Wedding preparation goes on… Your mom wants you to put a veil on, but you hate it, the groom doesn't want to have a pink tie just because your bouquet is pink, and his parents are going to get a heart attack once they know the price of your wedding gown. Sounds familiar?
Wedding is always a lot of pressure on bride, who needs to meet all the expectations. But it’s not always possible. So, calm down, count to ten and imagine what YOU want. This is YOUR wedding day. I’m sure you want everything to be beautiful and flawless as in a romantic movie, to have fun and look gorgeous in your wedding photos…
Have you just said “wedding photos”? The ones you will share with everyone after the wedding, the ones you will keep for years as a family value? And think about your wedding day like this: once the reception is over, the decorations are down and the wedding shoes are off, what will remind you about the most important day in your life? Yes, your wedding album.
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That’s why I want all the brides-to-be to have a look at a regular wedding day through a photographer’s eyes. Shall we?
1. Getting ready pictures.
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Bad scenario
You asked your wedding photographer to come straight to church, because you don’t think you need the getting ready pictures. Or you asked the photographer to arrive 1 hour before the ceremony starts.
In this case you’ll miss all the photos of you becoming a princess on your wedding day, having a good time with your girls and family. There’re so many cute moments happening in the morning! Also getting ready situation is perfect for very romantic bridal portraits. And it’s a perfect chance to get to know your photographer, so you can be more relaxed in front of the camera.
Picture-Perfect Scenario
You give you photographer around 2 hours to spend with you before the ceremony. In this way you will get beautiful pictures of the wedding rings, shoes, gown and other accessories, as well as gorgeous bridal portraits and emotional family photographs.
2. Ceremony.
Well, there’s nothing you can do about the church rules (some of them can be very strict to photographers). That would be wrong to pick a church because of how it’s going to look in the pictures.
But since I promised to share a photographer’s vision, here’s the deal. We need light to take beautiful pictures. Of course, dark moody churches look fantastic and seem to be very intimate, but it’ll be extremely hard for your wedding photographer to take pretty pictures there. Especially when the priest doesn’t allow using flashes.
Picture-Perfect Scenario*
The ceremony is held in a church with lots of light (better natural/window light), or the ceremony is in a beautiful bright mansion, or outside. Even a cute backyard ceremony with nice decorations is better than in a dark church hall.
*- please, do not take any offense to your religious feelings
3. Family portraits
The ceremony is over, you’re officially a husband and a wife, all the guests are heading to the reception. This is time for family portraits – inside or outside the church (or wherever the ceremony was held).
The worst scenario ever
The parents are gone or can’t get together for a picture. As soon as everyone is ready, the time is already up, because the other couple is waiting outside the church, so you have to leave. Then the photographer tries again to organize your family members for a picture outside. And it’s usually either rains/snows, or too hot, or too dark because you wanted a ceremony on a sunset. So, no good family portraits taken.
Picture Perfect Scenario
You reserved up to 30 min for family portraits to be done after the ceremony, and notified you family members to stay for the picture. Your photographer will advise you whether to stay inside or move outside for better quality pictures.
4. Bridal Party pictures and portraits of Bride and Groom
When the pressure is off, it’s the right time for a photo session with your beloved groom and your best friends. It sounds very easy to do, but sometimes there’s just not enough time to achieve best results!
Bad scenario
There’s only 1 hour gap between the ceremony and the reception, knowing that the driving distance between the two locations is no less than 30 minutes. You can’t seriously think we’ll take several good posed shots in between the first dance and the cake.
Picture Perfect Scenario
You planned your wedding day knowing that you’ll have at least 1 hour reserved for photo shoot. It could be time between the ceremony and the reception (the rest of the guests can have a cocktail hour while you’re busy). The bride and groom can even break the rules and meet for the photo session before the ceremony.
You’ll never regret having extra time saved for pictures to be done, because nothing goes according to the plan on a wedding day!
The last piece of advice.
I know, it could sound like all you have to do on the wedding day is to make it right for the pictures. But the last thing a wedding photographer wants, is a bride who cares too much about everything.
So, just save extra time for photographs when planning the big day, and forget about everything but being happy! This is your day, you made all the preparations, so now it’s time to let your photographer do his(her) job!
Ksenia Pro
Portrait and Wedding Photographer
