WHAT TO EXPECT FOR YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
Woohoo – you’re getting married! Thanks again for booking me to shoot your wedding day. I hope this page is full of helpful wedding photography related info for you, but if any questions that you have aren’t answered here please don’t hesitate to contact me. Here is an outline of this post so you can scroll down easier:
A. We found our photographer! Now what?
B. My engagement session is coming up! What should I know?
1. When to do your engagement session
2. Locations
3. How to dress
C. Whoa, the wedding’s almost here! Can I get some timeline help?
1. The “first look”
2. Shot lists
D. Yaaaay we’re married! What happens now?
1. Receiving your finished photos
2. The album design process
We found our photographer! Now what?
I’m super excited to be a part of your wedding day – thanks for booking! Once you have your contract and deposit taken care of, the next step is planning your engagement session. If you aren’t doing an engagement session, I don’t really need any information from you until wedding timeline specifics start getting nailed down.
My engagement session is coming up! What should I know?
When to do your engagement session:
The answer mostly depends on your schedule. If you want photos for your save-the-dates, we’ll need to get the session done at least a month or two before you plan on making the save-the-dates. If you’ll only be using the photos at your wedding, or don’t plan on using them for any reason besides having great, casual photos of the two of you, we can really do it anytime. Shooting within a few hours of sunset is ideal, but we can also do mornings if you’re a morning person. I will be sending out an email to get more details from you for this.
Locations:
If there is a location that’s special to you two, let’s shoot there. If you just have a general location preference (field, beach, urban, etc.) I can definitely take those preferences and run with them. If you have no preferences at all I’m happy to pick locations too.
How to dress:
Wear clothes that you love and feel confident in. If you can’t decide, feel free to bring a few different options. Most couples bring a dressy outfit and a more casual one, and change halfway through the shoot. Definitely bring shoes that you can walk off-road in if we’ll be hitting rural locations, since we’ll probably find ourselves walking on a trail or across a field. Keep weather in mind – if it’s going to get chilly that evening, bring something warm. You don’t want to be freezing during your engagement session.
Whoa, the wedding’s almost here! Can I get some timeline help?
The “first look”:
The first look, or seeing each other before the ceremony, is becoming increasingly common. It’s often the single biggest variable in determining your timeline. I don’t have a preference for whether you do one or not – it’s totally up to you. Here are the most common reasons couples opt for a first look:
a. Some couples find it easier to relax during the ceremony if they’ve had a chance to see each other beforehand. It relieves a lot of nerves and gives you a more intimate setting to see your future spouse for the first time on your big day.
b. Some couples want more photos of themselves than can be shot during cocktail hour. You can expect between 25 and 40 portraits of you and your new spouse if you DON’T do a first look. However, if you think you want more bride & groom portraits than that, a first look is probably a good idea. If you choose not to do a first look I typically take all bride & groom portraits during the cocktail hour. For the cocktail hour to truly be an hour, we need to get family photos, bridal party photos, and bride & groom photos done in about 45-50 minutes. You’ll need about 5-10 minutes immediately post-ceremony to hug your family and get them rounded up for family photos, and another 5-10 minutes immediately pre-reception to line up and have the DJ get your names right before your grand entrance. If 25-40 bride & groom photos sounds about right to you, that’s not a problem. If you think you’ll want more than that, you’d probably need to either extend your cocktail hour or do a first look. There’s often the possibility of sneaking you out of the reception for an additional 10 minutes of portrait time, but once the reception gets rolling that’s not always a given.
c. Some couples want to participate in their cocktail hour. When you do a first look we typically only need to do family photos after the ceremony, leaving you with 30-45 minute to spend at the cocktail hour with your guests.
Again, I have no preference as to whether you do a first look or not. This is totally up to you as a couple.
Shot lists:
I’d love a list of the family photos you’d like taken post-ceremony. Line-by-line is great, so that there’s no confusion and I don’t miss anything. Something like this:
Bride, Groom, Bride’s immediate family and grandparents
Bride, Groom, Bride’s immediate family
Bride, Groom, Bride’s parents
Bride and mom
Bride, Groom, Groom’s immediate family and grandparents
Bride, Groom, Groom’s immediate family
I will be sending out a questionnaire just a couple months out from the wedding that will allow you to choose the combinations you would like for family photos.
The above is just an example – it can be anything you want. Beyond that, if there’s anything that you think wouldn’t naturally occur to me as a wedding photographer to shoot, I’d love to know about it. For example, if your aunt will be wearing a necklace that’s been passed down through 5 generations and you’d like a photo of it, definitely let me know. However, you don’t need to ask me to shoot The Kiss, or your first dance, or photos of the bride and groom (for example). I’ve got that stuff by default and would never miss it.
Yaaaay we’re married! What happens now?
Receiving your finished photos:
YOU MADE IT! You got married and lived to tell the tale, and I’ve got photos to prove it. Expect your photos within a few weeks of your wedding. You’ll receive a link to a password-protected online gallery that houses all of your photos, and you can share it with whomever you’d like. You’ll also receive links to download the full-size versions of your files electronically. Feel free to share away! Email, facebook, twitter, whatever…pass those photos around!
The album design process:
Within a few weeks of receiving your finished photos, you’ll get a first draft of your album from me (if you purchased one). I pick all the photos and do the design for the first draft, and once it’s submitted to you for revisions, you get to change anything you want about it. Once I have your revisions, I’ll create another draft and send it to you. We’ll repeat that process until it’s exactly what you want, and then I’ll order it. Albums arrive 3-6 weeks after being ordered, and boy are they worth the wait!!