Wedding planning can be an exciting but stressful time. From choosing the right venue to finding the perfect dress, there is a lot to consider. However, with the right planning and preparation, you can make the process a breeze. Here are some tips to help make wedding planning a success (from a photographer standpoint) :

1. CHOOSING YOUR PERFECT VENDORS
   When you start the wedding planning process, the first step to bringing your dream day to life is finding and booking your dream vendors! Vendors tend to start booking up a year in advanced, sometimes even more! It is always best to book the vendors you can’t envision your day without FIRST, secure that date, and then go from there. Do your research, look at portfolios and reviews, and most importantly, have a call with them before you book! You will have to spend some time with every vendor you hire (some you will be spending your entire day with) and it is so important that they are someone that you will enjoy being around on one of the most important days of your life! Do not settle for just any vendor strictly based on price, not having vendors you LOVE will make a huge difference in your day!
   
   
2. CLEARLY COMMUNICATE YOUR VISION
   Be clear about what you want. This is your day, and you will only get to live it once. If you hold back on thoughts you have just because you don’t want to feel bossy, you may end up having some regrets about your wedding. Now, this isn’t to say to go all bride/groom-zilla on your vendors (please don’t lol) but please be (kindly) honest about what you want. We as vendors are here to help you bring your dream wedding to life, we want to see it come to fruition just like you do!
   
   
   
3. PLANNING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY TIMELINE
   When creating a timeline of your day, we always recommend working with your photographer to allow them to help you allocate enough time for them to capture all of the most important parts of your day. Some couples choose to have their photographer there all day to get those “getting ready” photos, some opt out of that and just have their photographer there for the ceremony. Decide what are the most important things that you want captured, and then go from there!
   
   
4. LIGHTING
   Another thing that your photographer can help with is figuring out the best tie for photos, in regards to lighting. For example, if your ceremony will be outside in the middle of a bright sunny day, we always recommend trying to have it in an area of the venue that is more shaded. The bright sun can cause for some squinting eyes and unflattering shadows on the face, which is of course not the look we want for your photos! We are here to help you think of the little things you may not think of :) It is just the way the photographers brain is wired
   
   
   
5. MAKE A SHOT LIST
   When working with us, we send out an extensive wedding questionnaire to help us understand all we need to know about your big day. Included in this, we list a ton of typical shots that couples want captured at their wedding and ask you to rate how important it is that we capture that. After you rate those, there is a place to include any additional photos that you want taken that we didn’t have in our list. We will work together to make sure that you get every photo that you want to remember forever!
   
   
6. RELAX AND ENJOY YOUR DAY
   This one may seem easier said than done, but trust me on this – after you went through months and months of wedding planning, you deserve to just enjoy the shit out of your big day. This will be one of the best days of your life, you are marrying the love of your life!! The more relaxed and comfortable you are, the better we as photographers are able to do our jobs. You know what you look like when you are uncomfortable or stressed. We want your photos to look nothing but joyful, exciting, and like it is the best damn day of your life (as it should be!)
   
   

Use these planning tips as a guideline to help you answer some questions you may not have realized you had. Hire your perfect vendors, work with your photographer on lighting and timelines, and RELAX! You only get to live this day once, make it everything you could ever dream of :)