Sometimes trying to decide if you’re going to do an open bar for your wedding is more than simply “can we afford to pick up the bar tab at the end of the night?” There are reasons to do an open bar and there are reasons not to. Sometimes if your crowd is a little more reserved having an open bar can mean the difference between having a fun wedding vs. a boring one. On the other hand, if your guests are heavy drinkers it could mean the difference between a drunken slosh feast and a beautiful wedding. One thing I suggest is not to serve drinks until the cocktail hour. I’ve been to a couple wedding where they served drink before the ceremony and you could here glasses clanking during the ceremony. Plus it starts people drinking earlier, which means they get tipsy earlier and leave your reception early. These are suggestions that people don’t usually consider when planning their wedding but I’ve been to several weddings where people drank too much. If it were me I’d do a full bar during cocktail hour, beer/wine during the reception and a cash bar for those that want their cocktails.
How many photos do you take?
When someone asks me “how many pictures do you take?” I reply as many as I can. In general after the event, I will narrow the images down to about 1000. During a wedding, I try and capture everything from several different angles. I know a lot of photographers try and limit the number of photos they take so they have to do less editing after the event. In my opinion, it’s more important to capture the event. I typically overshoot, because there is nothing worse than not capturing a moment. I also don’t know what my clients will deem important. One client may want lots of detail shots, while another may find guest photos to be more important. I overshoot so I can sleep at night knowing that I’ve got it all covered.
Support from an Insider
Whenever a bride complains to me about her family or bridal party. I always say weddings are emotional for a lot of people. Weddings symbolize the beginning of a new family. Moms and dads hand over their little girls and boys to another man or woman. Couples say goodbye to their best friends and join with their soul mates. Lil flower girls look up to the brides and want to be them some day. Grandparents get to see their lives come full circle. The singles wonder when they’ll meet their soul mate and often times couples recommit to each other, At the end of the day a bride needs to make herself happy and not worry about everyone else.
My work flow
Many times people think a wedding photographer simply shows up at a location, shoot for a couple hours, burn a disk and the jobs done; which is far from the truth. No matter how big or small the event is this is what is involved.
The day before every wedding I spend a lot of time getting prepared. I always start by charging batteries, which is a process that takes most of the day. Then I go through all my gear cleaning, testing, syncing camera times and formatting cards. I pack up all my gear. I also review timelines, shot-lists and locations. I plan my gear and my shots around the location and the timeline. What I bring for an indoor wedding, is very different from an outdoor location. Finally, I map all locations, and layout my clothes. One the day of, the only thing I want to think about is getting all those amazing shots. Getting prepared to shoot a wedding takes up most of the day before the wedding.
On the day of I run around for hours with 40 pounds of gear strapped to me in order to capture all those memories. A groom once called me a ninja, I wear all black, I sneak around and I draw cameras like weapons.
After the wedding, I download everything online in case of a fire, on 2 external hard drives one to back up the other, two computers, all the cf cards don’t get reformat until images are done being edited and burned to discs in case the hard drive fails. Archiving your memories is just as important as capturing them. I’ve actually had several brides loose their images and come back to me year after their wedding and I was able to send them new discs.
On a typical wedding, I shoot about 3,000 images per event. I probably go through each event about 5x. The first time I go through an event I edit out the obvious bad images. The second time I check focus. The third time I color correct each image individually. The fourth time I get rid of all unnecessary images (I tend to overshoot and edit later) finally I double-check my color corrections. I upload the proofs to an online gallery and release the gallery to my clients. Typically I give my clients 800-1000 proofs to go through. After my clients pick their final proofs I recheck their final selects and export them as high-res jpegs, burn a disk, package everything, and mail it out.
Each event/wedding is actually days of work.
Painless Formals
As a wedding photographer, the hardest part of my day is getting people together for formal photographs. My goal is to get it done as quickly as possible which is why I do some planning ahead of the event as far as timeline and lighting and I use a formal shot list.
Traditional formal photographs have always been taken during cocktail hour. The problem is we generally start with family formals and then go on to taking photographs of the bride and groom. Many times I find family members would rather be at cocktail hour then taking photographs. So a lot of time is wasted trying to track down family members in the area where cocktail hour is happening which leaves me only a little time with the bride and groom.
What I’ve started to do with my couples is to do a first look and the photos of the couple and finally family formals all before the ceremony. Which leaves us with lots of options as far as the timeline.
Option 1 – If timing runs on schedule the brides is ready, we do the first look, formals of the couple and family formal. Ceremony starts and the couple is free to enjoy their cocktail hour and I do mostly candids for the rest of the evening.
Option 2 – If the bride runs a little late getting ready, we do the first look and then just family formals. During the ceremony, we can do photos of the new couple and hopefully the couple can catch the last part of their cocktail hour.
When you do the formals before the ceremony you don’t have to deal with the distraction of cocktail hour, and couples get the opportunity to go to their cocktail hour. It also helps with the flow of the day.
The reason I do a formal shot list is because it gets my couples thinking about who they want to get photos with before their wedding day, so we’re not left trying to do it on-the-fly the day of. Also, it organizes the all the shots. In general, I start with members of the family that are handy-capped, then I go to the photos that have the biggest group or those who are present. Then I narrow the groups down and check of all the photos that the bride requested.
Many photographers don’t even bother with a formal shot list because they don’t want the liability. I beg my clients to fill it out, it saves us so much stress the day of. Many times my brides don’t want to fill it out and they end up not getting all the people in the formals that they want. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sent the shot list to a bride, they don’t fill it out and after the event, they make a comment about how they wished they got a photo with so and so. As a photographer who works so hard to make my clients over joyed and happy it really bums me out but it not my fault.
She said Yes!
Brian not my boyfriend but another Brian called me the other day and told me he was going to ask his girlfriend Laura to marry him. Since Laura does public relations for photographers he knew that he had to hire a professional to capture the proposal. He came up with the idea to drag Laura down to the beach below Terrene in Palos Verdes for (fake) “sunrise yoga.” Brian and I met and we decided that I would bring a yoga mat lay it out and when the couple arrived I would tell them that I was taking photos for the instructor’s website.
I got to the beach about 15 min before the couple did. I spent the whole time worried about how I was going to lie to this girl. I seriously can’t lie, so it was hard for me to pass the whole thing off. I was actually practicing to answer the questions she might ask me about the class. I even practiced telling her that it was my first time to class so I really know nothing.
Here are a few tips for the guys planning to ask their girls.
– Keep in mind time of day for lighting purposes
– Location and People
– Try and think of a plan that would make her dress in a way that would be flattering if caught on film
– Try and get her to do her makeup and hair.
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*Girls hate having their pictures taken without their hair and makeup being done.
Who controls the Money?
So recently I was at a wedding where after we got through the traditional speeches they decided to open up the microphone to guests. Which I’ve only seen a handful of times. Most brides like to assign speeches. So they open the microphone up… Guests start to give these tear-jerking speeches. Then grandpa stands up. I’m expecting this sweet speech about watching grandchildren grow up. He takes out a $100 and says, “I want to know who controls the household. Whoever has control over the money has the control over the household.” The feminist, journalistic, photographer in me really though oh this could be good. Grandpa walked over to the couple and the bride politely allowed the groom to snatch the $100 from grandpa’s hand. Grandpa took out his pointer finger and said, “That’s the last time. You have control over the money.” I still get a big smile thinking about grandpa. I love when unexpected things happen at weddings.
Here are my Cake Rules..
So one thing that no one tells you is how to cut a wedding cake. So when there is no wedding planner it’s usually me explaining to a bride and groom how to cut the cake. I start off assigning them one side of the cake. I choose the side based on lighting and where the guest will be standing. Then I have them cut the cake together, scoop the cake on a plate, and then they take turns feeding each other. My simple rule is that the bride allows the groom to feed her first if for whatever reason the groom’s hand slips and cake winds up all over the bride’s face. She will get the last laugh. In general, I find the brides are usually the first ones to throw cake. Either way, I tend to look out for the bride’s best interest.
*If you plan on throwing cake you might want to have a bride’s maid standing by with a napkin, a glass of water, mirror and touch up makeup.
Howie & Grace
Vows 2.0
Found this one in Redbook…Thought it was very cute.
Vows 2.0 – You’d marry him all over again (but make these new promises first)
My darling wife, I swear…
…that you will really enjoy Netflixing The Wire.
…to stop referring to your friends as “The Coven.”
…to never, ever try and pass off a cubic zirconia as the real thing.
…not to tell your grandmother that her wig resembles a giant dirty q-tip.
…that on our anniversary, I will finally wear those tiny, tight boxer briefs you got me, even though their emasculating and should be called “panties.”
My darling husband, I swear…
…that you will really enjoy Netflixing The L Word.
…to say yes more than I say no. To life in general, but specifically to sex.
…not to wake you up at 3 am to ask if you’re having trouble sleeping too.
…that I will stop trying to trick you into eating vegetarian hot dogs because your right they’re kinda gross.
…to give up on marital mind rereading and drip loud, insistent gift hints around Our anniversary.