Preparing for Your Wedding Photos: A Comprehensive Guide

This guide covers the essential tips you need to know when it comes to planning and preparing for your wedding photos!

As a Minnesota wedding photographer, I understand the mixture of emotions that come along with preparing for your wedding photos. On the one hand it's one of the most exciting aspects of wedding planning. Your photos are what allow you to relive your day and share memories with friends and family years down the road. On the other hand though there is a LOT of planning and consideration that goes into making these photos a reality. That’s what’s brought us to today’s topic, a complete guide on everything you need to know when preparing for your wedding photos!

Your Photographer is a Huge Piece in Proper Preparation

The first piece of the puzzle I want to take a look at is none other than your wedding photographer. A massive part of how your photos look and feel comes down to your photographer and their style. Let’s take a look at the different photography styles, how they affect the feeling of your wedding photos, and other tips on ensuring that you’re set up for success on your wedding day.

The Styles of Wedding Photography

Traditional

As the name suggests, the traditional style of photography is a long standing, tried and true form of photography. This is the style of photography that you’ll see as you look through your parents’ and grandparents’ wedding albums. Typically this style of photography focuses more on posed and formal photos, with less of a concentration on photographing candid and natural moments.  

Documentary

On the opposite side of the spectrum is documentary style photography, which has a strong focus on photographing moments from the wedding day as they happen naturally. Documenting the day as it happens is where the style gets its name from. Rather than organizing posed photos, this style of photography focuses on loose prompts and capturing the magic moments that come naturally throughout the day. 

Lifestyle

If both traditional and documentary style wedding photos sound too extreme for you, lifestyle photography is a nice middle ground option. This photography style still allows for the photographer to document moments as they happen naturally, but also is much more hands on in terms of directing and providing prompts for the couple and any guests in the photos.

Fine Art

The style of fine art wedding photos is the distinct, light and airy editing and photography style that has become more and more popular in recent times. This style of photography trends heavily towards more directed and posed portraits, though typically done in more unique and artistic ways than with traditional photography. This style of photography is best in settings and venues with a ton of natural light, such as outdoor venues or white walled interior spaces with plenty of windows.

Editorial

The editorial style of photography is similar to the traditional style in the sense that they both rely heavily on posed photos and lots of direction from the photographer. The main difference comes from the setting and direction of said photos. Where traditional photos focus more on familiar and traditional poses, editorial photos are much more artistic in nature. Think of them as photos taken for wedding magazine publications, hence the editorial name. These photos focus on directing the couple, and any other subjects of the photo, in unique and artistic ways to take advantage of a specific backdrop or setting.

Additional Styles

There are a few additional styles of photographs that are used mainly to supplement the other styles of photography. These include:

• Aerial: Photos taken with an aerial view, either from an upper balcony or with a drone if at an outdoor wedding venue.
• Film: Film photos have made a comeback as of late as many photographers like to bring an extra film camera with them to the wedding day. This adds a fun layer of nostalgia to any of the previously mentioned styles of wedding photos.
• Blurred: A trend that’s really risen in popularity over the last couple years, blurred photography conveys a sense of motion and excitement that’s fun for certain moments from a wedding day.
• Flash: While traditionally only for low light situations, some photographers are strictly taking photos with a flash now regardless of the lighting in the moment. 

A Combination of Styles

While the styles of wedding photos listed above all sound distinct and unique from one another, it’s pretty common for photographers to employ some combination of these styles into their work. Whether they’re a documentary style wedding photographer with the light and airy editing style of fine art photography, or a traditional wedding photographer who also has a passion for documenting moments as they happen, almost every photographer has a mixture of styles! This is why it is SO important for you to ask to see an example of a photographer’s entire wedding album before you book with them.

Ensure that you like ALL the aspects of a wedding documented in their style. How do their getting ready photos look? What about low light photos? How do they interact with guests if t

The Setting of Your Wedding Day

I briefly alluded to this when talking about the fine art photography style, but it’s definitely worth going more in detail about how the setting of your wedding can affect your photographer and their style. Using fine art as an example again, this style of photography does really well with well lit spaces, but in a dimly lit barn it really doesn’t work all too well.

Another example of this is if you like the more traditional style of photography and edits, but end up choosing a wedding venue with a more eclectic style of décor. Things are going to look a little off in your album. This goes to show that it’s not just the photographer’s style, but also your input of choosing the venue for your wedding that can dramatically impact the look and feel of your wedding photos.

Trust Your Photographer

An absolutely crucial piece in making the most of your preparation for your wedding photos is making sure that you trust your photographer. By the time you book with them you should have seen a full wedding album of theirs, and have had a few conversations with them to get a feel for their personality. This is all important in making sure that you trust them, but there’s one thing I recommend above all else to ensure that you're completely comfortable with them photographing your wedding day…

Have an Engagement Session with Your Wedding Photographer

This is one of THE most important tips I can give any couple when preparing for their wedding photos. Having an engagement session with your photographer is almost a must in my opinion for a couple reasons. First is that it gives you and your photographer the chance to actually get to know one another before the big day. You’ll of course have some email correspondence and phone conversations up to this point, but actually interacting with one another in the real world is the best way to get to know each other.

The other major benefit of this is that you’re able to get some of that awkwardness that comes with being in front of the camera out of the way in a setting that has much lower stakes. An engagement session allows you all to get to know one another, yes, but it also allows the photographer to figure out what you two do and don’t like in terms of posing, PDA, etc. It also means that when your wedding day does come around you’ll be excited to see your photographer rather than anxious about how you’ll look in the camera!

Preparing for the Photos Themselves

So outside of choosing the right photographer for your wedding day, what else can you do to make sure that you’re preparing correctly for your wedding photos? I’m glad you asked!

Nail Down Your Timeline

My first tip is something that either your photographer or a wedding planner (if you plan on booking one), can help with, nail down the timeline of your wedding day. Your wedding day timeline is both the glue that holds your wedding together and the map that guides you along the journey of your day. Having a rock solid timeline means that you, your wedding party, and your vendors can all rely on it to know exactly what they should be doing and when they should be doing it throughout your day. This also is a must for preparing for your wedding photos as it guides everyone in knowing when and where they need to be there for photos. Whether it’s your family photos after the ceremony, or wedding party portraits after your first look, this is a must for your sanity on your wedding day!

First Look or No First Look

Speaking of a first look, deciding whether or not you want one for your wedding day is an important decision you’ll have to make that can drastically affect your portrait photo timeframe. For example, if you do have a first look you then are able to take ALL of your wedding party portraits before your ceremony which can greatly free up the rest of the day. On the flipside, no first look means that newlywed, family and wedding party portraits all will have to be done between your ceremony and reception, greatly reducing the amount of flexibility you have for the day. For more information on the benefits of each option, and a deeper look at how it affects your timeline, check out this article.

The Season of Your Wedding

What season do you plan to have your wedding in? It’s an important question not only for general planning purposes, but also for preparing for the different photos that will be taken throughout the wedding day. For instance, shorter wedding days like those in the fall or winter mean that sunset takes place earlier in the day. If you want sunset portraits, which I HIGHLY recommend, you’ll want to make sure you can fit them into the timeline of your day. The shorter days also mean that there’s just less natural light in general, making things more challenging if you’re after that light and airy editing style.

Create a Must-Have Photos List

One of the most important pieces of preparation when planning for your wedding photos is coming up with a list of must-have photos for your day. This is something that you and your partner will discuss and then work through with your photographer to make sure everything is feasible. What different iterations of family photos do you want? Are there special moments and details that you absolutely want documented? Are you hoping to get as many candid photos of your guests on the dance floor as possible? All this information will help to guide your photographer and ensure that they don’t miss a single moment or memory that you’re wanting from your wedding day!

Should You Have a Second Photographer?

The answer to this question varies greatly from couple to couple and wedding to wedding. Typically only needed for the largest of weddings, second photographers are something that can usually be added on to any wedding day if the couple wants to do so. The main benefit of having a second photographer is of course more photos from your wedding day, but oftentimes they aren’t really needed for smaller gatherings. Ultimately though it is the couples choice, and if you want to get as many photos as possible from your day this is the best way to do it!

Prep Your Details

Last but not least, prepare your wedding details so that they’re accessible and ready to go for photos. One of the earliest photos taken from a wedding day is of the wedding day flat lay. If you’re not sure on what a flat lay is check out this article from Wedding Wire that covers them in detail. The general concept of a flat lay is an arrangement of wedding day details such as your florals, invitation suite, wedding rings, and other details set aside for artistic photos. These beautiful arrangements have become a staple of most wedding days, which is why setting the pieces needed for your flat lay aside is a great idea to start off your wedding day on the right foot!

And there you have it, a comprehensive guide on how to properly plan for your wedding photos so that you can enjoy your album to the fullest! For more wedding planning tips make sure you check out some of my other articles, and if you’re ready to book me to document your day be sure to send me an inquiry today!