Advice for stress-free wedding photography on your wedding day

One of the most important things you can do to lower your stress level your wedding day is to have a Wedding Photography Planner filled out ahead of time. This is a critical element of creating great portrait photography at a wedding.

Of course there are the usual wedding groupings, but often there are blended families with parents and step parents. If these configurations are clearly written out on the Wedding Photography Planner, making sure to photograph these groupings becomes simple and eliminates potentially awkward explanations about which parent is with which spouse. At the wedding, my assistant will have the Photography Planner and this allows me to concentrate on creating beautiful photographs. Also, on my planner I have blank lines where the bride and groom can request specific groupings of family and friends. Some of the special grouping have been: aunts or uncles, cousins, co-workers,friends from college, etc.

When you interview potential photographers, ask if they have brides fill out a photo planner. If they say no, find another photographer. There are many photographers who don't make the effort to plan ahead for these important photos. Those photographers sometimes end up missing key photographs and creating a hectic atmosphere when photographing the portrait photographs after the ceremony.

One strategy I use to help the day go smoothly is to do many of the portrait photographs prior to the ceremony. Usually I start with the groom and his parents, best man and the groomsmen. The groom then goes off somewhere else while I photograph the bride and the bridesmaids as well as the bride’s parents. Normally I will start the portraits at least one hour prior to the ceremony. This greatly shortens the time needed for photos after the ceremony and allows the bride and groom to quickly rejoin their guests once the portrait photos after the ceremony are completed.

Impress upon the groomsmen how important it is for them to be on time. This is a gift they can give to the bride; be there on time and it will lower her stress level. I have photographed weddings where groomsmen were late, which resulted in throwing off the schedule of photos. Because the groomsmen were late, we got started behind schedule doing their photographs with the groom and ended up not having enough time to photograph the bride and bridesmaids prior to the ceremony. As a result we then had to add those photos to the ones we needed to do after the ceremony. This resulted in having to rush through the photos so that the guests would not be standing around for too long, waiting for the bride and groom to arrive at the reception.

A bride and groom will be viewing their wedding photographs for a lifetime and they will have happier memories of their wedding if they look relaxed and calm in their wedding photographs because the groomsmen were at the site on time and as a result the photography went smoothly.

Designate a friend or family member to help gather people for the portrait photographs. This is one of the critical strategies for having your wedding day go smoothly. After the ceremony, everyone is very excited and jubilant and they want to greet and talk with relatives and friends that they haven't seen in a while. Because there is a limited amount of time for the portrait photographs after the ceremony it is critical that this series of photographs progress smoothly. Sometimes a key person that needs to be in a group photo wanders off. This is where the person who has taken on the job of helping to gather people plays a crucial role in helping the photography to move along quickly and smoothly.

Make sure to schedule the florist to arrive early with the flowers so that they will be there for photographs before the ceremony.

When families and friends come together for a wedding there is often a rare opportunity to photograph group photos of people who may not be together in the same place for many years to come. With a little planning, portrait photographs of these groupings can be easily created. These photographs become family keepsakes and are cherished for years to come. Make sure that you do not sacrifice being able to create these photographs because of key people arriving late or due to poor planning.