forever.

I will deliver a small preview of the photos to you within a few days of the wedding. I need 8 (eight) to 12 (twelve) weeks from the wedding day to deliver the final set of images. I put a lot of time and effort into the final curation of your images and good work cannot be rushed.

If I require a little longer than 12 weeks I will get in touch and let you know (life happens!). If you need some specific images sooner than this turn around; I am more than happy to accommodate these requests and discuss this option with you.

I always stay in touch with each of my clients to let them know as to how I am progressing with their photos. For me this communication means everyone is happy and in the loop (especially since we are all excited to see the finished product).