do not box in your wedding photographer :: part three

Part Three of our “don’t box us in” five part series about your wedding vendors!

If you have ever read this blog, you know how much we heart wedding photographers. We post about them often! We may be an intricate part of creating the memories but they are capturing them, forever!

Your wedding photographer will want to schedule a meeting with you to review the timeline, nuances and review the photos that you want to capture on your wedding day. This has evolved into creating a “shoot list” that your photographer will list all the photos you want, such as:

Bride and Groom at Altar

Bride and Groom with Bride’s Parents

Bride and Groom with Groom’s Parents

….and so on.

Not a bad idea, your photographer doesn’t want to miss an important photo that you want. However for your consideration, look at the points below.

Tips for the best outcome working with your wedding photographer:

1. Definitely have an important list for your photographer (you favorite Aunt that you haven’t seen in 20 years coming to see you), they will want to know that. But try not to make this ghastly long list that requires your photographer to be reading from a piece of paper instead of pointing and shooting your wedding.

2. If you are of the more traditional type and have a large wedding party and family, do not think that it is possible to shoot this long list of photos in 45 minutes. It’s not humanly possible, no matter how fast your photographer says they can shoot. You are setting them up for failure, stress on your wedding party and yourselves, especially when timing is tight.

3. If your wedding is later in the day or early evening and you do not want to see each other before you walk down the aisle (read our series on this issue), but adore those outdoor casual shots, understand that may not be impossible. We can’t stop the sun from going down, Mother Nature has a mind of her own. We’ve had many clients in this scenario (although we warned them) told us after their wedding day that they wished they had listened to us. Due to weather, timing, or the sun setting, they were never able to get those outdoor shots. There are no do-overs in weddings.

Trust your wedding photographer.

featured photo credit: pfe iPhone

Tomorrow, part 4 of this “don’t box us in” vendor series

plan on!

 

 

5 thoughts on “do not box in your wedding photographer :: part three”

  1. As with VIPs, it’s also important to let the photographer know about any important items. Were your table numbers handmade? Are you wearing your great grandmother’s bracelet? Once again don’t go crazy with the list, but if there is something that you would be devastated if the photographer missed, then let them know.

    We will shoot thousands of images on your wedding day and want to capture the most important details, but the longer the list the harder it is for us to shoot candidly, be creative and capture the real emotion of the day.

    Thanks Saundra!
    -Chad
    http://weddings.PilsterPhotography.net
    @chadpil

  2. Thank you for this. I love that you wrote “…we can’t stop the sun from going down” because that’s actually a line that has come out of my lips when meeting with brides. And while I agree with just about everything, I must say, we’re pretty averse to shot lists… especially since having a paper with a bunch of names on it is almost impossible for us as photographers since we don’t know who those people are. A suggestion we like to make is to assign any list to a bridesmaid or family member who knows who everyone is and can work with us as photographers to make sure all the important people the bride wants photographed, are present and get photographed. We’ve been using that method this year and it helps SOOO MUCH and relieves a lot of the stress from us leaving us freer to be creative and in the moment. 🙂

    And THANK YOU SO MUCH for the bit about light. We have a lot of brides that don’t listen to that during scheduling and refuse to see each other before the ceremony and then are disappointed when the sun sets before it’s time for their portraits with their groom. There’s only so much a photographer can do once the sun goes down, and while a talented photographer can work it out in any lighting situation, you won’t get those bright, colorful, sunny photos you are imagining in your mind if the sun has already set.

    I loved this. Thank you again for this post!

    xoxo,
    Becka

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