Dress Hangers

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Plastic or Wooden?

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This blog is going to be short and sweet cause really there isn’t much info to pass along, but the tip I am going to give you impacts the look of your image immensely! The wedding dress hanger you choose can make your photo & dress look classy or…not as classy. I know you want that dress to look classic, elegant and beautiful and that’s why I am writing a blog post about hangers. Something that is so mundane and something that as an ex-retail store associate, I can say from the bottom of my heart is that I. Hate. Hangers. Anyone else with me on that? But they play a minor, yet important role on your wedding day.

I highly recommend that the hanger you buy should be wooden. The white plastic hanger that may come with your dress or that you can pick up for a pack of 10 for a dollar at Target is not the kind you want to use. They don’t look as classy and take away from the elegance of your dress and image. Plus it won’t match any of your decor. Thinking of your hanger as a part of your decor for the wedding day makes so much sense because we can actually use it for details photos. I suggest a wooden hanger, something rich in color. You can even take it a step further and get your new last name written in the wire frame. Mind said “bride” with the wedding date one it. This personalizes the image a bit more. These wooden hangers emphasize the elegance of your dress and makes from classic, timeless and more expensive, high end wedding images, plus it’s a great investment that you can keep for forever! We hope this helps!

{Just for reference, although you can not see the hanger very well, if she had gotten a wooden hanger, it would have not looked like it was just floating in midair and made it stand out just a little bit more.}

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Unplugged Weddings + Why You Should Have One

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2 huge reasons why

I am a huge advocate for having an unplugged wedding! If you haven’t heard of this then it’s by time you had. An unplugged wedding is when the bride & groom limit the use of cellphones and cameras during their ceremony making the photographers the only people photographing the ceremony. There’s a few reasons we are huge advocates of it below:

1. be present

Your guests will be able to see you walking down the aisle towards your groom. They’ll be present and in the moment allowing them to smile with you, laugh with you and even cry with you. It’s the most joyful day of your life and you want them to be present during the ceremony. No one will be offended. They don’t need that shot for Instagram. Would you rather see your guest’s faces or 200 cellphones pointing your direction? I promise you won’t regret it and neither will your guests. They’ll respect your decision 100%.

This is our bride, Argelia, who deserved to have people looking at her rather than through the viewfinder of their iPhones. Imagine how this image would look without cell phones out!

This is our bride, Argelia, who deserved to have people looking at her rather than through the viewfinder of their iPhones. Imagine how this image would look without cell phones out!

2. better phototgraphs

We’ll get straight to the point here… cellphones are really distracting in photographs. Like I mentioned above, guests love photographing you coming down the aisle. I also love photographing you coming down the aisle, but sometimes, guests go too far and get in the way or I get a dozen cellphones in the aisle and it really takes away from the moment. Just compare the two photos below with the one above. Which one is less distracting? The one with less cellphones, right? We are there to capture your day and we won’t miss a single thing. Telling them to put their phone away will result in better images for you!

3. bonus reason

It stops what I like to call, Uncle Bob. He’s the uncle who has a nice camera, shoots a lot of photos and they actually turn out pretty nice… but he doesn’t have boundaries. He roams during the ceremony and will make my job more difficult and could be distracting for your guests. We appreciate his love for you and for photography. After all, he just wants to capture the memories for you. So no hard feelings Uncle Bob, but having an unplugged ceremony means that he’ll keep his camera at home or at least in his bag!

In this photo, there was a guest who insisted on getting her own photo of the bride while we were doing portraits of the bride and groom. Although it gave me a good idea for this shot, it ruined the pace of our portraits.

In this photo, there was a guest who insisted on getting her own photo of the bride while we were doing portraits of the bride and groom. Although it gave me a good idea for this shot, it ruined the pace of our portraits.

There you have it! 2 reasons (& a bonus) for you to have an unplugged ceremony. It’ll make my job easier and I’ll capture better images for you. Some people put a sign out at the start of the aisle, which is awesome! I would suggest taking it a step further and asking your officiant to make an announcement. I had an unplugged ceremony and it was the best because we knew that everyone had their eyes on us and they weren’t on their phones. I’ll never regret it!

What to expect for your Wedding Photography!

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!!

Planning Your Engagement Session

Welcome.

 

A little bit about this guide

I’m so excited to be working with you and I can’t wait for our time together during your engagement session! It’s normal to be a little nervous about your session. I always tell people that I still get nervous before having my photos taken - and I do this for a living!

I am a big fan of engagement sessions for a few reasons. First, they allow you to get comfortable in front of the camera. It takes time for most couples to warm up to being photographed and understand how I pose. Timelines can be pretty tight on weddings days and 20 minutes may be all we have for portraits - which is why I found that wedding day portraits turn out so much better when couples do engagement sessions ahead of time. 

 

Second, you can showcase your personalities in a more casual setting that is significant to the two of you (and even include pets). While they’re great for save-the-dates, I’ve taken engagement photos anywhere from 18 months in advance to a few months before the wedding. 

There is a lot to think about when it comes to planning a session and since I get asked the same things over and over again, I thought it would be the most beneficial if I put together a guide that walks you through everything you need to know. 

I’ll cover what to wear, whether to bring pets & how to manage them, location ideas and more! 

A note for the guys..

I get it. Having your picture taken for 1-2 hours might not be in your top-10 favorite things to do during your downtime. And at first you might feel sort of awkward being in front of the camera. But I think you’ll find that by the end of the session, it’s a lot easier than you thought, and you even had a little fun. I look forward to it because it’s a great opportunity for us all to hang out a bit before the wedding day.

Is there a “good” time to take photos?

Engagement sessions can take place anywhere from immediately following a proposal to just a few days before the wedding. I’ve found that there isn’t a “good” or “bad” time to take your photos. I normally plan sessions based on a particular “look” a couple has in mind, spring flowers for example, or based on schedules. 

Sessions typically last about an hour or two and when when we can—I love to begin sessions about two hours before sunset. I prefer to shoot when the sun is lower in the sky to avoid harsh shadows and bright sun patches. The first two hours after sunrise is also an ideal time to shoot.

I schedule sessions during what we believe will be the best light of the day - which means that it’s super important to be on time. If you’re late to an evening session, we could run out of light before we’ve finished shooting and if your session takes place in the morning, the sun gets more harsh as it rises. 

Seasons

While we shoot most of our engagement sessions between April and late November, sessions can take place all year. Most of our couples choose a season based on the location where they want to shoot. 

A few things to keep in mind during each season:

Spring

fresh flowers and sunny days

Even though Spring begins in March, I typically don’t begin shooting for another 6 weeks because the weather in Michigan is still pretty chilly. When we schedule spring dates, we typically schedule both a primary date and a backup rain date.

Summer

walks on the beach hand in hand

In spite of the heat, I’m a big fan of summer sessions! Because of the later sunset, sessions sometimes begin as late as 8pm. If you’re taking your engagement photos during the summer, I recommend bringing extra makeup and a few towels to make sure you stay fresh throughout your session.

Fall

colorful leaves and snuggling close

Fall is one of the prettiest times of the year in the Midwest and because of the perfect weather, my schedules typically book up quickly! If you have your heart set on a fall engagement session, I recommend scheduling it as soon as you book!

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Winter

snowfall, hot cocoa and cozy coats

If you’re planning to take your engagement photos during the winter, keep in mind that if your session takes place in the evening, we could begin shooting as early as 2:30pm to catch the sunset. I recommend dressing in layers so that in between photos you can warm up. Make sure you bring a little extra makeup and tissues in case your nose begins running.

 

Save The Dates

If your wedding is local, save the dates should be sent between 6 and 8 months before the wedding. For a destination wedding, you’ll want to send them out 8 to 10 months before the wedding.

If you’re hoping to use your engagement photos for your save the dates, I recommend scheduling your session at least two months before you plan to send out your save-the-dates. Between inclement weather, editing, designing your save-the-dates and printing, two months is generally a safe amount of time to make sure your images and cards are ready.

 

Pets

Our cat is huge part of our family, which is why I love when couples choose to incorporate pets into their session. Keep in mind that bringing a pet along often means that we’ll need to choose a pet friendly location. 

I recommend planning for your pet to be at the first part of your session and having a friend take them home. I won’t use the pet in every single photo so it’s also nice to have a friend available to hold him or her in between shots. 

If you’re going to bring a pet, I also recommend exercising your pet before the session and bringing your pets favorite toy or treats! Depending on your pet’s fur type, it might also be a good idea to groom them before the shoot. 

Outfits

TIPS FOR LOOKING YOUR BEST

When picking outfits we recommend keeping in mind the word “complement” rather than “match.” For example, if the groom-to-be is wearing a blue and pink pastel plaid shirt, the bride-to-be may want to choose a long, soft blue dress. It can also be a great idea to choose “color-families,” such as pastels or jewel tones.

 Generally couples pick two outfits for an engagement session: a more formal outfit and a casual outfit. We recommend saving your favorite outfit for later in the session, when couples usually feel more comfortable in front of the camera. And don’t forget to bring a few accessories! Statement necklaces, cute shoes and classic watches are great ways to add detail to outfits.

Check out my “What-To-Wear” Pinterest board!

Inclement Weather

“What to do if it rains?”

It’s typical for us to schedule two engagement session dates. A primary date and a rain date. Having two dates helps me make sure that your photos happen in a timely manner. Coordinating schedules can be tough and I’ve found that the best way to make sure my couples get the look they have in mind for their photos is to schedule two dates at the same time.

I’ll check in the week of your engagement session to confirm the time & location we’re meeting and the weather. I know it takes a lot of time to get ready for engagement session and it’s the worst to get dressed up and drive out to your session only to have it rain. Let me know what works best for the two of you - but if the weather looks like it won’t be great, I typically try to make the call at least 8-12 hours in advance.

 

Ring Cleaning

When I can, I always try to take a photo of your ring during your engagement session - so it’s a good idea to have it cleaned or clean it yourself before your shoot! To clean at home, soak your ring in warm water with dishwashing soap for 20 to 40 minutes. Then gently brush the stone with a soft toothbrush, rinse and repeat if needed.

 

Date Night

If you’re anything like me, you probably don’t get dressed up all that often. Which means that the day of your engagement session is the perfect occasion for a date night (or brunch if your session is in the morning!)

The engagement session is another part of celebrating your love and heading off to dinner is a great way to end the session!

thank you!

I know that this guide is long and hopefully it covers everything you need to know to prep for your engagement session!

However if there is something I missed, or you need a recommendation feel free to email:
foreveryoungimagesfyi@gmail.com