Wedding Day Tips

Being that we have a “few” weddings under our belt, we put together a list of wedding day tips to help brides have the best wedding experience and while also getting great photos. Here they are! None of these are hard or fast rules but in our humble opinion, they can make your wedding day run much smoother and help you get the very best photo and video!

1. Get ready early! Many brides will push getting ready to later in the day but we have found that the brides that have hair and makeup start earlier in the day have a more relaxed and less rushed experience. It’s always better to have some down time than to be rushed because things are running behind! Save yourself some stress and start earlier.

2. Put yourself (the bride) in the middle of the wedding lineup for hair and makeup! This way, we can have you ready to go for getting ready photos while the last bridesmaids are getting their hair and makeup done. If mom is also getting her hair and makeup, have hers done right before the bride so that she’s ready to be in her dress when we are putting the Bride into her dress for getting ready photos.

3. First looks are not a must but always encouraged! We know that some brides want a traditional first look down the aisle and that is totally fine! If you are on the fence though, we always encourage a first look because we can do lots of wedding photos and video before the ceremony allowing you and your guests to just party, mingle and have fun!

4. If you need help going over your wedding day timeline, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We have done many many weddings and can tell you if you have things in the right place and time!

5. Doing your reception festivities fairly soon after dinner is always the best way to go. Instead of spreading them out through the night, doing them back to back to just allow for mingling and dancing always seems to give us the BEST dance floor photos with the guests. Get your guests their cake and clear the dance floor from first dances, garter tosses and bouquet tosses so you can open the party and get guests dancing. If a great party is what you’re looking for, this is what we have seen works best!

6. Have a list of must have shots with family members ready to go for our team. That way we can work through it quickly for family photos instead of having to ask on the spot who you would like a photo with! Bonus: Ask a family member who knows who everyone is to help us call out names during portraits!

7. Don’t forget hangers for the detail shots of the bride and bridesmaids dresses! They can be personalized with names or just nice brown/white wooden hangars!

8. Have a box of details for the bride and a box of details for the groom ready to go for us when we arrive. This can be things like shoes, watches, wedding invitations, vow books, rings, letters to each other, garter, bouquet, family heirlooms, watches, jewelers, ties, cuff links, flowers, etc.

9. Don’t skimp on flowers! At very minimum, be sure to invest in a gorgeous bouquet for yourself, the bride. Flowers really add a special touch in beautiful wedding day photos.

10. Do a hair and makeup trial! We always encourage using a professional hair and makeup artist because they understand what products to use for things like flash photography and such. If you use a professional hair and makeup artist, ask for a trial run to be sure you love it. If you are using a family member or friend, ask for a trial run too! We have some sad stories of brides who did not do this and it affected their photos or they hated the way it looked.

11. Think of creative things that you can do to help us come up with something unique for your photos and video. We are all for doing anything unique to you as a couple. Want to sneak away to a bar for a shot with your groom? Let’s do it! Want to wake up at sunrise the day of and have coffee with your bride/groom and get us to capture that? We will be there! Want to write a song to your spouse and incorporate it in your wedding video? YES!! Anything that you can come up with, call us and let’s chat about it. You will make our creative hearts sing!

12. Put some thought into the audio we will pull from your wedding day. When it comes to the wedding video, the audio can really set the mood for the video. Think of a great family member to give a speech, write letters to each other, have your parents give a speech, get an officiant that you love, etc etc. Don’t just leave it to whatever happens! Put some thought into who will speak. We won’t use all of it but we will pull some of the best parts.

13. Don’t skip a DJ! If you are investing into a quality wedding video with us, invest into a good DJ! They will keep the wedding reception events going smoothly, assist in capturing quality audio of the ceremony and speeches and help get the BEST dance footage. If you need reccomendations for an AMAZING DJ, reach out to us!

Thanks for taking the time to read our list! If you have any questions, reach out! We look forward to your day!