How to end up with epic wedding photos

Ok prepare for a cliché snoozefest answer - it’s all in the planning. Ugh I know.  But I am here to help… 

So I’ve written a handy guide for you from decoding the internal thought process of a wedding photographer and why they need to ask SO MANY questions, to how to distract your guests so that Auntie Susan doesn’t throttle Auntie Angela when they’ve run out of things to say to each other.

BUT the more you understand everything, plan in advance, and have great contingencies, the more you get to just go with the flow on the day because everything is already organised for you. After all, besides actually getting married, the purpose of the day is to just have bundles of fun with your favourite people.

Let’s jump in!

Let’s jump in!

Firstly, you have to find the right wedding photographer.

Book your venue, confirm you date, then jump into the inbox of that photographer who’s style you are obsessed with. Read their blogs, follow them on their socials, check out their photos and ask yourself if that style is something you want to be flicking through an album of in 20 years time. Because your wedding photos are forever (no pressure).

Wedding photographers at peak wedding season (April-September) can get booked up a couple of YEARS in advance so if you discovered ‘the one’ then don’t leave it too long to get that enquiry in.

Good news, your date is free! So you jump on a call and really make sure you vibe with your photographer. I’ve written a handy blog post about why your photographer should feel like a friend (and the first sentence may shock you) so definitely check that out.

So you’ve jumped on a call, you love the photographer and everything went as swimmingly as Nemo in some coral, then you pay your deposit, sign the contract and your booking is made!

A little bit about me…

You ended up on this blog post so you might be a bit interested in what I do! I am a documentary wedding photographer. So I work with couples who don’t want to run away from the party for hours on end to have a photoshoot. We’ll have a couple of portrait sessions in a full day (usually between 10-20 mins) just to get those candids of you two being goofy/cute/weird/gross whatever floats your boat, then the rest of the pictures will tell the story of your day so when you get your gallery back you get to see Granny getting overly competitive at giant jenga, or the moment Uncle Jerry snot cried during the ceremony because he was so happy for you. These are the moments that you might have missed at the time, or you felt so swept up in the emotions of the day that you didn’t even register that it had happened. So it can be an absolute joy to see all the moments and cement those memories for you to keep forever.

Before your wedding day.

Your vendors should be contacting you, ironing out all of the details and asking you a tonne of questions before the day. Why? So everything is done for you so you can just turn up and enjoy your wedding. We’ll run through timings, wet weather contingencies, family dynamics, and surprises, special details and all of the good stuff so we can effectively start to predict what will happen when, to do the best job we can for you on your special day. If we don’t know about something we can often be on the back foot and unprepared so we can’t capture it in the most magical way. But if we know you’re about to announce your pregnancy or your dad is about to break dance then we can be there, cameras at the ready!

I send all my couples a final details questionnaire which allows me to have all the knowledge from the start from contact numbers to timetables, group photo lists, guest numbers and anything extra special that I may need to know about.

Something I do not need on your big day is a shot list. From shooting multiple weddings I have learnt to predict all the big moments from ring exchange to the perfect confetti throw and referring to a shot list takes your concentration away from the little moments that are unique to you, like the moment that the kids are hiding bean bags in Great Aunt Mildred’s handbag or your sister has attempted the worm, got it wrong and started a pile up in the middle of the dance floor.

Once I have received your questionnaire I will either confirm everything for you in one final pre-wedding email or if there are any points we need to discuss we will jump on a call together. Then you don’t have to worry. I will turn up on the day and capture the magic. All you have to concentrate on is the getting married bit!

On your wedding day.

By this point we would have chatted, got the details and secretly colluded about any magical surprises that are planned for the day. Then it is your job to love your people. Hard. This is where the hugs are tighter, the tears are happy and you’re smiling so much your face aches the next day. (Not from a dodgy photographer yelling at you to say cheese but because there is so much joy in your soul it’s just what your face does!)

Dance until the sweat drips down your face, wreck the hem of your dress and don’t be precious. Perfection rarely exists and things that are perfect are usually not fun anyway. I’m a firm believer that if a white dress is still white at the end of the day then the wearer didn’t have that much fun. I also don’t advocate for chucking make up or red wine on it pre-ceremony but afterwards - meh, you’re already married!

You can’t go wrong when it comes to wedding photography as long as you have had a chat with your photographer and you got along well. Once you trust them it’s then all about you having as much fun as possible, be present in the moment and enjoying yourself on the day. It’s those real moments that make the best photos always.