Privacy Notice
This notice explains what I do with personal information — yours, and your guests’ — when you enquire, when you book me, and when I photograph your wedding. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
Matt Wing Photo Ltd is the data controller. Last updated 1 September 2026.
The short version
- I collect the details I need to quote for, book and photograph your wedding — and nothing I do not need.
- I photograph your guests under legitimate interests: it is the record of the day you booked me for.
- I show some photographs in my portfolio. You can tell me not to, and I will take them down.
- I do not sell your data, and I do not let anyone train AI models on your photographs.
- If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information, you can complain to me directly — see How to complain. You can also go straight to the ICO.
Who I am
This notice is given by Matt Wing Photo Ltd (“I”, “me”, “my”), a company registered in England and Wales.
| Company number | 05101800 |
| Registered office | 46 Hullbridge Road, South Woodham Ferrers, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 5NG |
| privacy@mattwing.co.uk | |
| Website | mattwing.co.uk |
I am the controller of the personal information described in this notice — I decide what is collected and why. Where I use other companies to help me deliver the service, they act as my processors and work only on my instructions.
I am not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer. I deal with data protection questions personally.
Who this notice covers
- Couples who enquire about, or book, a wedding.
- Wedding guests, and anyone else photographed on the day.
- Visitors to mattwing.co.uk.
- Suppliers and second photographers I work alongside.
If you were a guest at a wedding I photographed, you did not sign anything with me — but you still have rights over the photographs I took, and this notice tells you how to use them.
What I collect
- Your contact details — name, email, phone, and postal address where needed.
- Wedding details — date, venue, timings, the schedule for the day, and the names of your suppliers.
- Details you choose to tell me — family circumstances that affect the day, access or mobility needs, dietary requirements, and anything you flag about who should or should not be photographed together.
- Photographs and video of you, your family and your guests.
- Payment records — invoices and amounts. I do not see or store your card details.
- Website data — pages visited and rough location, only if you accept analytics cookies.
Why I use it, and my lawful basis
UK GDPR requires me to have a lawful basis for everything I do with your information. Here is the full list.
| What I do | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Reply to your enquiry and send a quote | So I can answer you and tell you if I am free | Legitimate interests |
| Take a booking, issue contracts and invoices | To agree and deliver what you have booked | Contract |
| Plan and photograph your wedding | To create the photographs you booked me for | Contract |
| Photograph your guests | To make an honest record of the day | Legitimate interests |
| Deliver your online gallery | To get the photographs to you | Contract |
| Show photographs in my portfolio, blog and social media | To show couples the work before they book | Legitimate interests — you can object |
| Keep accounting and tax records | Required by HMRC and company law | Legal obligation |
| Send occasional marketing emails | Only if you have asked for them | Consent |
| Analytics cookies | To see how the website is used | Consent (PECR) |
“Legitimate interests” means I have weighed my interest in running the business against your rights, and concluded it is reasonable and not something you would object to. You can ask me for that assessment, and you can object at any time.
Your photographs, and how to say no
Wedding photography only sells itself by being shown. I use a small selection of images from most weddings in my portfolio, on this website, in blog posts, on social media and occasionally in print at wedding shows. I rely on legitimate interests to do it.
You can stop this at any time, before or after the wedding, and you do not have to give a reason. Email me and I will not use your images — or I will remove ones already published. Removal from my own website and social channels is usually done within 14 days. Material already printed, or copies other people have shared onward, cannot always be recalled, and I will be straight with you about what I can and cannot undo.
A few things I will always ask you about separately rather than assume: photographs of children, images from inside a religious ceremony, and anything taken in a private home.
I never sell your photographs to stock libraries or advertisers.
Religious, cultural and family ceremonies
I photograph Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and civil ceremonies, in the UK and abroad. Photographs of a religious ceremony can reveal something about your beliefs or background, so I treat them with extra care: I follow the guidance of your officiant, I ask before publishing ceremony images rather than assuming, and I will remove them on request.
AI, and what I will not do with your images
I use AI-assisted tools inside Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop — denoise, healing, masking, subject selection and similar — to finish photographs to my usual standard. These are editing tools working on my own machine and within Adobe’s software.
I do not submit your photographs to generative AI services to train their models, and I do not use your images to build or train any model of my own. I keep Adobe’s content-analysis settings switched off for client work.
I do not use AI to make any decision about you. There is no automated decision-making or profiling in this business that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
Who I share it with
I share only what is necessary, only with the following, and never for their own marketing.
| Who | What for |
|---|---|
| Pic-Time | Hosting your online gallery and handling print orders |
| Studio Ninja | My booking system — contracts, invoices and correspondence |
| Second photographers and assistants | Where a second shooter is booked for your day |
| My accountant | Preparing accounts and tax returns |
| Website and email providers | Hosting this site and carrying my email |
| Payment providers and my bank | Taking and reconciling payment |
| Regulators, insurers or legal advisers | Only where I am obliged to, or need to defend a legal claim |
Each of these is bound by a contract that requires them to protect your information and use it only as I instruct. I do not sell personal information to anyone, and I never have.
Destination weddings and information leaving the UK
I photograph weddings abroad, and some of the companies I rely on are based outside the UK. That means your information sometimes travels — when I fly with cards and drives in my bag, and when it sits on a supplier’s servers overseas.
Whenever information leaves the UK, I only allow it where one of these applies:
- the country has UK adequacy regulations — the UK government has decided its protection is equivalent to ours; or
- the contract includes the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses, backed by a transfer risk assessment; or
- the transfer is genuinely necessary to perform your contract — for example, sending a shot list to a venue coordinator in Malta or Italy so your day runs properly.
If you want to know exactly where your photographs are held and under which safeguard, ask me and I will tell you.
How long I keep things
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that do not become bookings | 12 months, then deleted |
| Your contract, invoices and accounting records | 6 years after the end of the relevant tax year — I am required to keep these |
| Correspondence about your wedding | 2 years after your gallery is delivered |
| Your online gallery | 12 months from delivery, then taken offline |
| My archive of your images | 2 years after delivery, unless you ask me to hold them longer |
| Photographs in my portfolio | For as long as I use them — removed if you object |
| Marketing list | Until you unsubscribe |
Where the law requires me to keep a record, that requirement takes priority over a request to delete — but it only covers the record in question, not everything else.
How I keep it safe
- Cards are backed up to two separate drives before anything is wiped, and never reformatted on the day.
- Laptops and drives are encrypted and password protected.
- Accounts carry two-factor authentication where the provider offers it.
- Galleries are protected by a password or email login that you control.
- Only I, and any second photographer working on your wedding, have access to your files.
No system is perfect. If something goes wrong and there is a risk to your rights, I will report it to the ICO within 72 hours and tell you directly where I am required to.
Your rights
You can ask me to do any of the following, free of charge, and I will respond within one month.
- See what I hold about you, and get a copy.
- Correct anything wrong or incomplete.
- Delete it, where I have no overriding reason to keep it.
- Restrict what I do with it while a question is being sorted out.
- Object — including to your photographs appearing in my portfolio.
- Withdraw consent where you gave it, such as for marketing.
- Receive your data in a portable format where it applies.
- Not be subject to automated decision-making. I do not do any.
Email privacy@mattwing.co.uk. I may ask you to confirm who you are before I hand anything over. If a request is unusually complex I can extend by two months, but I will tell you why within the first month.
How to complain to me
If you think I have got something wrong with your personal information, tell me. You have the right to complain directly to me, and I have to handle it properly.
How to raise it
Email privacy@mattwing.co.uk with the word “Complaint” in the subject line, or write to Matt Wing Photo Ltd, 46 Hullbridge Road, South Woodham Ferrers, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 5NG. Tell me what happened and what you would like me to do about it. You do not need to quote any law.
What I will do
- Acknowledge it within 30 days of receiving it.
- Look into it properly and without undue delay, and keep you posted on progress.
- Give you my decision in plain English, explaining what I found and what I am doing about it.
- Tell you what to do next if you are not satisfied.
You do not have to come to me first. You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at any point, including while I am still looking into it.
Complaining to the ICO
The Information Commissioner’s Office is the UK regulator for data protection. Complaining to them is free.
| Online | ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint |
| Helpline | 0303 123 1113 |
| Post | Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF |
Cookies and this website
When you first arrive you are asked whether to accept cookies. Strictly necessary cookies — the ones that keep the site working and secure — are always on, as the rules allow. Everything else, including Google Analytics, only runs if you say yes, and you can change your mind at any time through the cookie settings on this site or by clearing cookies in your browser.
Declining analytics cookies does not affect anything you can see or do here.
Marketing
I only send marketing emails to people who have asked for them, or to couples who have booked me — and every message carries a one-click unsubscribe. I do not buy mailing lists and I do not pass your address to anyone else.
Changes to this notice
I review this notice at least once a year, and whenever the way I work changes. This version was published on 1 September 2026 and replaces the version dated 19 February 2025. The first version was published on 19 February 2016.
If I change anything that materially affects you, I will tell couples with a live booking by email rather than quietly updating this page.
Questions about anything on this page? Email privacy@mattwing.co.uk and I will answer it myself.