We are SO excited to document your wedding day, when you'll be at your happiest and surrounded by those dearest to you. We want it to be as amazing as possible, and our ultimate goal is for your photos to bring you right back to the emotions and experiences that make the day yours. To help, we've compiled our top advice from hundreds of past weddings!
TL;DR: the two most important ingredients for great photos are…
1. PEOPLE
Focus on each other and your people, and you cannot go wrong! Wedding days are of course full of details and logistics, but we see this as the framework for the real stuff - moments with your people. Meeting your communities and seeing you share your joy with them is our FAVORITE part. Amidst the shuffle we’ll be keeping our eyes and cameras out for the candid gems - real emotions, honest personalities, and unscripted moments.
2. LIGHT.
Photography is the art of light! Great, intentional lighting leads to photos with that little something extra. This guide has simple tips for the best lighting (and guest ambience!) possible.
Weddings are live events, and as photojournalists we are used to adapting to challenging situations. If all of these tips don't work for your day don't sweat it! We will still make beautiful photos for you. These suggestions just tip the scales in our favor a bit.
In this guide we’ll cover….
1. Lighting • 2. Time • 3. Weather • 4. Getting Ready • 5. First Look • 6. Couple Portraits •
7. Group Portraits • 8. Ceremony • 9. Candids •
10. Do You! • Vendors We Love
“This is a day to express yourselves as a couple to all of your friends + family. Do what feels natural to you - even if that goes against the grain.”
• Andrew + Mandy, Married 2015
1. It’s all about the light!
It’s our job to think about light A LOT. Great photographs require beautiful, intentional lighting, so our first priority is always to find the best and most flattering light each setting has to offer.
Outdoors: Natural light is the best, and different times of day offer different advantages and challenges. The best outdoor light is around sunset, so we recommend setting aside some time for couple portraits around then. Harsh light on super sunny days, especially in summer, is something we try to avoid. It tends to cause weird shadows, wacky skin tones, sweating, and squinting, so we’ll seek shade if portraits fall during this time.
Indoors: We avoid "mixed lighting" - a combo of daylight and artificial light that combine in unflattering ways in photos. Natural light alone is best, so we'll place you near windows and turn off lights when we can.
2. Time is on your side
Time is your best friend on a wedding day! Simplifying your schedule is our top tip to de-stress, slow down, and create a more relaxed energy. Breathing room within your timeline is always a plus. If things get behind it makes things less chaotic, and if things are on schedule you get to spend more time with your loved ones - which also leads to more great candid photos :).
The best way to simplify? Reduce the number of locations and travel time! We don’t recommend adding extra locations for photos, especially if getting ready, ceremony, and reception are in different spots. Extra locations tend to lead to a focus on logistics + transit over the good stuff. We promise we'll find great places to shoot at your lovely venue!!
As for our day-of plan: it's our job (and our passion) to capture experiences as they happen. We won't need a shot list beyond what our timeline survey asks - this allows us to be present and document the day organically.
3. What Weather?
This is probably the #1 worry from couples pre-wedding, and for good reason! The Midwest can throw some real curve balls, and we’ve seen it all.
Our advice: embrace that weather!! Whatever nature has in store on your day it can become a unique defining character in your wedding story. Overcast days provide beautiful, even, flattering light with much less limitation than sunny days. Rainy days are cozy, lovely, and force us to think more creatively. Wind is also a favorite - it creates amazing movement and life.
We’ll always shelter you from extreme rain, wind, heat, and cold to make sure everyone is comfortable, but try not to sweat the weather too much!
“Our approach was to roll the dice, pick a date, and commit to enjoying our wedding rain, hell, or shine.”
• Jason + Caitlin, Married 2016
4. Getting spiffy
Getting ready photos set the scene as you prep for the day with your best people. This part of the day is full of emotional moments, and great lighting can help us capture them in a more elegant way. If possible choose getting ready rooms with plenty of natural light and the ability to turn off artificial lighting. Artificial light impacts photos pretty dramatically, as it casts yellow/orange/green tones on skin. We recommend that your hair and makeup artists set up with you facing a window if possible!
Getting ready on site at your venue is the best option when possible. If not, your home, a family member's home, or even an AirBnB lend more space, personality, and natural light than cramped hotel rooms.
Finally, reducing clutter by designating a separate room for “stuff” also helps make for great, clean getting ready photos.
5. First Look or no?
A first look is when the couple sees each other privately before the ceremony - and we've found that our couples love them! First look pros: you have the excitement of seeing each other before being in front of all of your guests, and it can help calm nerves by building in a quiet moment together before the whirlwind of the day begins.
First looks also make for a friendlier timeline - we’re able to get a quick set of couple portraits and some group portraits when you’re at your freshest pre-ceremony. With photos done ahead of time, everyone can head right into celebrating after the ceremony without standing for formal portraits, and you are able to greet more of your guests at cocktail hour.
From our own wedding experience it was one of our favorite parts of the day. If you're still up in the air about a first look, we're happy to chat more!
Our first look was such an emotional moment for us, and I was so happy that we got to keep it personal and intimate.
• Edana + Ian, Married 2015
6. Just the Two of Us
You bet we’ll get plenty of photos of the newlyweds! Beyond documenting you two at your happiest, we see couple portraits as a time for you two to connect on your day. We don't want these to feel like a chore, and it's important to us to make this time just as special as the rest of the day. During photos we’ll get you comfortable and focused on each other, so you can slow down and connect before heading back to the party.
We suggest building in about 30-45 minutes total of couple portraits throughout the day, typically divided between the first look, after the ceremony, and around sunset.
On that note, building in even just 5-10 minutes of alone time sans photos for the two of you sometime during the day is a great idea. Past couples have enjoyed this small amount of time together immensely.
7. Say Cheese
Family and friend photos are super important to us as well! They create a record of those by your side for the day.
We’ll work with you to create “VIP lists” for formal portraits of your wedding party, friend groups, and families through our timeline survey. We are efficient with formal photos, keeping things relaxed and upbeat. We'll typically build in a bit more time than we need in case anything or anyone is running late - it happens at every wedding, NBD!
8. Tie that knot
It’s time for your ceremony, the best part of the day! Soak it all up, profess your love for each other, and make it official surrounded by your loved ones. We’ll be there to stealthily capture the beautiful moments and emotions that unfold between you two, and among your guests in the audience.
Considering an unplugged ceremony? This is when guests are asked to refrain from being on their devices and taking photos. We recommend unplugged ceremonies for a few reasons. Guests can interfere by blocking shots during crucial moments, and even more important: presence! It's much nicer to see faces of your loved ones than a sea of devices. Without screens everyone is able to fully appreciate the intimacy and emotion of the ceremony that you have invited them to participate in.
The best way to communicate this message: we recommend listing that the ceremony is ‘unplugged’ in your program, placing a sign near the entrance, and/or having the officiant making an announcement beforehand. Suggested phrasing: “We invite you to be fully present during our ceremony. Kindly turn off all cell phones and cameras and enjoy this moment with us!"
“Couple portraits are one of the few moments for alone time with your partner. Enjoy it. I hardly even remember posing or taking photos. I just remember getting to snuggle and kiss my husband, and the photos speak for themselves: there is so much love captured there.”
• Mandy + Andrew, Married 2015
9. Candids!
We are photojournalists in our hearts and souls, so for the majority of the day when we aren't directing portraits we’ll be in ‘fly on the wall’ mode to capture the many candid moments that unfold between you two and your loved ones.
We love getting to know our couples' VIPs throughout the day, making sure they're comfortable with us so that their real personalities and emotions show in your photos. These photos are our favorite to take, and they were our favorite from our own wedding - the honest + unscripted moments of the day.
10. Do You.
Our top advice: do what makes you two happy and HAVE FUN! This is a chance to share your relationship with those you love most. We can't encourage doing it "your way" enough. If that breaks from traditions that really don't make much sense for you, then so be it!
Enjoy each other's company, soak up the support of your community, and let those emotions flow freely. Your joy will be contagious, and that's what everyone will remember most. We’ll be by your sides throughout to cheer you on and document every moment.
Our very favorite part of our wedding day was right after the ceremony. All of the emotions hit after we walked back down the aisle, and we had built in 10 minutes alone where we laughed, cried, and soaked up every surreal second.
Photos from these moments are our favorite from the day, because when we look at them we always remember the feeling of being together and the happiest we'd ever been. We'll never regret being sloppy crying messes when we walked back out to start the party!
• Joe + Jen, married 2017
“I had no idea whether the flowers or the linens or the guest book were just right - but I remember how it felt to be together, saying our vows in front of those most dear to us. Focusing on our community helped make planning so much easier and more special.”
• Hannah + Jake, Married 2015
Vendors We Love
Here are some of our very favorite tried-and-true vendors that are absolutely amazing at what they do - they’re really great people too!
Video
Courtney Rae Films
Hard Copy Film Co
Engle // Olson
Floral
Play Bouquet
Apricot Floral
Ashley Fox Designs
Artemisia Studios
Rose Botanical
Attire
The White Room
A&Be Bridal Shop
King Brothers Clothiers
Heimie’s Haberdashery
Lighting
Phos Events
Hiring lighting pros makes ambience (and photos) so incredible!