This is a pretty common question when we’re meeting with potential clients, so I think this will be a fairly popular post! I’ll start by saying that the majority of the day, Joe and I spend watching what happens and capturing moments that interest us. If there’s action, we’re seeing it, photographing it. We don’t set up moments.
We’ve seen several magazines suggest you give your photographer a list of pictures you’d like to have, and in theory it’s not a bad idea. However, the lists these magazines suggest are kind of ridiculous! Weddings are emotional times, but I can honestly tell you it’s at less than half the weddings were I see the mother of the bride wipe a tear from her eye as she helps her daughter into the wedding gown. Sometimes the mother isn’t present at the moment, or sometimes she’s more focused on helping her daughter lace up the corset. As for the commonly suggested shot of the bridesmaids doing the bride’s hair? If the bride hasn’t hired a professional to do her hair, it’s usually the bride doing it herself. Some moments just don’t happen at every wedding.
More importantly, do you want your photographer spending all day looking at a list? Or do you want your photographer spending the day scanning what’s happening in front of them, ready to capture every moment they do see!
We do, however, suggest clients give us a list of important family photos for historical purposes. We’ll always make a point to get the common photos, like the bride and groom with the wedding party, the bride and groom with each of their families, and so forth. But if you have specific requests, please let us know! Maybe your parents have close friends that were really more like second parents to you– that’s something we’re not going to know unless you tell us.
To illustrate these points, here are a few favorite moments that I would have laughed at, seeing on a list. We’ll start with “birds flying overhead just as the officiant instructs the groom to kiss his bride”
and then maybe “groomsmen “borrowing” resort bikes in between events”
and oh yeah, this happens all the time, right? “wedding guests mimicking aunt sally seeing a long lost nephew”
I loved this moment, and while it’s great when done well — I am sure the wedding guests prefer silence from the less talented soloists of the world. “groom serenading his new wife”
On the other side of the coin, there are some group photos that we could miss if you don’t let us know they are important to you.
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