Great Photography on your wedding day
Hi, I want to make sure your wedding photography is the best it can be, so here are a few suggestions that you might want to consider when you are planning your wedding day.
Feel free to do some of these things or none at all, it’s your wedding day, it’s important it’s the way you want it :-)
• Table displays and table name cards – this is possibly the biggest thing that will make a difference to the photography during your meal. If you want tall table displays then of course you must have them. However, if it’s not important to you then having both lower centrepieces and table name cards means I can shoot across tables easily without losing people behind the displays, particularly the top table during the speeches.
• Wooden hanger for your dress – most wedding dresses, despite costing huge amounts of money, come on a fairly nondescript hanger, often a plastic one….I sometimes take a photograph of the dress if it’s hanging somewhere it looks great. If you have it on a good hanger the dress will look so much better!
• Brides and bridesmaids can often look very serious when having hair and makeup done. I certainly don’t expect you to smile all the time,
but a bit less serious when you think about it is good :-)
• Holding bouquets – the natural way to hold an often heavy bouquet is up near your head with your elbow tucked in for support. The only issue with this is that it will then be at head height! Bringing it down to navel height will mean you don’t get “flower head” shots!
• Even when kissing their new bride passionately, sometimes men will have one hand in a pocket or hanging down. It can look a bit disengaged. So, guys, if you can bring both hands into play when kissing or holding your new Mrs, that would be great :-)
• I will never know your family as well as you, so if you can allocate someone to help me with the group shots on your day it will make my job so much easier. I will get through the group shots a lot faster meaning I can get back to shooting those all important natural shots of your friends and family having a fantastic time!
• Remember to relax and enjoy your day, I will be totally focused on getting the most beautiful, natural photography for you, so you can just enjoy yourself knowing it is all being taken care of. For the shots of just the two of you, you may feel a little nervous. The best way to approach them is to think of them as precious time to spend with each other out of the whirlwind of your day. I will get you back to your guests as quickly as possible after shooting some natural, relaxed shots of the two of you.
• When cutting your cake, just enjoy yourself. Unless it’s important to you, don’t feel you have to look to camera. As a Sussex wedding photographer
I’d much rather get photographs of you having fun cutting the cake than a staged shot looking at me.
• Light is the first thing I look for when taking a photograph. It’s not only important for the shot itself but determines whether I will get good skin tones in the photograph. When planning your wedding, if you can include better lighting it makes a huge difference. Apart from the lighting already in your venue, candles and fairy lights are the quickest and easiest way to achieve this.
• Buttonholes – the wedding party always spend quite a lot of time putting on buttonholes at the start of the wedding day. It’s fiddly and can be exasperating, particularly if done last minute. Also, occasionally buttonholes can fall off during the day if they haven’t been put on properly…the alternative is to ask your florist to provide the buttonholes with magnets. They take seconds to put on well and won’t fall off if they’re good ones. Just a small suggestion that can make a big difference on the day!
Feel free to contact me to discuss any of these suggestions. It’s important we have a meeting a month before your wedding to go through your timings and fully discuss the arrangements for your day. At that meeting I’ll also give you some advice about group shots.
If you’d like help with other aspects of your wedding planning, I’ve written some guides that might be useful……
Choosing a wedding photographer
Photography in different types of venues