Things That Can Drastically Affect Your Wedding Day Photos
We will admit it; when it comes to your wedding day, we’re all about the right light. While your mother and your planner may be obsessing over the right font for the invites and matching the Pantone color of the cocktail napkins, we’re already looking up the precise time of sunset for your day.
Since the definition of photography is literally “painting with light,” it’s kind of our job to make sure there is enough of it on your day to get those sun-streaked photos you want. And it all starts with the timeline.
Mother Nature is a Fickle Beast
We all know this; you can’t control the weather. But what you can do is have a solid plan in place to make sure what you can’t control you can work around. “Winging it” on the day is not a solid plan, and we’re here to make sure your photos are AMAZING, so we’re going to work with you before the wedding day, so you understand all the scenarios.
Travel Gaps
If there’s travel time involved between the ceremony and the reception, it needs to be realistically planned for. By realistic, we mean padding the time a bit. Here are just a few contingencies/underestimations we’ve seen:
- The time it takes for a wedding party to pack up/get on a bus or into their cars
- A shuttle/bus/limo running late
- Weather delays
- Traffic delays (hint: check for any events in your town that could cause backups such as sporting events, festivals, or road closures)
We’ll help you understand all the moving parts and build in extra time to remove that stress!
First Looks
A “First Look” is just a fancy way of saying you are going to see each other before the ceremony. We’ll be honest; we love them. Our clients love them. They all report that it made the stress melt away, and the photo opportunities are fantastic during this emotional moment you spend without anyone else being present.
First looks also allow us to spread the photography out of the two of you, the wedding party and even the family photos. This allows us to change up your wedding day narrative and have different backdrops for your wedding photos.
We’ll choose exactly the right spot with the right lighting for the first look, so you don’t have to worry about a thing but taking each other in at that special moment.
However, they are not right for some people because of religious objections, time frame crunches, or perhaps it’s just you want the more traditional route. We want you to know that no matter what you choose, we are here for it. No matter what you decide, we will work together to create a timeline unique to your wedding day.
Family Photos
We have two things we strive for regarding these family photos that everyone wants; easy and painless. We cannot stress this enough, we must have a plan and a timeline to make these happen. Otherwise, Uncle Bob will be at the bar, and your cousin that came from Australia will be nowhere to be found when it’s time for photos.
It’s not that people are rude; it’s that wedding days are about celebration, and time can slip away really quickly. We’ll work with you to form a plan to get these photos done efficiently and get everyone on their way to the party there are there for.
Sunset
You’ll notice that we show a boatload of sunset photos in our work. We love them. I mean, we LOVE them. But, they do not spontaneously happen. While the love and emotion shown are heartfelt, we plan the time to do these photos meticulously. The sun waits for no one, so we start early on in the planning process, deciding when and where they will happen.
The last thing we want to do is to risk the ire of a catering manager dragging you away from your plated dinner to catch the sunset. Instead, we prefer to work backward so that the dinner happens well before or well after the sunset.
Want to talk more about your wedding day timeline? We are always happy to help and give advice. Get in touch, and let’s talk about the different options!