J S Coates Wedding Photography

Jonathan went above and beyond helping to make our day special while documenting it with amazing photographs, both formal and candid.After a fantastic interview we hosted with Jonathan, leading us to chose him as our wedding day photographer, he kept in touch on the build-up to our big day. He helped us get excited, and through questionnaires and chats established all the key information he needed to optimise his job, such as key guests, formal photo plans and general notes around the day. His friendly persona made this painless, and he was even able to support with some suggestions for decisions we were still working on.On the day, Jonathan demonstrated many great qualities! Some of the key things he did were…• Being committed to the entire day: he arrived first thing in the morning at the brides house to capture the early excitement with hair and make-up being applied, and stayed late into the evening to capture many great action shots on the dance floor (staying well beyond the first dance, which is a great value).• Being personable and assisting with the guests: while the venue staff were ultimately responsible for managing where people were and moving things along, Jonathan did a great job of rallying guests when needed, to help the day flow very smoothly. This included working with us to maximise the brief sunshine we got (in our November wedding), taking a super smooth and efficient set of formal photos and leading guests to be part of cutting the cake.•To expand on the above further, he was friendly to all of our guests, with many of them (irrelevant of shyness, or adversity to being photographed) exclaiming how pleasant Jonathan was to be around, showing the value he added simply by being there and talking to guests.• Being involved to the right level: Jonathan was everywhere to capture everything, and as described above did a great job of working with people. He also demonstrated the great ability to be a ghost when needed – he never felt in the way, and looking back at the photographs it was hard to believe he was really there to take them when they look so good and involved.• Ensuring we as newly weds got “free” time: Jonathan ensured that the day was structured so that we got time to ourselves to enjoy and take-in the moment. He took us off privately to have a few mini “formal” photoshoots to capture us, but ensured that we weren’t missed (not away for too long or missing something important) and had snippets of time to just be us.• Ensuring all detail was caught: From the early morning setup to late in the evening, Jonathan captured not only the guests but also the many details and features we had setup and/or built, to help truly build a picture of the whole day including our venue.And after all of the above, in record time of just over a month we received a ~30-minute slideshow with sound of “highlights” which Jonathan had put together to tell us a story of the day, followed swiftly by our entire photo library (almost 1500 individual photographs). It is clear that every single photograph had been worked on, ensuring there were no blemishes and that all the colours (whether bright or black and white) were perfect.Looking through them, it painted a wonderful living memory of the day, as he truly had listened to our plans and captured both the guests and the event itself fantastically. Jonathan was wonderful to work with from start to finish, and we couldn’t recommend him more highly to couples wishing to capture the magic of their special day.

After meeting with Jonathan, we knew right away that he was the photographer we wanted for our wedding. We loved his work, but most importantly, Jonathan was very natural and easy to get on with.He was very good at communicating in the lead up to the wedding and making sure he had all the information he needed, removing any unnecessary stress from the big day.On the day, he went above and beyond to get us the perfect shots. Even standing in the pouring rain, because we had our hearts set on outdoor photos. He has hard working, taking shots right into the night, and very efficient. I have never seen our friends and family so well-behaved whilst having group photos taken! Many of our guests commented on how good he was too.The photos and the slideshow Jonathan produced are better than we could ever have imagined. We are totally in love and honestly cannot recommend Jonathan highly enough as a wedding photographer.

We sifted through an unbelievable amount of photographers when we were planning our wedding and Jonathon immediately stood out as the one we wanted. He takes 'in the moment' photos - a style that we love. We were so happy that he was available for our wedding and when we met him we were even happier. We both consider him to be a friend as well as an amazing photographer. Sadly, due to covid our wedding date changed twice and the date we did end up with Jonathon was already booked. However, he immediately found another photographer called Amy who had a very similar style to Jonathon to take our photos on our wedding day, which he then edited. She was really nice and did a great job at stepping in at the last minute. We are extremely happy with our photos and are looking forward to having Jonathon photograph our post wedding celebration in October this year. Jonathon, we could not recommend you enough, thank you!

I am going to find it hard to write this review. Every time I think about Jonathan’s beautiful pictures I become so emotional that my eyes are literally filled with happy tears. As soon as I received our photo gallery I emailed Jonathan and asked to upgrade to the largest wedding album he has. This is how fantastic his work truly is!Jonathan has a natural talent for capturing the beauty in everyone, and everything that he points his camera at. Having him join us on our wedding day was like inviting an old friend to come and take photos for us. He is such a lovely, funny man who just gels with everyone he meets. All of our guests commented on how wonderful he is, and how hard he works.Both myself and (more so) my husband hate having our photos taken. In fact, my husband asked me if Jonathan could just take photos of me and leave him out of it. Luckily Jonathan was having none of that and ensured we were both equally photographed, much to the groom's dismay. He even made a trip to see him and the best man while they were getting ready, and I’m so glad he did.My husband is completely blind and it can be hard to capture a decent photo of him, especially when he knows you’ve got a camera pointed at him. I should know, I have tried many times over our 14 years together, with only a handful of good photos to show for it. However, Jonathan rose to this challenge and he completely blew me away.Thank you, Jonathan. There really are not enough words to describe how happy and thankful we are that you joined us on our special day. The memories you have captured and have been a part of will be cherished for a lifetime.

When we started planning our wedding, the only thing we were sure of was that we wanted Jonathan to be our photographer. Having photographed our friends' wedding, we knew from experience how amazing his work is. However, nothing prepared us for the effort and enthusiasm Jonathan brought to our wedding day! He put us both at ease, made a very public shoot in a busy city centre so much fun, and became part of our family and friends on the day! Everyone is still talking about how awesome Jonathan is and how hard he worked on the day. This is all reflected in the insane photo gallery we now have of our wedding. Jonathan is THE BEST, and we just wish we had excuse to hire him again!

If I could give 6 stars out of 5 I would. I genuinely don't think I've met a nicer man than this one (well, perhaps my husband!) and cannot recommend him highly enough for anyone who is looking for a wedding photographer.My husband, Dan, and I began the long search looking for a wedding photographer and I based my shortlist on whose work really stood out and spoke to me. I have to say Jonathan's past portfolio was in a totally different league to other wedding photographers I had looked at and he was the obvious first one we wanted to meet with and talk to. Once we met him, we instantly felt like we'd known him 20 years. You know, how you just bond with strangers straight away sometimes and you can't explain it? Well, that's what happened, so before the meeting was over, we had already decided there was absolutely no point in wasting anyone else'e time when we had already found the man who we wanted to be at our wedding, documenting our most important day and recording all our memories to treasure for a lifetime.I highly recommend an engagement/pre-wed shoot. Dan and I decided to do this because we thought we both hated having our picture taken. Not only did this turn out not to be the case, but Jonathan made us feel so at ease in front of the camera. It also gave us the perfect opportunity to get to know Jonathan better and for him to get to know us; we also learned how each other's sense of humours worked so he knew what to say to make us laugh and feel natural for picture taking. It sounds like a cliché but we honestly forgot he was there sometimes and having our photos taken became the most natural thing. In fact, we loved it so much we arranged a second shoot just a couple of weeks before the wedding so by the time the big day came around we knew what we were doing and Jonathan just had to give us single word cues that had us in stitches.As for the day itself, what a superstar. How any man can be on the scene from so early in the day amid a sea of excitable, chaotic and at times very loud (mostly my very excitable maid of honour) females is commendable. Quite honestly, I salute Jonathan for being the epitome of calm, for bringing such chilled vibes to the whole morning and given that everyone in the room besides me was a perfect stranger, he hit it off with my whole bridal party as though he had been mates with them forever. My mum absolutely adores him (I think she may want to adopt him into the family!)Jonathan captured the entire day from the very first 'getting ready' photo to the final silhouette shot of the night and did not miss a single thing. Thanks too, to Chris Bunce, his second shooter - what an absolute legend. Between them, we ended up with hundreds of the most stunning images that far exceeded all of our hopes and expectations. They also stayed with us until right towards the end of the night too, so really were there to capture everything that happened, including all the subtle things you wouldn't even think of until you look through the photographs and have your breath taken away over and over again.On top of the images, we received the most beautiful slideshow. I don't want to spoil it for any prospective clients but - wow. This is absolutely the icing on the cake and simply blew me away. Have tissues at the ready...All in all, I cannot rate Jonathan highly enough; as a photographer, as a person, a true gentleman and an absolute legend. If you want the best memories of your wedding day, look no further than this man right here. You won't regret it.

When it comes to taking the perfect pictures of your special day, it isn't something you want to take risks with.That's why I HIGHLY recommend going with Jonathan. He was absolutely fantastic, by far our favourite vendor from our special day.He was so attentive to everything that we wanted, we have the most amazing pictures that we'll be treasuring for the rest of our lives.Our guests were in awe by how amazing he was, he was so friendly with all our guests and everyone complimented on his attitude throughout the day. He literally walked through sheep poo with myself (bride) and groom to get the perfect sunset shot!The best part of all was that he has a super easy to download and print all of our pictures from his website directly.The little extra video that he sent us, was extra special - absolutely fantastic.Don't hesitate, you've found your perfect photographer.Jonathan, thank you again, so much. You were amazing.Lucy & George (Bride & Groom)

We hired Jonathan for our wedding with a second photographer, they were amazing!We felt so at ease and comfortablewith them. They helped to add to theamazing experience that we had onour wedding day. They were soprofessional, friendly, funny andamazing to be around, they werefantastic with the children too and itwas great to share our day withthem. We had high hopes for ourphotos that would be provided butwhen we recieved them, they werebeyond our expectation! We couldntof asked for more. We are sothankful for the photos and thepresence that was added to our day.If we were to do it all over again,would hire jonathan in a heartbeatAnyone looking for a weddingphotographer i would 100%recommend j s Coates and you wontbe disappointed. Thank you

HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! We cannot recommend Jonathan highly enough. He captured our wedding day perfectly with a beautiful mix of natural and slightly posed photos (group shots and bride and groom shots etc). We chatted and got to know each other before the wedding day and he did everything so professionally. We had a slideshow which captured all of our best photos that created a great timeline from the day and then an online gallery for everyone to see!Thank you so much Johnathan, you truly have a gift and we’ve loved every second of working with you.