You probably haven’t planned a wedding before, or hired a photographer. You might be wondering how to plan out your day, or what a photographer does, or how long the family photos will take. I hope this guide will answer some of your questions.
The most important thing to me is that you and your most special people have a good time. Happy, involved people make great photos and happy memories!
Most of my coverage of your day will be documentary. I’ll be looking out for people having fun, laughing, hugging, and looking for all the elements that tell the story of your day – the venue, the weather, the little details and moments.
We’ll also do some portraits, and we’ll plan them carefully so that this will still be a fun and relaxed part of the day. For full day coverage, I usually start about an hour before the first look and end about an hour after dancing begins. But every wedding is unique, and we will put together a timeline that works best for you and your day.
Your Timeline
Let’s do this! It’s important to have a good timeline for your day. Thinking everything through beforehand will really reduce stress and chaos for you, and will help me to do my best work for you.
I will be sending you some planning worksheets, and I will use those to put together a schedule which I will share with you.
However, I also recommend being prepared to let go and relax when the big day comes – it’s important that you enjoy your day, and if things go awry we’ll still make it all work.
A Practical Wedding is an excellent resource for real, common-sense information for every kind of wedding: A Practical Wedding
Getting ready
The time before the wedding is a nice beginning to the story of your day. I will be looking out for your friends and family helping to set up, people arriving, the venue and decorations. I photograph the final touches to hair and makeup, putting on dresses, ties, jackets and jewelry.
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- The room where everyone is getting ready is often overflowing with suitcases, Starbucks cups, clothes, bags and food. If you don’t mind having this whole happy mess in your photos then I don’t either – it’s part of your day. If you’d rather have things a little neater, think about putting everything into a closet or another room when it gets close to the time to put on dresses, ties and the finishing touches.
- If possible, choose a room with lots of window light to get ready. However, very often the only option will be dark and tiny, and if so don’t worry, we’ll make it work.
The First Look
A first look is when the couple sees each other for the first time before the ceremony. It’s a quiet moment, more private than the big walk down the aisle. It’s best when it is simple, genuine and unscripted.
Or you might prefer to get ready together, or maybe one of you has always dreamed of the walk down the aisle being the first time you see each other. All three options are perfectly valid – it’s your day, and you do you! I can help you decide and work out how your choice will affect your photos during the day.
Three reasons to consider a first look:
1. Seeing your special person and spending a few quiet minutes together before the official events begin can calm your nerves and be a welcome break.
2. It gives you time to really appreciate each other. You can hug, share your feelings, admire each other’s outfits and just quietly relish the moment together – all of this is different when you’re at the front of the aisle and the ceremony is beginning.
3. It makes the timeline easier to work with. If you see each other before the ceremony, we can do all the immediate family and wedding party portraits before the ceremony. You can choose to do your couple portraits either before the ceremony, or after.
Family portraits
Family portraits are very important to most of the family, friends and wedding guests. They are an important piece of your family history and are often the most treasured and most printed photos from the day.
I like to work efficiently and keep the list quite short, because it’s your wedding day – you’ll get tired smiling for too many posed photos and you’ll have other things to do! Organization is key to keeping this part of the day fun for everyone. I will give you a sample list of standard immediate family portrait groups as a starting point, and you can change it to suit your particular families and add their names. Thinking the groups through beforehand is really important – we can be sure not to miss anyone and if there are any delicate family situations involved we can avoid embarrassment or hurt feelings by proper planning, and I can also put the groups in an order to make everything quick and efficient. Immediate family portraits usually take about 20 minutes.
Couple portraits
Photos of the two of you are important of course – but you don’t want to spend too long on them and miss the awesome party you’ve planned. I recommend two short photo times of 5-20 minutes each for portraits of just the two of you together. I’ll guide you rather than using strict posing, so it should be just a nice part of your day to spend a few minutes with each other.
Depending on your timeline, the first one will be either right after the first look or after the ceremony, and the second one will be around sunset time, or it might be best to merge the two into one. I can help you decide if you’re unsure. Here are some pros and cons for the different options:
1. After the first look
This is usually a quieter part of the day. The guests haven’t arrived yet and your clothes, hair and makeup are all fresh. On the other hand, you might be nervous about the upcoming ceremony and find it hard to relax.
2. After the ceremony
You’re married! The pressure is off, and you’re giddy, ecstatic and ready to have fun. But, this is also cocktail hour – you might find it hard to get away, or be excited to get to the reception (we’ll only be gone for 5-20 minutes for couple portraits, but if you’re also doing immediate and/or extended family and/or bridal party photos at this time it may keep you away for 30-45 minutes in all).
3. Sunset
The light is soft and pretty. With a summer wedding, sunset is often right after dinner and it’s a perfect time for you to steal away for a few quiet minutes together to take some relaxed portraits.
The Ceremony
Outdoors or indoors, you may have options for adjustments to the exact setup of your ceremony, or you may have to stick with what the venue provides. If you have options for the exact location of your ceremony, something as simple as a slight change in the angle or direction of your setup can make a big difference to your comfort and to your photos. Where will the sun be at your ceremony time? It’s helpful if you can angle the ceremony to have the sun behind the officiant and not shining directly into your eyes. It’s really good to avoid uneven, spotty light if possible.
I’m very careful to be as unobtrusive as possible during the ceremony, but it is important for me to be able to move around to spots apart from just the end of the aisle if possible. If I can move to the sides and front, I can see your faces and your guests’ reactions.
If you’re setting up your own ceremony, try to be sure that everything is centered, the aisle is wide enough, and that there’s enough room for everyone to stand and for me to move around. If you’re unsure, feel free to ask me about your ceremony spot and I would be happy to help.
Extended family, group photos and the all-the-guests photo
A casual all-guest photo can be fun- this is best done at a time when people are naturally gathered together, usually after the ceremony or after dinner, and is announced by the officiant or at the end of toasts, as in the photo above.
Extended family photos can be fun – you probably don’t have your aunts, uncles and cousins all together very often. If you’d like to do these, the best time is immediately after the ceremony. I recommend keeping it to four groups – mom’s side and dad’s side for each partner. All I need is an approximate number of people for each group, and for you to be sure to tell everyone involved to stick around after the ceremony for the photo. This wedding in the photo below included lots of cousins and uncles and aunties that didn’t get together very often. We did some photos with them during cocktail hour and it was a lot of fun!
I try to get lots of casual photos of your guests during the reception, and I am always happy to photograph groups for people upon request during the reception too – just grab all your Peace Corps friends and call me over:
Comfort
A wedding day is long and busy, and it’s good to consider comfort for you and your special people as you make your plans.
Think about your wedding venue and the time of year. Is it going to be really hot? Or cold? Is your dress very heavy or tight? Will you need to walk on gravel, dust, long grass, wet grass, snow? Will your shoes make it hard to walk? Will you mind if your dress trails in the dirt? Can you sit down? Will your makeup stay on if you cry or get really hot? For summer weddings, you might do a test run by going for a hike in the sun in your wedding makeup and seeing how it holds up!
Little things like having different shoes available for some of the day, or having something warm to wear to go outside if it’s cold can really help you enjoy your day to the fullest.
Reception lighting
Lots of cafe lights, candles and twinkle lights will make a big difference after dark, whether your reception is indoors or outdoors.
They look pretty and provide a nice mood and some light for your guests, and for your photos they break up the big blackness of a summer night for an outdoor reception, and are much prettier and more interesting than using only overhead or room lights for an indoor reception.
After the wedding
I’ll be hard at work preparing your photos and will have a sneak peek ready for you a few days after the wedding. Your gallery will be ready within two months – it’s usually ready in four weeks, often less during quieter months.
You will have an online gallery which you can share with your family and friends, and you will all be able to view the images and download the digital images. You can order prints and other professional items through your gallery. Your friends and family can order their own prints too if they want to. Your digital images also come with a print release which allows you to print them wherever you choose. (Quality is important, though, so choose a good quality printer!)
Albums
It is really important to have a tangible keepsake from your wedding day. Really important, I can’t stress this enough! When you sit down in ten years time to look at your wedding photos, you’ll want a book or album in your hands, not a laptop. I offer a selection of professional albums at different price points. All you need to do to get started is to choose your favorite images to include, then I design the album for you and you can view and approve the design online before we order.
If you enjoy working with digital images and would like to make your own album, there are some excellent consumer options available now especially Artifact Uprising and Milk Books.
Finally..
I know how much thought and time has gone into planning this day. You, your families and your friends have planned for months, people are traveling to be with you, and all your special people will be together in one place to celebrate with you.
I hope that the photos I take for you will remind you how this day felt, how it looked and who was there, the moments you remember and the ones you missed. I hope they will bring joy to anyone who couldn’t travel to be with you. Most of all, though, I hope you’ll look back at your wedding photos and see how much you love and are loved – which is, after all, the best thing about a wedding.
Share this story
