Organizing The Formal Posed Photo Session On The Wedding Day
Organizing the formal, posed photos on your wedding day can make the difference between you getting to your reception in a timley manner and it draging on so long some of the guests start to leave because of the delay. In this post we will talk about how or organize them, it's up to your photographer to get them done quickly.
The journalistic photos take place throughout the day, sometimes without you even being aware of it, but the formal posed formal photos need to be scheduled. If you plan it well, you can capture everything you want, and get to your reception in a timely manner.
This post contains information that we send out to our clients before the wedding so that they can get an idea of what to expect as far as the photos are concerned. It's part of a series of e-mails we send to give bride and grooms a better understanding of how the process works. It covers how WE work on the day of the wedding, but it will give you some guidelines on planning your own wedding.
On the day of your wedding we will arrive about a half hour early, giving us time to set up our equipment and allow for unforeseen traffic or other delays. If you would like, the photographers assistant can take photographs of the bride getting ready in the dressing room, and the photographer can take some photos with the groom and the guys. This will all depend on location and the package you have selected but we will cover this at the consultation before the wedding.
If you don't want to see each other before the ceremony, but want to get as many photos as possible out of the way, so as to get to the reception as quickly as possible, we will spend a half hour with the groom, the groomsmen and his immediate family. We'll then have the groom hide out and spend another half hour with the bride, bridesmaids and her immediate family. We need to be finished a half hour before the ceremony is to begin. There is a good general rule of thumb that says your guests will start to arrive about a half hour before the ceremony starts. There is another rule of thumb that says that some of your guests will be late, but that's another story.
If you decide to see each other prior to the ceremony, we break the photos down in three groups, the bride and groom, the wedding party and the family. We will start wih the bride and groom two hours before the ceremony, move on to the wedding party and then family,finishing thirty minutes before the ceremony is to begin.
During the ceremony we will usually sit a few rows back from the front and photograph each person as they walk in, and then move to the best location to record the ceremony. Usual this in the back, behind your guests but it depends on the location. We will sometimes be closer to the front, but we always try to be inconspicuous and not move around during the ceremony. We want to record your wedding, not become part of it.
Once the ceremony is complete we will record the recessional and the hugs and kisses. If we are doing any formal posed photos after the ceremony we will set up and be ready to go as soon as possible. We will start with family, then the wedding party and finish with the bride and groom. Our goal here is to get the best photographs in a timely manner and to spend between 30 and 45 minutes after the ceremony for these photos.
Once the formal posed photos are completed it's off to the reception. We will photograph any introductions you have and all the formal events of the reception: the toasts, first dances, cake cutting the tossing of the garter and bouquet along with a lot of candid photos of you and your guests.
The reception is the DJs (or bands) gig and we generally follow their lead. We will introduce ourselves (if we have not worked with them before) and work with them as the reception moves along.
In general we will cover your day from start to finish. When we are done we will say our good-byes to the two of you and the parents, just to make sure that we have covered everything.
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