Wedding Photography Tips

Part I

This page with  wedding photography tips will give you ideas to organise the day so that your photographer will have the time and oppertunity to shoot the best and most exciting pictures of your wedding day you ever could imagine.

1. Communicate with your Photographer

Detail Pictures

Make sure you meet and talk with your photographer before the wedding about your plans and what the day will be like, and what kind of of pictures you want.

This will help your photographer to be prepared and get the best images of the day. It is a great advantage If your photographer can visit the different venues before the wedding.

Of course to get the best pictures you should hire a professional photographer in the first place. Your photographer should be flexible, approacheable, be able to improvise, and make the best of challenging circumstances.

2. Photography at the Ceremony

The wedding ceremony

Make sure that the photographer knows if there are (if any) restrictions on photography during the wedding ceremony / church service, and signing the register.

Some churches will object to flash photography, which should not be a problem with modern High ISO cameras but it always better to be prepared.

3. Book your photographer for the whole day

Do not budget on your photography because in the end your pictures is all what is left of your wedding day. When you hire the photographer for the whole day, he/she will be able to cover every aspect of your wedding day.

Make sure that you will have a stunning series of images to remind you of the day.

4. Book you Photographer Now!

Booking you wedding photographer is an important decision you have to make. You should never put this of till the last moment as it could mean that your first choice of photographer has been booked up already. When you book early it will also be easier to spread the payments. So make booking your photographer a priority.

5. Schedule your wedding day smartly

Make sure that the day is well organised and that enough time is reserved for travel between venues, greeting people, location pictures, and even the unforseen delay.

Plan your wedding early in the Day

Candid Pictures

In the UK the Bride and the Groom traditionally meet at the church or at the register office, and traditionally do not meet before that time.

If there is no important reason, schedule the actual ceremony early in the day! If your wedding is late in the afternoon location, first you have to wait around most of the day after which the ceremony, the formal pictures, travelling between venues will have to be done in a very short time.

Unless everyone arrives in time and everything goes smoothly you will run out of time and often it is the scheduled for location pictures which suffers.

From October / November the light is fading early and in the winter it is almost dark at 4PM, this will also influence the opportunities for pictures.

More on location pictures on the next page of wedding photography tips.

Pictures at dark can look great, but make sure that there is enough time to take them. If the Ceremony and the Party are at the same place or the distances are very small then a later wedding won't be such a problem.

On the continent the timing is less critical because often the bride and the groom meet before the actual ceremony and arrive together at the register office or church. The couple has then the option to go for location pictures before the wedding takes place. That could work in the UK!?

Remember that when you get married at a register office you should arrive on time as often the next wedding party is booked after you.

6. Transport

You might want to try to keep travel distances as short as possible by selecting a venue where you can get married and have your wedding breakfast and party. Everyone can arrive at the venue knowing they do not have to travel any more.

When you use different venues make sure you really allow enough time for travel, you do not want to rush from one venue to the other.

Do not rely on Sat navs and Google to predict travel time. A good idea is to try out and time the jourmey between the different venues before your weddingday on the same day and time as you are planning your wedding day. Print a map for your guests especially for those who are not familiar with the area, remember that they do not know the short cuts.

Another option is to hire transport for your guests, like a famous London Bus or a limousine that assures that your guests do not have to search.

More wedding photography tips in Part 2.