What YOU can do to make your wedding video and photos the best they can be!

Here’s our tips on how you can help your videographer and photographer make your wedding the BEST it can be. At the end of the day it’s YOUR wedding so these are just recommendations based on our professional experience.

GETTING READY

Try to find a location that has plenty of windows and natural light. This kind of light makes for great skin tones and can hide skin blemishes. We’ve found that people look best in soft light. Tungsten (Warm) light is not good for Video and/or photography. With natural light we are able to avoid harsh and unflattering shadows. Be sure to include enough time in your timeline for us to capture the groom getting ready shots as well. We will need to leave the getting ready location 1 hour prior to the ceremony to have plenty of time to setup our gear and audio for the ceremony.

It’s also super helpful for us and the photographers if the bride and groom prep locations are as close as possible logistically. This way we can spend more time shooting content for you and less time driving. (If your venue doesn’t allow this or the lighting isn’t good we often suggest a nearby hotel or an airbnb)

UNPLUGGED CEREMONIES

We recommend having your officiant announce that no photography or video is allowed at the ceremony. We have also seen couples put this on a small sign or as apart of the wedding ceremony program. Sadly, at far too many weddings there are tablets and cameras all down the center rows as the bride is walking down the aisle. There’s no way for us or the photographer to avoid those objects being in our shots.

SPEECHES & TOASTS

Whether it’s the groom, maid of honor, best man or father of the bride, these words will be used to help tell your story and is often a big part of the Final Film. It’s very important to select a few people to deliver a speech at the reception and this will give us the opportunity to be even more creative when it comes to storytelling. If speeches are happening at the rehearsal and not the wedding I would strongly suggest having us there to capture them.

FIRST LOOK

We recommend (but don’t require) that our couples do a first look before their wedding ceremony. This allows for plenty of time to shoot photography and video without taking you away from your cocktail hour and reception. Also this allows you to shoot most of your family photos before the ceremony. That being said we fully respect our couples with religious or strong beliefs about not doing a first look.

 

SUNSET TIME

Consider adding time for Sunset Video & Photo. Sunset is the best part of the day for bride and groom sessions, 10 minutes before and 5 minutes after the sun is set will give us the time to get stunning and dramatic images from your day! These images will be well worth stepping out of your reception for 15 minutes. We often times coordinate with your planner to make this a part of the reception where the guests won’t even know you’re gone.