The wedding evening reception: what happens after the first dance

By the time you have your first dance, your evening guests are usually there. Friends who couldn’t make the ceremony, work colleagues and the people you know will get everyone dancing. The band or DJ kicks in, the lights go down and guests who have been sat politely all afternoon suddenly have somewhere to be.

That first hour after the first dance is when the dance floor fills up and the drinks start doing their job. Why would you want to miss capturing all that fun?

These are the photos that make you laugh the most when you look back. Not the posed ones. The ones nobody planned. If you are still putting your day together, my wedding day timeline shows where the evening fits.

Somewhere in there your evening food comes out, which gives your band or DJ a natural break. Some couples cut the cake in the evening too, while everyone is gathered round. It’s worth checking with your venue what time the music has to finish, so you can plan the rest of the night around it.

Working on the dance floor is quite an intimate thing. In the evening you can’t just stand at the back and observe. The best way to get the photos is to jump in and get involved, so that’s what I do. I join your dance parties and I chat and have a laugh with your guests as much as you do.

I use a three flash setup, which means I can light your dance floor from any angle and I’m ready for whatever happens next. Something always happens next.

At Charlotte and Ben’s Tickton Grange wedding the two of them ended up on the band’s shoulders, with Ben singing into a microphone. That’s the kind of moment you only get if your photographer is still there.

I have a huge list of memorable evening moments. Most of them involve a drink or two. A few of my favourites:

• Guests climbing up the poles in the middle of the tent at a farm wedding.
• A bride hanging from the beams in a tipi.
• A guest trying to drink from the water dispenser above the dance floor and tipping the whole lot across it.
• Guests sliding down the roof of a marquee into hay bales.
• A bride falling into a bathtub and accidentally turning the taps on.
• A groom jumping over a fire on a motorbike.
• A bride who had her hair cut into a bob at the evening party to surprise her groom. Her guests couldn’t believe it!

Then there are the classics I see at almost every wedding. People up on shoulders. Drinking games. Guests convincing each other that their bad ideas are brilliant ones. Dance moves that are incredible and questionable at the same time. Some dance floors turn into a packed nightclub with something happening everywhere you look. I’m on the sidelines ready to catch it all.

It isn’t all chaos either. Some of my favourite evening photos are the quiet ones, like the lads round the back with a cigar and a whisky.

Sax players have been a really popular choice over the last few years. I love it when they appear halfway through a song straight after the first dance and surprise everyone. It gets people up and going like nothing else.

At Laura and Scott’s wedding at Oaklands the sax player ended up right in the middle of them on the dance floor.

I’ve even seen a sax player who DJ’d and played the sax at the same time. It worked so well. At a wedding I photographed in Barcelona the whole evening was karaoke. You might think that sounds boring, but they mixed it in with the evening music perfectly and it was an incredible night.

Whatever you choose for your wedding evening entertainment, the best ideas are the ones that get your guests right up on the dance floor giving it everything. That’s what makes the photos.

The Big Package has no finish time, so I’m not watching the clock while your party is just getting going. I often stay late, but how late depends on your wedding. I’ve left some weddings around midnight and others at about 10 or 11pm.

I gauge it by your guests. If most of them have gone home and the evening has died down, there’s no reason for me to stay. If it’s still going full whack, I’m there until it’s over.

If you’d rather keep things shorter, The Day Package covers your day from the morning up to the first dance. It’s worth knowing what you’d be missing though.

If you’re planning sparklers, they look best once it’s properly dark, usually a few hours after the first dance. That’s one more reason the evening matters. My wedding sparkler photos guide has everything you need to know.