Tips for Brides | How to Help Your Photographer Get the Best Wedding Day Detail Photographs

Hey Brides! Here’s a quick guide for how to help your wedding photographers capture the best wedding day detail photographs. Of course, in our opinion, the detail shots help to tell the story of the wedding day, but they’re not the most important photos of a wedding day. The photos captured in the moment of the bride & groom are our favorites, but the details are a great addition to the wedding photo collection because they tie everything together. Also, we know that so many brides spend countless hours DIYing their wedding day details such as centerpieces, bouquets, and decor. Those little aspects of the day are a way for the bride & groom to infuse their personality & their creativity into the wedding day.

So what are the best ways to ensure your photographer will have ample time & opportunity to photograph those details? Here are just a few tips that we as wedding photographers find helpful. Your photogs might have other tips so be sure to ask them if this is something that is important to you.

1. Organize & Set Aside Your Details Prior to the Wedding DayA lot of brides whose weddings we photograph will have their gown, their shoes, their jewelry, their invitations, their garters, their Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, & Something Blue, their perfume, their bouquets, their brooches, bridesmaids’ dresses, and their veil all organized in one location & ready for me to stylize it. That is so awesome & really sets the tone for the wedding day! It allows us to come in & get creative. If everything isn’t organized & in one location, brides will often be searching for detail items for us to photograph in the midst of having their hair & makeup done and it can tend to get slightly chaotic. Having everything organized & together ahead of time also ensures that you won’t forget anything that you were meaning to include in your day. That sixpence your grandmother really wanted you to have in your shoe as you walked down the aisle? It’s right there. The piece of lace from your mother’s wedding gown you plan to wrap around your bouquet to carry down the aisle? It’s right beside your flowers & ready to go! Having everything together & organized helps your photographer & helps you so it’s always a win!
2. Have Your Florist Deliver Your Bouquets With Time to Spare
   Having your bouquets with time to spare on your wedding day really helps! It will allow your photographer to stylize & photograph them at their freshest. When the flowers are delivered a couple of hours before the ceremony, there will be time to take creative shots with them and even have bridesmaid portraits finished before the ceremony with your bouquets. Great looking bouquets are an art & they aren’t cheap so having pretty photographs of them is one way to make them last forever. Have them delivered with ample time to spare so your photographer can make the most of their beauty.
3. Allow the Photographers Access to the Reception Venue Before Guests Arrive
   This isn’t always possible & that’s okay, but if it is possible, make it happen. A lot of the time, effort, and money related to wedding day details goes into the reception decor. The best photos of the reception decor will take place before the guests enter the reception venue. Once guests enter, all bets are off. The place cards will be picked over & disheveled, guests’ personal items will be scattered on the tables, favors will be removed, etc. The reception hall will look its best without any guest interference.  A couple of ways you can accomplish this: a). arrange with your reception venue to arrive with your bridal party & immediate family prior to the reception. You can either arrive about an hour early and eat at this time before the guests arrive & have a few minutes to freshen up or you can simply arrive just a few minutes before the guests to see the reception venue before everyone else & to allow your photographers to take a some beautiful detail photos. b). Hire a photography team with more than one photographer & arrange to have one photographer arrive to the reception venue before the guests while the other photographer is with you taking photos. c). If your ceremony & reception are at the same venue, see if there is a separate area where guests can enjoy cocktail hour rather than having them enter the reception area before the photographers have had a chance to photograph it. d). Oftentimes, when the ceremony & reception are all at the same venue, the photographers will be there before guests arrive & will be able to take photographs before guests enter the reception portion of the venue as long as everything is already set up & ready to be photographed. Check with your coordinator, florist, or reception venue decorator to determine when everything will be ready prior to your event so you can share that information with your photographers.
4. Let Your Photographers Know What Details are Important to You
   Most experienced wedding photographers will know to take photos of details like centerpieces, bouquets, and the cake without you telling them, but there may be personal & sentimental details unique to your wedding day of which only you are aware. Let your photographers in on that information. Maybe you have a piece of lace from your grandmother’s wedding dress sewn into the inside of your gown. Maybe there’s a photo of you and your late father inside of a locket that you’re wearing. Maybe your groom’s watch is engraved with a message from his grandpa and it has been handed down from generation to generation on family members’ wedding days. Oftentimes, those little details mean the most. Let your photogs know about them so they can be photographed, too.
5. Don’t Forget About the Groom’s Details
   A lot of times, we forget that guys have significant details that they’d like photographed, too. Don’t forget about them Have your fiancé set aside his details he’d like photographed, too. The guy’s details also play a part in the wedding day.

We hope this helps you on your wedding day! Have fun planning & crafting those fun details. Please feel free to email us with any questions you have about your own wedding day photography! We’re happy to help! info@menningphotographic.com

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