Let me start this series with discussing your wedding timeline first, then we'll go into the details in later articles. If this is something you're thinking about then we can cover a few points now IÂ find important to talk about.
But if your wedding is so far into the future you barely started planning, then maybe just bookmark this article and come back to it later when it gets relevant and be on your mind when you're going to planning and preparing your actual timeline.
What I'll talk about are crucial for a successful day when it comes to your photography, but often gets overlooked.Â
The first half of the list all relates to Time. Time. Time. Time... I can't exaggerate enough how important time is when we talk about photography, and this is the #1 unrealistic expectation of clients we need to talk about regarding their wedding day.Â
1. Great Pictures Take Time
There is no secret to great photography, great images take time. The more time we're given the more images we can create.
I always tell my clients that the #1 reason why one client has a couple dozens incredibly epic shots, along with a couple hundreds great portraits and emotional photographs and so forth, is because we had 1 hour versus 15 minutes. If I have 15 minutes to shoot, I'm gonna get the must haves and if there's any extra time I'll go for my artistic images and creative stuff too, but I gotta get the must haves first.
So first and foremost I want you to realize that great pictures take time. :)
2. 90% of Wedding Run Late
Most weddings run late. However the ceremony and reception will always start on time. This means if the wedding is running late, the only place to "gain" time is to remove it from the photos. And what's the reason weddings usually run late? Typically there're two main reasons. I'd say 9 of 10 weddings run late, and 9 of 10 of those weddings run late mostly because of preparation or transportation issues.
3. Late For Two Reasons - Prep & Transport
Preparation means basically make up and hair. Transportation means to get from point A to point B, factoring in the traffic, peak hours, etc.
Girls tend to underestimate the amount of time it takes to get make up on. In general what ends up happening is that they start the process, they want corrections and fixes and so forth, and before you get out of preparation you're already 30 minutes or 40 minutes behind schedule. I've been to weddings where we were more than an hour late and that's not even a rare thing. Even if you did a trial run with your make up artist before the wedding and have an idea how long it should take, I can almost guarantee you'll need to pad the schedule a bit more and leave some extra time for that extra attention it may need for it to be truly perfect, as girls tend to be more critical to their looks on the day than let's say on a mock prep.
Boys usually are fine. We know boys, they can get ready in 10 minutes. :)
Transport issues may arise from getting stuck in traffic, or getting 10 or 20 cars parked up on the street outside the church and in the next street, etc.
It's worth having a look ahead on the transporting, if there's a car park the guests could use or giving directions to them may help ensuring things go smoothly.
Also for some reason drivers are notoriously bad at being late. Better to leave some time for a smoke break at point B before the show begins, or leave enough time to walk up to the church, have a few words with the officials there, etc.
This depends on your area of course and timing of course, so there may be tons of traffic during the busy hours, etc.
Thumb rule here is to pad the schedule by doubling the time what it typically takes without traffic, to stay on the safe side.
Now you see if you're behind the schedule, that time instantly will come out of the photographs. Why? Because "the show must go on". You can't push back the ceremony, the reception. Everything that revolves around the main events, or the time when the quests are showing up, or the time when guests are expecting certain things, everything will stay the same. The only place to take away time is the photography.Â
4. Pad The Timeline and Be Realistic
I encourage you to pad the timeline to have additional time for preparations, additional time to move from scene to scene, because guess what? If you get out of preparation early - happens sometimes -, I can take photographs of you guys. I can utilize that time to make bridal portraits, portraits with the girls, and all sort of things before you head off to your ceremony or before the First Look, or before any other event of the day. You may lean back a bit, get used to your dress, relax a bit before things get into motion. Either way we can use all the padded time, so build it in! :)
5. The Three Hour Rule of Thumb
Now this is my last words on time management to give you a little hit home, a little gauge for you in terms of what we're expecting as photographers for the amount of time it takes to do pictures. I give you the three hour rule of thumb, which means we want 1 hour for the couple, 1 hour for the wedding party, 1 hour for the family. This is going to be in different times during the day, it will depend on whether you do a First Look or go with a traditional timeline - we'll talk about that below -, but this is our expectation. Now, can I do the couple session in 15 minutes? You bet. I've done it. Is it gonna give far less images? Absolutely. If I had an hour, could I use it? Absolutely.
I'll also make suggestions regarding the couple sessions based on my research on the venue, the timing of the sunset, the weather we get and the amount of daylight we have in that time of the year, etc.
Same goes for the wedding party. Can I do it in 15 minutes? Sure. I'd get a shot or two, having all the girls and boys done then we move on. But if they want to do all the fun stuff, the creative stuff, if they wanna do a cool magazine style shot, if they want the girls, do a shot with each of the girls and they want to the goofy stuff, then the guys and goofy stuff and so forth... That takes an hour. :)
Same thing with the family. If you're having a small family and they want to do five different family photos then yeah, 10-15 minutes great. But we can also do so much fun stuff, we can do different iterations of the family photos and if you're having a big family then we inevitable need more time.Â
So this is just to give you the heads up of what we are expecting as photographers.
Now let's move on to specifics.
6. First Look vs Traditional Timeline
I like to discuss what difference there is to the day and how it impacts the day whether you're having a First Look or not. In general the First Look ends up yielding a better photography and a more relaxed day. Why? Because we're pushing forward the photographs prior to the Ceremony, we do a 3 hour block of the photography to do a couple's session, then we do the First Look of the couple session, then we do the wedding party, then the family