Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to name this blog post other than “don’t slack on carving enough time out for bride & groom portraits” – because seriously babes, don’t ever cut them short!
Bride and groom photos are the ones that end up framed on your walls. They are the ones you print and put on your dresser, and on your fireplace mantle. They are the images you have in an album on your coffee table and look at over and over again.
Yes – those detail shots, getting ready with your girls, cutting the wedding cake, and portraits with your mom + dad are all important too and of course they will be documented on your wedding day, BUT what is most important is that you and your husband have enough photos of the two of you on your wedding day to bring you back to the happiest day of your lives time and time again. These photographs are YOU in your newlywed bliss, and it’s my job to give them to you. They are the take-away from all the planning you’ve done and you’ll be so sad if you don’t make sure you’ve got enough time to enjoy taking them!
I can promise you 100% without a doubt that you will not miss skipping out on the photo with your aunt that hasn’t seen you since you were five and only had one front tooth. Or the sixty-seven person group photo that you are being pressured to take by someone whose name we won’t mention [awkward, much?!]. Those photos will most likely never see the light of day, but what they will do is take up a lot of time to capture.
If you are running on a tight timeline, and only working with cocktail hour to get photos done or there’s an early sunset due to the season you’re getting married in – then babe, I hate to break it to you – you are on a time crunch. I say that with alllll the love because the priority for me on your wedding day is ALWAYS you! What you don’t want to do is be like “yay we finished all three million family portraits to make everyone else happy and now we only have 10 minutes for our bride and groom portraits”. That leaves you feeling rushed, and stressed, and does not make for a relaxed + fun time with you and your babe.
To keep things in check with your timeline, I give my clients a family portraits template list and create a wedding photography timeline before the wedding day. That way we can sort out any glitches ahead of time to avoid your bride & groom portraits being rushed. Sometimes we do a first look, or wedding party portraits pre-ceremony to free up space in the timeline. There are so many options to make sure you carve out enough bride and groom time, and it’s my job to make sure that happens!
Another thing I suggest is to sneak out of cocktail hour or your reception for sunset portraits. I actually list it on my client questionnaire as a YES / YES option because I feel so strongly about doing this! The light is the bestttt and there’s just simply no other time of day to get that same golden glow look as the sun drops to the horizon. You will literally never be mad that you took the extra 10-15 minutes to do this.
If you are pouty about sneaking away from the party in the moment, I’ll do a little dance while I grab you + hubby two glasses of champagne, and you’ll love me like your bestie! Then you’ll thank me a thousand times for pulling you out of the reception when you get your photos back and you’re drooling over them!
Moral of the story: pleaseeee save enough room for bride and groom portraits! They are magic and you’ll love me forever for giving me enough time to capture you and your sweetheart! Xx -me
