Keep us in The Loop
After you find and book your photographer, the last thing you would want to do is follow up with him few day before your wedding to confirm your wedding photographer will show up to capture your day. The whole process should be much more involving than just a few emails over the course of one year. Keep us posted on your wedding planning. No matter how small the details seem, and how unrelated to a wedding photography, share it with us. Every single detail of your wedding will affect your wedding images, and the more we know, the better understanding of your day we will have. This will ultimately streamline the process much better and result in a better wedding day images.
Create Wedding Day Timeline
I can’t stress enough how important this step is. If you let things happen on the go on your wedding day, they will not happen. Have a very detailed plan that will specify every minute of your day, every location with the exact address you are going to, and make sure you communicate this with each vendor of the day. If your makeup and hair artist do not know that you have to be ready by 2pm for the first look, she/he will take her time and be in no rush. This applies pretty much to any vendor, so save your selves a headache, create the timeline, and make vendors worry about it. All that’s left for you is to enjoy your wedding day.
Give us Enough Time
No great thing is created suddenly, and same goes for your wedding day images. It is essential that you give your wedding photographer enough time to capture beautiful images and portraits of you and your loved one. For me, I usually ask my brides to give me 2 hours on their wedding day. Do I alway get it? No! But this would be ideal. It can also depend on the size of the bridal party, so if you are having a 24 people bridal party like in the photo below, 2 hours is a minimum you can give your wedding photographer to capture all he needs. Our shoot list is big, and to accomplish that, we need time. Many of us want photojournalistic images of our big day, and that’s how 80% of them will be captured, but 90% of album images you pick will be from your creative session. Make sure you allocate enough time for your photographer to capture all the great things of your day.
Get the Uplighting
For those of you wondering what it is, uplighting is the light standing on the floor shooting up the walls or curtains of your venue at the banquet hall. They can usually be set up to display any color you like and match your wedding colors and theme. Uplighting is key for getting for better wedding reception photographs. What it does, it creates better mood and ambiance in the room, but more importantly it creates colorful backgrounds for your images. It will have a drastic impact on your entire event and feel of the whole room? Uplighting can create WOW from the moment guests arrive, and enhance a your first dance and dance floor photography later in the evening. Entertainment companies, like your wedding DJ or a wedding Band, may offer this service, so try to get it as a package deal. Your venue may provide it as well.
Do an Engagement Session
No matter how much an engagement session sounds like an up-sell from your photographer, it is actually more important than you think. Unless you are a model, or a celebrity who is being photographed every day, there is a great chance you have never been professionally photographed. Stepping in front of that professional camera can feel strange and awkward and there is really nothing wrong about that. It’s completely normal, and all people are hyper aware of the giant camera, with 2 foot long lens, and acting natural all of a sudden becomes really hard. This is where an engagement session comes in handy. First of, you will meet your photographer and see him work, which will build trust and let you relax on your wedding day. Your photographer should teach you how to pose, and how to position your hands, hips, feet etc. for better photos. Doing an engagement session will result in better wedding images that’s for sure.
Create Style Boards
I can almost bet that a lot of your planning process is happening on Pinterest. Why not use it to create mood boards so your wedding photographer can better understand style of images and photography you like. It’s one of the most important things you need to tackle in planning for your wedding day photos. We can deliver you the best images in the world, win the awards for the same, and you still may not like the style your photographer used. Weather it’s bright and airy, high-end fashion, dramatic portraiture, make sure you find the way to communicate that to your photographer, and Pinterest style board is a great way to do it.
Smile
I know it’s hard to relax on the biggest day of your life! You worked so hard and you want to make sure everything goes perfect. It’s normal way to feel. However, you have also spent thousands upon thousands of dollars to hire professional vendors to provide you with services. Therefore, make them worry about all the details and the ways on how to execute all this. If they fail, you will deal with them the day after, next week, or in a month. Just enjoy your wedding day and do not let anything get in the way of it becoming the most memorable and best day of your life. Remember that smile will make every wedding photograph better and more memorable.
