From the moment you wake up thinking, 'Wow, I'm getting married today' to the moment you kick your hotel suite door closed for the night, a million memorable moments will manifest all around you.

You'll want to have your wedding photographer capture as many of them as possible. Finding the right photographer is just the beginning. In this article, we'll help you create an organized plan for capturing all of your wedding memories.

Pre-Wedding Day Checklist

Secure Your Contract

How many photos are you expecting, and in what timeframe do you want the photos after the wedding? As fun and friendly as couple/photographer relationships may feel, they're nonetheless professional relationships. All of your expectations and agreements should be clearly laid out in your contract with your photographer, especially in the age of coronavirus.

Know The Terms In Case Of Cancellation Or Rescheduling

What if you need to cancel or reschedule your wedding? This scenario arises all the time these days. While the preference for any vendor is to be flexible with rescheduling, the reality is that photographers are juggling the needs and schedules of dozens of couples, and weddings are much more difficult to reschedule than lunch with a friend. Understand the limitations and options your wedding photographer lays out in their contract before you sign on the dotted line.

Pay special attention to their fee schedule. Gig workers like wedding photographers are working for you the moment you sign the contract; remember that once your wedding is on their calendar, they cannot book any other client for that date. It's important to understand how critical the payment schedule is to their survival. It may be easy to think that you don't owe them money because your wedding is no longer happening, but that's incorrect. A retainer payment reserves that wedding vendor for your date and time and assures you that they will accept no other work for that date and time. As soon as you hire them for your wedding date, they are working on your wedding date. This is critical to understand before signing a contract with any of your wedding vendors.

Confirm Addresses And Contact Information

Involve your photographer right from the start. Give your wedding schedule to your photographer, including all addresses and points of contact. Photographers know the questions they'll need to ask; point them in the right direction.

Among the many details, they'll need to know, including basics like date and location. They'll need to know if there's a second location other than the venue where they'll be working, whether it's going to be indoors, outdoors, or both, if they'll be trekking across a farm, hiking through snow, or setting up on polished marble.

Give them the contact info for any coordinator, professional or otherwise, who might be at the photoshoot to help gather the guests and/or bridal party. The more help they have with the guests, the easier it is for them to focus on the photography.

Choose Your Aesthetic

When you vetted your wedding photographer, you took note of their style. Now it's time to be clear with your photographer as to the aesthetics you are going for: Natural? Vintage? Bright and colorful? Black and white? A mixture of styles? Be very clear as to what you like: different styles will require different set-ups and different equipment.

Communicate Which Photos Are Most Important

Are you more excited about posed family photos or candid shots? Do you want your bridal party meticulously arranged, or is it more important to capture the organic wildness of your wedding? Do you want funny shots of groomsmen leaping into the air on a miniature golf course or serious portraiture in a library? Give your photographer an idea of the spirit of photos you hope to have so they can determine what's possible given your photoshoot location.

Never assume your photographer will know what you want; a good photographer is capable of capturing any kind of moment, but the one thing they can't do is read your mind. Help them understand your priorities. As advanced as wedding photography has become, the reality remains that photographers have an unpredictable ally in the sun; good lighting may be fleeting and fickle. The clearer your priorities are, the better your photographer can plan the particulars of their expertise, and the better shot they'll have at capturing the photos you want.

Pre-Ceremony Checklist

On your wedding day, the time at your venue before the guests arrive and before the ceremony begins offers an abundance of photo opportunities. Wedding photos don't just capture the public side of the day; they capture the intensely private moments as well.

Both the bride and groom are fashion models on their wedding day. Couples look better than they have their entire lives on this day; blink, and you'll miss it. Make sure the photographer gets shots of both of them while they are getting ready.

This is where understanding the photography team comes into play. If your photographer has assistants – second and third shooters – they'll be able to capture separate moments that may be happening simultaneously more readily than if the photographer works alone.

Your Dress

The bride's outfit is a work of art from start to finish, from the lucky lingerie to the last touch of a wedding bouquet. It's typical to have a photographer witnessing the entire dressing procedure.

Your Hair

Even hair-styling is worth capturing, and since this project happens in stages, your photographer will catch shots of the bride sporting curlers and other hair paraphernalia that, on most days, she'd rather not have anyone see. On the wedding day, the routine becomes sublime.

Accessories

Photographers will capture close-ups of the shoes the bride and groom will wear, accessories like bowties, suspenders, boutonnieres, whatever the 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' maybe.

Bridesmaids were helping with bridal assembly, mothers fastening necklaces, Maids of Honor adjusting dresses, grooms struggling with bowties, mothers fastening boutonnieres to lapels, all of these moments are photo-worthy on a wedding day.

The Moments

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? The bride, above. Brides want to be reassured that they look fantastic, so every person they see becomes the most flattering fan. Wedding photographers are ready to capture the astounding expressions, the delighted grins, the proud motherly eyes, the tears falling down every cheek.

When the father of the bride sees his daughter in her bridal get-up for the first time and chokes up with rare tears, wedding photographers are present to capture that moment.

Same-Day Rehearsal

Ceremony rehearsals take place at different times, depending on location. When they take place the same day as the actual ceremony, you have another glorious opportunity to capture the casual and unpredictable atmosphere of wedding rehearsals.

The Ceremony

The most important part of the wedding day is the ceremony. The ceremony offers a mixture of staged tableaus and theatrical entrances and exits. Make clear to your photographer what moments you hope to capture.

Coordinate With Officiant

This is where it's valuable to have your wedding officiant and photographer coordinate. Your officiant can alert your photographer to the dynamics of your wedding ceremony, to details like which family members will be entering, from where they will enter, and when, whether your bridal party will enter paired up or solo, and who will be escorting the bride. Your officiant can also let them know to expect unity rituals, readings, songs, or whatever other moments your photographer will want to anticipate.

Prioritize Moments

Let your photographer know how you're prioritizing the moments of your ceremony. Do you want photos of everyone coming down the aisle or just select groups? Do you want the photographer to focus on the bride coming down the aisle the whole time, or go back and forth between the bride and the groom's reaction? Photographers who work in teams make an art form of this coordinated coverage.

Special Requests

What angles do you want the photographer to focus on once you're down the aisle? Your venue may offer dramatic viewpoints from upper balconies, through trees, from wide shots including an entire cliffside, meadow, beach, or golf course fairway. Take into consideration every visual possibility and make sure your photographer knows what matters most to you. If you're getting married outdoors, make sure you know what time the sun will set.

Family Member Reactions

Let your photographer know if you want shots of specific family members throughout the ceremony. A mother, father, or grandparent's reaction may be worth the entire wedding planning experience.

Put Someone On Dress Duty

Wedding dresses are unpredictable fashion pieces that love to blow in the wind and settle wherever they like. Be sure you have a Maid of Honor on dress duty to ensure it looks perfect from all angles once you're settled upfront.

Veils are fun, too – photographers LOVE to capture images of veils floating in the wind, wrapping in artistic curves. Trust your photographer to make the most of your creative veil, but make sure your Maid of Honor understands that one of her big jobs may be to hold a flapping veil away from the bride's face on a windy day during the ceremony.

First Kiss

The kiss is one of the biggest moments of the entire wedding day. It's crucial that the bride and groom hold that kiss, really relish it, so the photographer and the photography team can capture that incredible moment thoroughly from every angle possible, with every filter possible. No need to rush that kiss!

Recessional Shots

The recessional is a great moment because it takes place with a backdrop of wild celebration. While processional shots have a backdrop of dutifully serious and respectful guests, recessionals show guests leaping to their feet, throwing confetti, laughing, and cheering. Photographers know this moment is coming, but if the bride and groom have any kind of special dance or dramatic kiss pose or anything unique planned for that wild ceremony exit, the photographers need to know.

After the Ceremony

Photos With The Family And Bridal Party

The time immediately following the ceremony is great for orchestrating intentional family photos against the backdrop of your ceremony altar space. Grandparents (who often have limited mobility) are already there; everybody is already nearby. The better you plan out these shots, the quicker everyone gets to cocktail hour. Communicate to your bridal party and family where you will need them to be after the ceremony. Your officiant can make an announcement to this effect as the ceremony ends.

If you're planning on getting these shots at a secondary location, your photographers will need to know this so they can quickly mobilize with their equipment.

Try to get group shots first, then whittle down to smaller groups and finish with the bride and groom shots so your bridal party can get to the cocktail hour to enjoy themselves.

Be specific about these photos – organize shots by the bridal party, bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girls, ring bearers, family members, etc.

Outside-the-Box Shots

If you've been planning something outside-the-box for these photos, such as silly themed shots, shots that may require funny props or pets, or anything unusual, plan this with your photographer, so everything is ready to go.

Signing The Marriage License

Either before or after the ceremony, have your photographer get photos of the couple, their officiant, and their witnesses signing the marriage license. Make time to get one quick shot with your officiant before he or she leaves.

Cocktail Hour/Reception

Cocktail hour affords your photographer time to work your reception room, capturing shots of your decorations, table settings, and all the distinguishing traits of your venue. Good photographers will find a way to grab these shots whenever they can, but having a cocktail hour separate from the reception area allows your photographer to get shots of the space before your guests are seated.

Photo Booth

Are you going to have a photo booth? Photo booths are fun places for guests to be playful. Photo booths have come a long way from the simple bench-in-a-booth days. Touchless digital photo booths offer a variety of backgrounds and unlimited shots. Old fashioned booths that generate physical strips of photos are still wildly popular and vintage. Add costumes and props, and you've got a good time waiting to happen.

Wedding Cake Slicing Photos

Do you have an extraordinary wedding cake that deserves a few photos? Don't worry; your photographers are on high alert for such shots, but it doesn't hurt to let them know how important these may be to you. They'll also need to be alerted for any cake-cutting and couple-feeding-cake-to-each-other ceremonies you might plan to do.

Traditional Moments

Make sure you alert your photographer to other traditional wedding night traditions such as:

A bouquet or garter toss
Father-daughter, mother-son dances
Best Man, Maid of Honor, Father-of-bride speeches
Guest dancing – including organized group dances like the Electric Slide, Macarena, Chicken Dance, etc. Nothing is too corny for a wedding reception, and corny plays very well on camera!
Exiting the venue: If you are planning anything special for your exit which you would want to be documented, let your photographer know but be kind – circling back to the contract – make sure you know how long your photographer is contractually obligated to stay on site. If your photographer is leaving at 11 pm, don't expect him to stay for an 11:30 pm drive-off in a convertible that's decorated with tin cans.

Wedding Hashtag Display

This is a great time to incorporate your Hashtag display, whether you're using a hashtag frame or an over-sized hashtag/social media framing device. Here are some ideas for ways to show off your wedding hashtag. This way, nobody will have any doubt as to where they can find your socially-shared photos. Make sure you create a hashtag for your wedding that your guests can use when posting so that all your photos can be saved in one place.

Prepare Early, Celebrate Forever

Like Hamlet said, 'the readiness is all.' Choose a photographer whose vision inspires you. Have clear communication about all expectations with your photographer before you even sign a contract. Be clear about your priorities and continue to communicate well throughout your professional relationship with your photographer. Hire someone you can trust and do trust them – micro-managed vendors never perform as well as ones who know they are trusted.

And have fun. If you have fun on your wedding day, your photographer will capture that fun and preserve it for you forever.

Author Bio

Christopher Shelley is the author of 'Best Ceremony Ever' (WW Norton) and a long-time Wedding Hashers writer. He officiates weddings through his company, Illuminating Ceremonies.

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