Title: Tips to Enjoy Your Wedding and Get Amazing Photos
1Tips to Enjoy Your Wedding and Get Amazing Photos
Wedding photographer
2- Your Wedding is Once in a lifetime, it's one of
the biggest celebration in your life. Not only
will you spend your money, but you will also
spend a good amount of time and energy to plan
for it. At the end of the day, when your wedding
cake and the guests are gone, what's left is the
memories captured by your wedding photographer.
In this article, I will share some tips so that
your wedding will be enjoyable and you will get
amazing photos of your cherished moments.
3- I originally wrote these tips to share with my
clients to set the stage for their wedding day,
and as expected, these tips comes with
"photography" in minds, so if some of these
doesn't make any sense to you, or don't apply to
your situation, just skip it!(For example
Weddings in Pittsburgh don't usually come with
"grooms cake", so if I mention it below and you
have no idea, just forget about it).
4Hire "the photographer "
- The first step to get amazing photos for your
wedding start with "The Photographer". Make sure
you hire a professional photographer who knows
what he/she is doing, and also make sure that you
really like his/her photography style. You have
to know that every photographer is not the same,
they have different taste in color, angles,
perspective, etc2. Spend your time to check
his/her portfolio and you will be able to see
similarities from the many different weddings
that he/she covered in the past. Also make sure
that he/she can give you references from his/her
past clients (and make sure to contact them!), as
you don't want to hire someone who never return
calls/emails, or even risk the possibility of
him/her running away with your wedding photos!!.
5Beautify and Amazify your party, your venue, and
yourself
- While a great photographer is needed for amazing
photos, he/she can only do so much without the
subjects.. so plan ahead to make yourself look
fabulous, test your hair and make ups, find some
accessories that will match with your dress,
beautify the venues with lights, ornaments,
center pieces, etc2.. choose a unique wedding
cake, surprise your husband with a grooms cake,
present gifts to your bridesmaids/groomsmen, make
a great theme for your wedding and be as creative
as possible. This doesn't have to be "expensive",
but it definitely needs your attention to
details. If your wedding is as "plain" as vanilla
ice cream, the photos won't come out as
"strawberries" or "cookies and cream", no matter
how great your wedding photographers are.
6Create an Itinerary/Timeline.
- Ok, you have the best venue booked, and you
signed with the greatest photographer around, got
the dress, got the cake, everything is in place
and ready. Good! now.. what you need is to create
a timeline.Just imagine yourself of how you want
your wedding day to flow and write them down.
Make several copies and give it to everyone that
needs to know about it ahead of time (wedding
photographers included).This way, everyone is
informed and will be on the same page.
7Create Contacts and Addresses list.
- Write down all addresses along with the contact
name for all the vendors you have for the day,
make several copies and distribute them to
everyone that you hire.This way, they can connect
and work together more easily on your big day.
This will also avoid vendors showing to the wrong
place or coming late because of a wrong address.
8Create a list of Formal/Family Pictures.
- If you want to have a traditional/formal family
picture taken after the ceremony, make a list of
them. (Older persons such as your grandparents
should be at the top of the list, the bridal
party should be last).Imagine the approximate
time of how long or how short the list should be
considering there might be another service at the
church after the ceremony.Also, notify the
persons who is on the list that their presence is
needed. It won't be so funny if your dad starts
heading to the reception, thinking that his duty
for the day is done as soon as he finish taking
you to the altar while his presence at your side
is still needed after the ceremony.Make several
copies of this list and give it to the
photographer(ahead of time, if possible), and
your Maid/Matron of honor, along with the best
man. Also bear in mind that if you have a
receiving line after the ceremony, it will take a
good 20-30 minutes until you finished hugging and
greeting everyone, and that precious 20-30
minutes might means less time for the formal
pictures.
9Find your photographer's whereabouts from time to
time.
- If you like a "face on" photo (meaning you are
looking toward the camera), you might want to
occasionally look toward your photographer. Just
because you like "candid" doesn't mean all your
wedding photos should be all candids. While the
photographer might ask you to look toward
him/her, it might be a good idea to remind
yourself to simply "find" where your photographer
is from time to time. I'm not suggesting that you
have to see your photographer at all times, but
during special moments such as dances, ask your
partner to take a quick glance toward the
photographer so that he can snap a quick "face
on" photo of the two of you. (note that I mention
partner, meaning this also applies to mother/son
and father/daughter dance as well). The thing is,
you might appreciate the "face on" photos of you
and your partner, but if the two of you never
look at the photographer (or just one of you look
toward him/her), then that moment never happen,
it's up to you to make it happen (or not). The
photographer might "make it happen" by giving
signals but that will mean an intrusion to the
moment, which should be avoided when possible.
10TAKE YOUR TIME!
- When you walk down the aisle (to and from the
altar), take your time.. Today is the day, it's
the moment that you've been waiting for, why such
a hurry? tell your bridesmaids/groomsmen to do
the same. Remember to take your time, smile to
the guests, and embrace the moment. If possible,
when walking down from the altar as new
husband/wife, stop in the middle of the aisle and
start kissing, this shot will always be the one
that you won't remember it being taken but will
be so glad that you have it. (note re-staging
this shot is impossible due to the fact that all
your guests are gone!)
11- While taking a long "french kiss" is not
recommended, I would say that a short and quick
smooch will definitely NOT work for great images.
Give yourself and your new husband/wife a deep,
passionate kiss between 2 or 3 seconds.. that
way, it is leaves ample time for the photographer
to "click" his finger to the shutter button.
Sure, some might say that great photographer will
still catch quick smooches, but adding 1-2
seconds to it will increase the chance, and since
it's a "controllable" situation, why not just
make sure you have it? So take your time when you
kiss, whether the kiss is asked by the
photographer, guests, or your own initiatives.
(it's a good practice for your marriage life
anyway)
12Bring FLIP-FLOPs, Crocs, Sandals, etc2
- .If you can't stand your beautiful shoes and you
plan to have an outdoor session in between the
ceremony/reception, plan ahead and bring your
flip-flops with you. I've seen some fancy
flip-flops that also looks great on pictures, so
go ahead and find a pair. (it's a hassle to
carry, you said? read the next tips)
13UTILIZE Your Bridesmaids and Groomsmen!!
- I can't emphasize this enough. you are the ones
who picked them and they should be there for you
on your big day, right?they are there to help you
and you should utilize them!! Ask them to help
you with your gown, carry your purse, your
bouquet, your shoes, etc2.I've seen so many
brides having to carry everything herself with
the dress and get frustrated with all other
stuff, come on, it's your BIG day, you are the
King and Queen for the day and you shouldn't work
that hard! you've already work hard to plan(and
pay for ) the party for them, let them help you!
14Try not to be Late.
- If you can't stand being hurried up, plan ahead
and leave ample time for everything.This way, you
will enjoy your day without the feeling of being
hurried by anyone/anything.Your wedding will "fly
by" so fast regardless, so why add more pressure
to yourself and hurry it up?
15Try to stay close to your Wife/Husband.
- You just got married and you walk alongside your
groomsmen or bridesmaids and left your new
husband/wife at the back...If at all possible,
for this day and hopefully all other days in
your marriage, unless you are going to public
restrooms, the two of you should be "within a
good proximity" from each other.. walk hand in
hand, hug each other, embrace each other, this is
the big day for both of you!!
16Avoid Looking at different directions / Crossing
Eyes during Formal portraits.
- When there are more than 1 photographer taking
pictures, a situation might arise where everyone
starts to look toward many different directions.
(Most of the time, people will look?toward their
"own" camera). It's not that?an "exclusivity"?to
take photos should be in place, but if?this gets
out of control, it will take more time to finish
the formal photos and the result will not be good
(for all photographers taking the picture, not
just the main photographer's picture). So, remind
your guests not to "distract" and "compete" with
your wedding photographers since they are the one
hired to do the job.
17Try out your Wedding photographer!
- Go for an engagement session with your wedding
photographer before the wedding, while this might
add to the expense, the benefit will outweigh the
expense. It's a real try out for him/her. If the
result is not what you expect, why would you want
to stick with him/her? it's never to late to
cancel and find the photographer that will give
you the result you're looking for!. Your wedding
is not a birthday party, it won't be repeated
next year. why settle for bad photos? so go ahead
and ask for an engagement session, make sure
he/she understand that you might cancel the
contract if the result is not satisfactory.
18- There we have it!)?I will update these tips and
add more as I go out there and cover more
weddings, but all in all.. if I can sum it up as
the final reminder "Your wedding is YOUR day
(the two of you, not one, not in-laws, not
moms-dads), plan it right together, be on time,
embrace each other, savor the moments (not
hurrying it), and remember that by the end of the
day, when the cake and the guests are gone, only
the two of you remains, it's a new beginning!
which hopefully start with a great honeymoon. If
you have done all these, now it's back to the
photographer to do his magic and present you with
a Truly Beautiful and Stunning images that Last
Forever.
19Thank you !
- Pronovias TortosaPronovias ToscanaPronovias
Tracia