I have been dying to do a blog series for brides for SO long now!! I don’t know why it’s taken my so long to finally get it started…but I’m pretty excited about it!! 🙂 So, today kickstarts my very first bridal series: “Creating a Photography-Friendly Wedding Day”.  This series is going to be all about how to build a timeline and a wedding day that is ideal for photography. I’m so excited to be breaking the day down from a photographer’s perspective in hopes of making the planning process a little easier and less stressful! There are so many different moving parts on a wedding day…but your photographs will be the ONE thing that you will be keeping forever. It’s the ONLY potion of the day that you will leave with. Your cake with be thrown away, your decorations will be stored and your memories are the only thing that outlasts the wedding day…along with the PHOTOGRAPHS! So it should be a big factor when planning the outline of your big day!

But, before we dive into part 1, I want to preface this series by saying this: your photographer should be able to capture beautiful images on your wedding day no matter WHAT the situation or circumstance! They should be able to work well in any lighting situation and any timeline crunch no matter what! These tips and tricks are simply little changes that can be made and things to think about when planning your wedding day to create IDEAL situations for natural light photographers!! 🙂

Details: 

On a wedding day, the first thing I photograph is the DETAILS. I typically arrive while my bride is still getting her hair and makeup done, so I stay out of the way and get details done first! Here are a few things you can do to prepare your details for your photographer:

1. Gather everything in advance! Instead of the photographer having to interrupt hair and makeup to ask for help with gathering your details…try to have them all prepared beforehand! Gather everything you need (shoes, jewelry, invitation suite, perfume, dresses, rings, etc.) and put them in one corner of the room for your photographer to grab upon arriving!
2. Think about extras you can include! Photographing details on the wedding day is like my “warm-up” for the big day. It’s what gets me inspired and EXCITED for the rest of the day and the images are the ones at the beginning of the wedding day blog post! If detail photos are important to you, think about grabbing a few extras to incorporate: ribbon, lace, textured fabrics, extra florals, etc.!
3. Give us TIME for these!!! Like I mentioned above, photographing details is my “warm-up” for a wedding day. So, if I’m only given 5 minutes to shoot everything, it causes things to feel rushed right from the beginning of the day! Consider leaving a little extra time for your photographer at the beginning of the timeline to capture all of the little details you’ve worked so hard to prepare!

Getting Ready: 

1. Think about the LIGHT! When you are selecting your getting ready location on the wedding day, the number one thing to think about when it comes to your photographs is the LIGHT. Ideally, your getting ready space will have lots of natural light. This means having as many windows and open areas as possible!
2. SLOW DOWN for this part of the day! Getting ready with your girls (or guys!) is one of the BEST parts of your wedding day! Try to leave more time here than you are expecting that you’ll need. I promise you’d rather be able to slow down and enjoy this time with your friends than feel rushed to get to the ceremony!! It will also allow more time and creativity with getting ready photos.
3. Have MOM and your BRIDESMAIDS get dressed first! Your mom and bridesmaids will most likely be in your getting ready photos. You’ll want to be sure they are dressed BEFORE you are, so that they look their best in the images!

Next week, we’ll be chatting all about first looks, ceremonies and portraits!

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