Wedding photography and film in Dorking.
Aaron takes the photographs and Hayden shoots the film, as one team. We travel up to Dorking and the estate venues across the North Downs, never two strangers competing for the same shot.
Most couples planning a Dorking wedding start out looking for a photographer and, separately, a videographer. The part nobody warns you about is what happens when those two turn up on the day having never met. In a vineyard room at Denbies or the gardens at Wotton, a photographer and a filmmaker who have not worked together end up in each other’s shots and quietly competing for the same angle during your vows. One asks you to hold the kiss a beat longer for the stills while the other needs you to turn the other way for the film, and you are the one left trying to keep the peace between two strangers on the one morning you should not have to.
We are Robinson Martin Green, a two-person studio based at Mudberry Lane in Chichester, and as a wedding photographer in Dorking we solve that by being one team. Aaron Robinson shoots the stills, Hayden Martin-Green shoots the film, and we plan the day as a single unit so neither of us blocks the other. There is one timeline, one shot list and one point of contact rather than two suppliers to chase and hope will get along. It is the difference between two sets of files that were shot around each other and one set that was planned together from the start.
We should be straight about the geography. Dorking is roughly thirty-five miles from our base, up in Surrey rather than in West Sussex where most of our work sits, so it is a further reach for us than our home patch. It is well within the range we travel, and we plan the route and the timings in properly rather than treat the drive as an afterthought. What we will not do is dress this page up with a Dorking couple who does not exist. We have not yet documented a wedding in the town, and the honest thing is to say so and show you real days an easy drive from there instead.
A few of the Dorking settings we are set up for.
Real venues and landmarks in and around the town, each with something specific to plan around. We visit any of them ahead of your day, so the first time we shoot there is not on the day itself.
Dorking and the Surrey Hills
- Denbies Wine Estate on the edge of town, England’s largest single-estate vineyard, where the vines run up toward Box Hill and the North Downs and the vaulted Cellars give you a very different backdrop from the open slopes outside.
- Wotton House on Guildford Road, a country estate that has stood for roughly four hundred years, once home to the botanist John Evelyn, with 17th-century Italian gardens said to be the first laid out in England.
- Polesden Lacey at Great Bookham, an Edwardian house set in a 1,600-acre National Trust estate high on the North Downs, a short drive from the town for couples wanting parkland and long views.
- Box Hill itself, the North Downs summit above the Stepping Stones on the River Mole, within the Surrey Hills area of outstanding natural beauty, for couples who want the wider countryside in their portraits.
It starts with a venue visit.
It starts before the day with a walk-round of your venue. For somewhere new to us like Denbies or Wotton, we go and stand in the ceremony space, work out where the light will be at your time of day and find the spots for portraits, so nothing on the morning is a guess. At Denbies that might mean deciding whether your first look works better with the vines behind you or in the quiet of the Cellars; at Wotton it might be the Italian gardens for portraits and the pillared rooms if the weather turns. We talk the order of the day through with you first and agree the moments that matter to you specifically rather than working off a template.
On the day it is an early start from Chichester with the drive built into the plan, then the two of us reading the same room from the moment we arrive. We run stills and film side by side without staging anything twice, so you are never asked to do a moment again for the other camera. One of us holds the wide shot of the room while the other moves in close, then we swap, and neither of us is ever standing in the other’s shot. If your ceremony is in one space at Denbies and the reception moves to the Cellars or out toward the vines, we stay with you across all of it so the morning and the evening come back as one set. Afterwards your photographs and your film land in the same private Wedding Hub, with nothing to chase and no links that expire.
Plan your day in the Wedding Hub.
Your wedding planned in one place.
From the moment you book, your private Wedding Hub keeps the whole day organised.
- One shared timelineYour running order, agreed with both of us, so everyone knows the timings.
- Messages and documentsEvery plan, form and venue detail in one place instead of spread across your inbox.
- Gallery and film deliveredYour photographs and film are delivered to the same place after the wedding.
Common questions from Dorking couples.
Have you photographed a wedding in Dorking before?
Not in Dorking itself, and we would rather say that than pretend. Our documented weddings are in West Sussex and just over the Berkshire border rather than in Surrey. When a venue is new to us we go and walk it before your day, so by the time we arrive we already know the ceremony room, where the light falls and where portraits will work. Denbies and Wotton are both places we would visit ahead of a booking rather than see for the first time on the morning.
You are based near Chichester. Is Dorking too far for you?
It is a further drive than most of our work, around thirty-five miles up toward the North Downs, and we are straight about that. It is well within range and we are happy to cover it. What it means in practice is an early start and a proper plan for the route, which we would build in rather than leave to chance. We would tell you if a date made the travel unworkable rather than take the booking and hope it came together.
The light on the Surrey Hills moves quickly. How do you plan for it?
That is the part worth planning. A vineyard slope at Denbies or the gardens at Wotton go from open sun to long shadow within the hour, so we work out where the good light will sit at your ceremony time and hold a little back for portraits when the sun drops behind Box Hill. Two of us means one can read the light while the other stays with you, rather than one person trying to do both.
How far ahead should we book a Dorking summer date?
The popular run from late spring to early autumn tends to go twelve to eighteen months out, and the estate venues around the Surrey Hills fill first. Shorter notice does come up, so it is worth asking even if your date is only a few months away. We only ever hold one wedding a day, so once a date is ours it is yours.
The same two people, every time.
What you get is the two people whose names are on the studio. We do not sub the day out to an associate you have never spoken to, and we only ever hold one wedding a day, so the pair who answer your first message are the pair who turn up for you. You would have both our mobile numbers from the first call, not a booking form and a wait. Booking the photographs and the film together means one team, one plan and one price, rather than the hidden cost of making two separate suppliers work as if they were one.
And we will keep being straight with you. We have real weddings we are proud of an easy drive from Dorking, and we would rather point you at those than invent a local one. If we are free on your date we will tell you, and if the travel ever did not work we would tell you that too. That is the whole offer, and it is the same for a Dorking couple as it is for one on our doorstep.
More to see before you decide.
We have not shot in Dorking yet, so here are the real days we have covered an easy drive away. If you are weighing up nearby areas, the rest is one click away.
Adam & Panha
A full day at Fitzleroi Barn, Pulborough.Becky & Lucas
Horsham through to The Highdown.Jack & Emelia
A bespoke package at Wasing Park.Chichester weddings
Photography and film around our home city.Areas we cover
Everywhere across West Sussex and beyond.Packages
Bronze, Silver and Gold in plain figures.Send us your date and your venue.
One of us will reply to you personally, usually within 24 hours, or call us on 07928 549702. We will tell you straight away whether we are free.