Tip-sy Tuesdays #19 – A Good Wedding Day Timeline is Key

Welcome to our weekly blog feature, Tip-sy Tuesdays! Every Tuesday you can come HERE to get our tips and advice for what makes a wedding easy to photograph – from a professional photographer’s point of view. When you think about it, your wedding photography is the only thing that you have left when everything is said and done. It’s the only thing that will take you back to that special day and make it seem real again. So, why not choose things for your wedding that will look good AND photograph well? Just have an AH-HA moment? Got ya thinkin’, didn’t I? That’s the point!

To capture all of the different kinds of images on this week’s Tip-sy Tuesday Pinterest board, it takes a bit of planning.  As your wedding photographer, it is part of my responsibility to keep the flow of the day before the ceremony as smooth and on-time as possible.  Why so?  Well, everything that you do on your wedding day requires picture taking and we need to communicate with you about how much time is needed to capture each portion of the day successfully so that you are ultimately thrilled with the aesthetic and quality of your images.  We work together with all of our brides and grooms to gather their requests and expectations for us and our services and then work to create a timeline for the day (before the reception) to allow for each.  Many things you may not even think of that we will tell you is necessary!  We only plan the timeline up to the reception.  At the reception, we want to be more of observers.  Usually your wedding coordinator or DJ will coordinate the timeline for your reception and alert us before major happenings occur.

An advantage of booking a husband and wife team such as Jeremy and myself is that it helps with the flow of the day tremendously.  While I am working with the bride, Jeremy (my second shooter) is able to work with the groom.  This lessens my responsibilities on wedding day and in turn helps me to be more creative and hands on with the responsibilities that I do have and Jeremy with his.

When creating this timeline with each of our clients, we always allow more time than necessary for each portion because after all, it is a wedding and something is bound to go not as planned.  Below is a timeline that we have created recently with one of our couples getting hitched in February.  This couple isn’t for a first look so the gap between the end of the ceremony and beginning of the reception is an hour and 35 minutes (with 35 minutes of this as travel to the reception site).  They also have to be out of the inside of the church by 4:30PM so I have planned accordingly so that one of her family members is able to gather her belongings and her bridesmaids are able to gather theirs in time.  I have also set the groomsman and bridesmaids portraits at separate times so that the bride and groom don’t come across one another before the ceremony accidentally.  And lastly, I’ve had the bridesmaids portraits scheduled before the groomsman’s portraits so that early arrive-rs don’t accidentally catch a glimpse of the bride before the ceremony.  It’s much better to see the groom than the bride!

FOR JENNIFER BEFORE CEREMONY (WITH JENNA)
12:15PM – Girls arrive at church (considering hair and makeup are already completed elsewhere)
12:15-1:15 – Getting dressed and detail shots
1:15-1:45 – Pictures with bridesmaids
1:45-2:15 – Refresh and moments with family (pictures taken)
2:15-2:30 – Gathering wedding party and preparing for ceremony
2:30-3:30 – Ceremony

FOR JOSE BEFORE CEREMONY (WITH JEREMY)
12:45PM – Men arrive at church
12:45-1:45 -  Getting ready shots and moments with family (pictures taken)
1:45-2:15 – Pictures with groomsmen
2:15-2:30 – Gathering wedding party and preparing for ceremony
2:30-3:30 – Ceremony

AFTER CEREMONY FOR GUESTS
3:30-4:05 – Guests travel to reception venue (35 minutes away from ceremony site)
4:05-5:20 – Cocktail party

AFTER CEREMONY FOR JENNIFER, JOSE, BRIDAL PARTY AND FAMILY
3:30-4:00 – Immediate and extended family shots
4:00-4:15 – Entire bridal party shots (outside or nearby church)
4:15-4:45 – Bride/Groom Mini Session
4:45-5:20 – Travel to reception

So, to conclude…our tip this week is book a wedding photographer that is ORGANIZED and concerned about such details!

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