Perfect Timing :: How to plan your wedding day

Timing… it’s everything. Especially in the case of photography, how your wedding day timeline is designed, and the way you incorporate photography into it, can make or break how your photography experience plays out. Now, don’t get us wrong… we can make the best of any situation, but what every couple should understand is that the best of one situation can be nowhere near as fabulous as that of another. It’s our job to help our couples understand how they can work with us, to make their wedding photography a priority and help us create the type of photos they want. While we can happily show up, stand back, and document the entire day without any intervention… this does not result in the type of photography many couples are looking for. A little bit of planning and anticipation will create an atmosphere that is favorable for beautiful wedding photos.

(We went with ring shots today… just for fun)

 

Many of our couples choose to hire us for unlimited coverage on their wedding day. This means they have us, uninterrupted, for up to 12 hours. With the availability of this much time, we can lay out a timeline that makes room for the kind of photography our couples want.

How much time do you really need? That depends on the type of photos you desire. However, if you’re a fan of our work and want your photos to reflect what you see in our albums this is what we suggest:

 

Bridal Suite Details – 30 minutes: This is where we start. The Dress, the shoes, the jewelry and any other details you want photographed. While the Bride starts to get ready, we’re photographing these items.

Bridal Suite Getting Ready Moments – 60 minutes: The final hour of hair and make up time usually belongs to the Bride. During this time the Bride is being fussed over, having her hair and makeup completed, and one or both of us are there to document it. These are some of our favorite moments of the entire day, we love watching a Bride and her Bridesmaids prep for such a huge day.

Bridal Portraits – 20 minutes: Once our Brides have completed their look and stepped into their dress with the help of their Bridesmaids, it’s time for some essential Bridal portraits. Sometimes we stay in the Bridal Suite, sometimes we move to the First Look location to do the portraits there before the Groom arrives. Either way, this is time we want we have to take those essential photos of the Bride.

meanwhile…

Groom’s Suite Getting Ready Moments – 45 minutes: Sometimes Grooms want their getting ready portion of the day documented, sometimes they don’t. If the Groom does wish to be photographed while he gets ready with his guys, one of us will break away from the Bridal Suite to document these moments. Of course, it takes the men hardly any time to get ready, so we don’t need to spend as much time here. 😉

First Look and Couple’s Portraits – 45 minutes: Yes, you read that right. Ideally we’d like all of our couples to incorporate a First Look into their day, and give themselves 45 minutes for portraits together. The goal is to recreate the feeling and atmosphere we accomplished during your engagement session. Without the time to do that, you’ll feel the urgency to move quickly and won’t enjoy your portrait session. Sometimes we get 45 minutes, sometimes 30… we can work well with the time you give us, but 10 minutes for portraits will produce 10 minutes worth of photos. 45 minutes to an hour will produce a full photo session of portraits. Doing a First Look is the best way to ensure you get the photos you want.

Bridal Party Photos – 30 minutes: Your Bridal Party has been waiting in the wings, finishing getting ready or having a snack. Now that your portraits are complete, it’s time to add the gang! Big group shots happen here as well as some individual photos of the Bride/Groom with each of their Maids/Men.

Vows – 30 minutes to an hour: With most of the important photos out of the way before you even walked down the aisle, it’s time to get married! The Bride and Groom will separate and spend the moments before their wedding apart. We’ll get into place and your ceremony will begin. Ceremonies can last 10 minutes up to 90 minutes. We’ve seen it all and are up for anything.

Family Formals – 30 minutes: Typically we tell our couples to use the 2 minute rule when making their formal family photo list. A standard rule of thumb is it takes 2 minutes to photograph each family photo grouping on the list. So if your list is 15 groups long, you can expect to spend 30 minutes completing those photos. We like to do the family formals immediately after the ceremony. This way the family members are all gathered in the same place, and we can quickly go into this portion of the day. Of course, bigger families = longer lists = more time needed.

meanwhile…

Reception Decor – 20 minutes: Right after your first kiss, one of us jets over to the reception site which by now is completely set up. During this time before guests arrive we’ll be taking photos of your gorgeous reception decor before guests arrive and start *ahem” rearranging things 😉

Sunset/Additional Portraits of Bride and Groom – 20 minutes: As your family and friends make their way to the second half of cocktail hour, you’ll have a few additional moments with us to get in some final, beautiful, “we’re married” portraits. During most Spring, Summer and Fall weddings this will also end up being close to sunset. Having these portraits with a different look, feel and tone to the ones taken before the ceremony will add to the richness of your final collection of images. These tend to be the shots you’ll want to frame.

Then friends… it’s party time! We go into complete documentary mode and you enjoy the heck out of your reception. Ahhhh

So the whole point of this super long post is to help couples understand how long the different portions of a wedding day actually take. When we talk to our couples the first time, we ask them which photos are their most desired… their top priority. Their answer is almost always “our portraits, and our family”.  At that point our couple’s priority becomes ours as well, and it’s our goal to make those photos happen. Scheduling your wedding day similarly to the timeline above is a way we can all work together to create some amazing wedding photos.

And don’t forget, a wedding day wouldn’t be a wedding day unless someone or something ran behind. So make certain to include cushion time for travel/traffic/lost florist (seen it)/locked church doors (seen it)/musician meltdowns (seen it)/lost limo driver (see this a lot) and anything else that might tie things up for a little bit 😉