8 Photographer Tips To Help Your Wedding Day Run Smooth
8 Photographer Tips To Help Your Wedding Day Run Smooth
8 Photographer Tips To Help Your Wedding Day Run Smooth
From the time you are a little girl dreams run through your head of your magical wedding day. Enchanting visions of putting on your wedding dress and having your soul mate see you for the first time as their forever spouse dance through your imagination for a lifetime. Your dreams are for the fairytale wedding and perfect photos to cherish forever but the reality is the day of the wedding goes by fast and timelines can get disorganised. We’ve put together a list of our top 8 Photographer tips to help your wedding day run smooth and get the best wedding photos.
Tips For Getting The Best Wedding Day Photos Ever!
Create a Photography Timeline
There is nothing worse than feeling rushed and things becoming chaotic on your wedding day. Our first tip is to put your wedding dress on at least an hour before the ceremony. You may have spent weeks or months shopping for the perfect wedding dress, stressing over it, getting it altered and are excited to wear it to say your “I Do’s”. So put it on! Doing this at least an hour before the wedding ceremony allows you to get it on properly, adjust any of the tulle and crinoline underneath, and get you comfortable moving around in it.
But before you put on your wedding dress make sure to keep your bridal suite clean and organised. Your photographer will want to take some photos of you getting dressed so put your suitcases, makeup etc in the closet, make your bed and keep the room free from clutter.
Now your photographer can play with lighting, poses and unique backgrounds.
Extra tips: always add a little extra time into your photography timeline. If you want 15 minutes of photos before the wedding ceremony make it 25 minutes. No one wants to rush through photos, after all you want them to be perfect so allow enough time to get the lighting, the poses, and the perfect shots! You will be grateful for the extra time later.
Prepare The Details
Prior to your photographer arriving get together some of the intimate and personal wedding details for the photographer to shoot. There are many details that are part of your love story that you will want to cherish and remember. Things like, wedding invitations, rings, bridal shoes, bouquet, sentimental items like Granda’s handkerchief etc. Anything that has sentimental value and tells your love story should be included. This goes for the Bride and the Groom.
The Golden Hour
There is nothing better than using nature as a backdrop for your wedding day photos. So make certain to add in at least 10 minutes for your wedding photographer to capture photos during the golden hour (one hour before sunset). These photos will have beautiful explosions of colour in the background that you will cherish forever.
Prepare For Rain
Outdoor weddings are very popular and for good reason, nature provides the most amazing backdrop and décor for your wedding day. Everyone knows, we can’t control Mother Nature. Make sure to have a backup plan in case it rains. Many wedding venues have tents that can be on standby or inside venue space.
Tip # 4 is to inquire and prepare for inclement weather before the wedding day! Have extra shoes on hand and umbrellas. And don’t be afraid to take photos in the rain. Some of the best, most natural and memorable photos are under the rain drops especially if you have a clear umbrella.
To Do A First Look Or Not
Wedding day timelines are super tight so many couples today are choosing to do a “First Look”. This means that the Bride and Groom will present themselves to each other before the wedding ceremony. Doing a first look at your wedding is very intimate as it typically is only you, your spouse and your photographer. All of the wedding guests would not be present to view this first look so it gives you and your spouse a intimate setting to enjoy the moment together, privately.
Not every couple wants to do First Looks, and that’s ok. Just make sure to decide on this before the day and incorporate it into your photographer’s timeline to make certain there is enough time for great shots!
Unplug Your Wedding
Oh Yes! The dreaded wedding paparazzi. Everyone wants a piece of the action at a wedding, they want the best shot and will do anything to get it. You spend a lot of money on wedding photography and want to make sure you provide the best environment for your photographer (not your guests) to get the best photos for you to have forever. Unplug your wedding, ban mobile phones and those unsightly Ipads. You want to see your guests faces especially when you say your I do’s. We love to capture your friends and family smiling and laughing not stuck behind their phone.
You don’t want your friends and family jumping into the aisle to take photos, or even worse standing over your paid photographer’s shoulder trying to get the best shot! Your photos will be ruined! And the people getting photographed will naturally look at the camera that is taking the photos. So, if you have 10 people all wanting to get the perfect shot, some of you will be looking at the wrong camera.
Distance To Ceremony Location
Something that is not thought about very often is the distance from the bridal suite (where the Bride gets dressed) to the actual ceremony location. You don’t want the distance to be too far because this adds to the wedding day timeline. Not to mention something could happen during a long walk, dress could get dirty or ripped, Bride could fall, anything is possible. So keep your wedding locations as close together as possible.
Where possible think about the distance between your ceremony location and reception. In some instances you could be travelling well over and hour to get to your reception, bare in mind this takes so much time from your day, time with your guests, time enjoying your venue and for us photographers time to capture your guests in a natural candid style.
I know it’s not always possible to have both venues close but it is something to bare in mind, even asking for an earlier ceremony time and all help toward this. We love early weddings, even in summer
Outdoor Summer Ceremonies
Summer ceremonies are beautiful and provide gorgeous settings for your wedding day and photography. One thing many couples forget is you need to visit your wedding venue at the time of the day that your ceremony will take place. You may be wondering why we suggest this…you want to see where the sun is shining and where the shade is falling. During your wedding ceremony you do not want to be staring directly into the sun as that will make you squint and cause wrinkles and ruin your wedding photos. So take a little extra time to check out how the sun, and natural landscape looks at the time of day you are planning to get married so you know how to set up your aisle and altar.