My job as your wedding photographer is to take great photographs, yes. But I also see a huge part of my role as helping to keep your wedding (my portion, at least) as stress-free as possible. A big part of that is planning ahead.
So, I always meet with my couples for a Pre-Wedding Consultation. This is a great chance to get to know one another, talk about your vision for the day and to share details that I otherwise might not know about until the wedding day. I find that learning about your color choices, overall theme, flowers, cake, etc. all help me get a sense of who you are and what your day will be like.
At this point, I also like to go over who will be in your wedding and why you’ve selected them for this role. Again, this helps me understand the bigger picture of your day and make sure I know who’s important and why. The more I know about your wedding ahead of time, the more prepared I am capture the details that make your wedding unique.
Which is why, at the Pre-Wedding Consultation, we also come up with an expectations list, a shoot list and a timeline of events. The expectations list and shoot list are closely related and often, close to the same thing. It just depends on how specific you would like to be.
The expectations list is, basically, the picture in your head. It can be general – “We’d like the photos to have a sense of fun” or specific – “We want a photo of the two of us, taken from behind, walking down the road, hand-in-hand.” The shoot list, on the other hand, is specific photos you’d like taken of specific people. This often reads more like, “All immediate family on Bride’s side with Groom” or “Bride with Maid of Honor.” This list ensures we don’t miss any pictures in the hustle and bustle of the day.
We also go over the timeline of events in the Pre-Wedding Consultation. I tend to get pretty specific with couple’s timelines. I find the more organized you are, the more your guests will respect you and your day and the more we’re able to maximize our time together. And, it eases stress. Guests know where they need to be and when and you can rest easy knowing you’ve done your part.
Getting organized takes a bit of time. But, taking the time to get to know one another, learning about the details of your wedding and coming up with a plan for the day, not only keeps the stress level down, but frees up my time to get high quality images that are truly candid in nature.
Sphere: Related ContentWhat do you see at www.seanolearyphotography.com?
