Your information, plainly explained

Who I am

I'm Wayne Myers, trading as The Bearded Wedding Photographer, a documentary wedding photographer based in Darwen, Lancashire, covering the North West and Lake District.

For anything in this policy — including a request to see, correct or delete your information — email info@thebeardedweddingphotographer.co.uk.

I am the data controller for the information described here. This policy is written under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

What I collect, and why

When you send an enquiry, the form asks for your names, email address, phone number, wedding date, venue, approximate guest count and whatever you write in the message. I need these to answer you sensibly and to check I am free on your date.

If you book, I hold the details needed to photograph and deliver your wedding: contact details, the timings and locations of the day, supplier names, and the contract and payment records I am required to keep.

Photographs of you, your family and your guests are personal data too. I take them to fulfil our contract, and I keep them as described below.

This website sets no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies. There is no Google Analytics, no advertising pixel and no third-party tracker. If you log in to the private client area, your browser stores a sign-in token so you stay logged in — that is essential to the service and nothing else.

My lawful bases

Answering your enquiry and photographing your wedding: performance of a contract, or taking steps at your request before entering one.

Keeping records of bookings, invoices and tax: legal obligation.

Showing my work publicly — on this website, on Instagram, on Facebook and on other social platforms: consent. You choose the level of marketing permission for your wedding, you can set an embargo period, and you can change your mind at any time by emailing me.

Keeping my business secure and my backups intact: legitimate interests.

Using your photographs

I never publish photographs from a wedding whose couple has not agreed to it. Permission is recorded per wedding, not assumed, and it can be restricted — for example to selected images only, or excluding photographs of children, or held back until an agreed date.

Publishing is partly automated. Software I built selects photographs, writes captions and schedules posts to my own Instagram and Facebook accounts. It only ever draws on weddings where marketing permission has been given, and it respects any embargo or restriction attached to them.

To withdraw permission, email me. I will stop using the photographs going forward and remove published posts I control. I cannot force removal of copies other people have already saved or shared.

Who else handles your information

Supabase — stores enquiries, private booking records, contract signatures and website content. Resend — sends the emails I write to you. Vercel — hosts this website and keeps standard server logs. Anthropic — a Claude model drafts suggested replies to enquiries for me to review and edit before anything is sent; it does not reply to you automatically. My chosen gallery and fulfilment provider stores and delivers finished photographs and shop orders; that supplier may change, and active galleries will be transferred where reasonably possible.

When a photograph is published with permission, it is transmitted to the relevant platform — Meta for Instagram and Facebook, and any other platform I have connected.

Some of these providers process data outside the UK, including in the United States, under the safeguards required by UK data protection law. I do not sell your information, and I do not share it for anyone else’s advertising.

How long I keep it

Enquiries that do not become bookings: up to twelve months, in case you come back to me, then deleted.

Booking records, contracts and invoices: seven years after the wedding, because HMRC requires it.

Your delivered gallery is included for twelve months. I target five years for archive backups, but cannot guarantee indefinite storage. You should download and keep your own copies. If available, retrieval from archive carries the fee stated in your booking agreement.

Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis, so deleted material can persist in a backup for a short period before it is gone for good.

Your rights

You can ask me for a copy of the information I hold about you, ask me to correct it, ask me to delete it, object to how I am using it, ask me to restrict its use, or ask for it in a portable format. Where I rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Email info@thebeardedweddingphotographer.co.uk and I will respond within one month. I will not charge you for it.

If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. I would rather you told me first so I can put it right.

Changes

This policy was last updated on 13 August 2026. If I change how I use your information in a way that affects you, I will update this page and, where it matters, tell you directly.