Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Not-so-Timely Florists: The wedding vendor (other than the photographer) who can really hold things up by being late, is the florist. Photography grinds to a halt if the bride insists flowers have to in all the post-getting ready pictures (which is definitely preferable) and there are no flowers. Florists often take multiple contracts for the same day and are sometimes running behind from their earlier appointments. And always ask if they can take care of the wedding party’s flowers first, before they do any ceremony and altar flowers.

Have Sensible Shoes Available: You’re going to be on your feet all day. It will probably be the most standing you’ll have done in a while. Have a pair of comfy shoes to wear and give yourself a break. Plus, if your wedding is outdoors or we’ll be heading outdoors for photography, high heels tend to aerate lawns for free, if you get my drift (I’ve even seen heels break because they sank so deep into the lawn).

For more formal shots where we won’t be able to see your feet under your dress, feel free to slip on some comfy shoes, and pop the hot shoes back on for the moving stuff.

No Aisle Runners on Lawns: This has a lot to do with heels on lawns, but I’ve have yet to see a runner on a lawn that doesn’t trip someone up soming down the aisle. The heels drive it into the ground and itgets all bunched and folded by the time the bride makes it down, and she’s usually the one who gets tripped up.

And the same goes for windy areas. Unless you’re going to have tent stakes every foot, the wind picks up runners like a giant kite.

And speaking of wind…

No Unity Candles Outside: Unity candles just don’t work outside. Most of the time you can’t even get the candle to light, and if it does light, it blows out a few moments later. That kind of ruins the symbolism, don’t you think?

Unity sand is a great alternative. You each have a different color of sand (usually your wedding colors) and you pour alternately and together into a crystal vase of some sort and the pouring sand creates these amazing swirls and designs within the vase. It even works in wind!

This Ain’t Your Momma’s Photography: Until the ’90’s wedding photography was a predictable, bland and stale mix of aesthetics that remained unchanged for decades. It was predominately formal, posed pictures and tons of altar formals with bad lighting. Wedding photography today is a sexy, stylized, spontaneous experience and no one can identify with this less than the parent’s of most of our clients. They will usually insist on an absurd number of photographs involving 2nd cousins and crazy aunts. And by all means, have the extended family in your formal pictures, but just make most of the formals into group shots and not individual combinations.

I’d love it if every couple saw each other before the ceremony (you can get the huge bulk of the photography done before), but if you don’t see each other before, you absolutely must not overestimate how much photography can be done during the cocktail hour between the ceremony and reception. Our focus at that time as modern wedding photographers is getting the sexy “wow” shots of the couple (together) and fun, creative shots of the wedding party. So, if your altar formals are too extensive, we can end up rushing our most important photography in order to get you to the reception on time (and you do not want to keep your guests waiting).

And there you have it. Please feel free to add to, or correct any of my sage advice here. I’ll sleep better tonight knowing that I just made someone’s wedding go a little bit easier.

You’re welcome.

Pages: 1 2