Here’s a fun little daydream I’ve been having lately: I show up to a wedding with nothing but a couple of Contax bodies, a fridge-load of Portra, and that slight buzz of knowing I’ve only got 36 shots to nail the first kiss. It’s like Russian roulette, but with prettier colours and less death. Just me, a mechanical shutter, and the trust fall that is manual focus.

I’ve been falling in love with film photography again. Or maybe “again” is generous – more like I’ve been quietly flirting with it for a while, giving it the occasional roll on engagement shoots and personal work, and now I’m full-on writing its name in the margins of my notebook like a 13-year-old. It’s the creamy skin tones, the unrushed way it handles light, the grain that feels more like a memory than a photograph. Film doesn’t capture moments – it preserves them in amber, with just enough imperfection to make them feel real.

And weddings? They’re made for film. The fleeting glances, the chaos, the elegance, the quiet – all of it begs for the romantic, nostalgic chaos of analogue. I’ve started bringing my 35mm along as a third wheel (sorry, mirrorless), and those scans have me swooning. I show clients and they get it – that softness, the richness, the fact that it feels like a wedding day, not just a record of it.

But here’s the kicker: I wish I could shoot an entire wedding on film. I wish. I’ve played this fantasy out, trust me. I’d be a walking light meter with a utility belt full of film canisters like some weird wedding Batman. But alas – the current reality check is more Kodak nightmare than dream.

Let’s break it down:

Film stock prices? Rising faster than the bar tab at a Cotswolds marquee wedding.

Processing and scanning? Still brilliant, still magical, but also not exactly speedy when couples want previews before the honeymoon’s over.

Reliability? I trust my film cameras with my heart, but I also trust my Sony to autofocus in a dark barn while I balance on a hay bale, and that’s not nothing.

Backup plans? Digital gives me five safety nets. Film gives me the exhilarating fear of wondering if the lab will call with “bad news.”

So no, shooting an entire wedding on film isn’t quite feasible right now. Not with the pace weddings move at. Not with the expectations. Not with the costs. Not if I want to keep offering the consistent, fast, full-coverage service my couples deserve.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not dreaming. Or experimenting. Or weaving more of it in when and where I can – a roll during portraits, some candid frames during speeches, the odd flash-lit dance floor blur that just hits different.

Because here’s the truth: film makes me feel something. And that’s the whole point of this job, isn’t it?

So no, I’m not a full-time film wedding photographer. Yet.

But I’m a digital photographer hopelessly in love with film – and I think that might be the next best thing.