It’s perfectly acceptable to splurge on two things on your wedding day: your wedding dress and your photographer. Now that’s been established, review the top do’s and don’ts in choosing your photographer and making sure your photography is nothing other than perfect.
1. Connect with your photographer.
There’s nothing more important than choosing a photographer you hit it off with, and who will make you feel comfortable and at ease on your wedding day. It may sound absurd now, but your photographer is going to play a main role in telling your love story and who you are as a couple, so you want to make sure he or she is answering the important questions the way you want to hear them answered.
James Berglie of Be Photography, is a travel agent/photographer out of the Baltimore area with more than 10 years of experience in wedding photography services. He isn’t afraid of taking on the pressure of satisfying brides and grooms on their big day. “I’m in a unique position where I’m able to create more of a connection with my couples than anyone else on their wedding day,” he says. “More than the caterer, more than the officiant, more than the parents – I’m the only one by the side of my couples all day, so I try to be a calming presence.” Choose a photographer with this type of mentality that will put your feelings and emotions first on the most important day of your lives.
2. Create a timeline. It’s easy to get off track when you start to fully lose yourself during your photo shoot on the shores of turquoise waters, powdery sugar sand, with your new hubby, which makes it important to advise your photographer to keep track of time. For instance, many couples will leave 30 minutes to an hour between the ceremony and cocktail hour so they have enough time for photos with family and friends before the cocktail hour. Either way, it’s your job to tell your photographer how long each photo session should take, so be sure to think about the timeframes ahead of time.
3. Make special requests. Have you dreamt of a specific pose, backdrop, or prop that would make a beautiful canvas in your living room? Okay, so maybe that’s a little over the top—but you only get married once, and on your wedding day you will feel like confident and glowing. You will be in destination a few days prior to the wedding, so explore the hotel and find artsy crevices that will make gorgeous photography.
4. Think before and after. Throughout the wedding planning process, you will spend so much of your time focusing on the wedding details that it will become a little difficult to remind yourself about the importance of the day before the wedding and the day after. Destination weddings bring memorable experiences that wedding couples don’t always have with local weddings, and you may regret it later if the memories are not captured along the way. Ask your photographer how much it would cost to add on a few hours the day before the wedding during your welcome dinner or rehearsal dinner, and a few hours the day after during a group brunch or a relaxing day on the beach.
For example, Berglie offers his clients an option to do a day-after photo session, “This can be a trash-the-dress session, or it can just be an extended Bride and Groom session. We can even venture off of the resort and go around town if they are up for it. I’m up for just about anything for these shoots that we wouldn’t normally have time for on the wedding day.” The good news is James offers this service at no additional cost.
5. Act Natural. It’s easy to tell if wedding photography has been staged, and it truly takes away from the purity of the day. Avoid photographers (and videographers) that will turn your wedding day into a production with a preconceived story. As photographer Berglie puts it, “I prefer to shoot the story that is unfolding in front of me, not the story that I have in mind and want to tell. That story isn’t true.”
Photo credits: James Berglie, Travel Agent for KHM Group and Owner/Photographer for Be Photography.
