If you’re engaged and planning your wedding, it’s most likely the first wedding you’ve ever planned, but it certainly isn’t ours! Over the years we’ve worked on dozens of weddings, and have learned exactly how long each aspect of a wedding day takes – from getting ready photos to your husband and wife sunset portraits. We’ve also learned a lot about when things should happen, and in what order, and ways to make them go as efficiently as possible.

 

Today we’re finishing up this series with a smaller yet oh-so-important part of every wedding day that you may not even think about: detail photos! From your bouquet to your ceremony decorations; from your shoes to the place-settings at the reception, so much time and energy (and money) will go into the details of your day, so it’s important that you’ll be able to relive them forever!

 

Part 5: How to Get Stunning Detail Photos at Your Wedding

 

It’s All In the Details

If you’re planning your wedding right now, you probably already know how much time, energy and money goes into the little things. What color will the napkins be at the reception? Will your wedding band match your engagement ring, or be a more subtle style? Which stationary set will you go with for your invitation? Will guests sit in the white chairs or the brown chairs during the ceremony?

 

However, what you might not realize right now is how many of these details you may overlook on your wedding day. When you’re walking down the aisle and your soon-to-be-husband is smiling at you from beneath the arbor, we doubt your first thought is going to be, “Wow! Those floral arrangements on the end of row 7 are beautiful!” In fact, you probably won’t even notice that there are any people around. And that’s exactly how it should be!

 

 

Although it may be a bit cliché, your wedding day really will fly by. And while we encourage our brides to take moments to slow down, take a deep breath and truly experience each moment of their day, you just can’t take in each and every little detail of a day so packed with emotion and experiences.

 

That’s one of the reasons why photography is so important! Our couples always tell us how much they love sitting down a few weeks after their wedding and going through their gallery of images. It’s like getting to relive the wedding day in super-slow-motion. They pick up on details, people and perspectives that they completely missed on the big day, and can revisit those moments at their own pace, forever.

 

 

Our “Bride Bag Essentials”

As Hunter and I build custom Recommended Wedding Photography Timelines for each of our couples, we like to think about details in three different categories. This not only helps you find exactly what you’re looking for as your perusing through your final gallery of images, but it also makes capturing each type of detail easy as we help plan your schedule!

 

The first details we capture are the “Getting Ready Details”, so-called because we usually take time to photograph these during the getting ready portion of the morning. You or your man will be wearing many of these details throughout the day, so one of us will capture these while the other photographs you and your girls getting ready. Stationary sets, wedding rings, perfume, shoes, and dresses are just a few of the beautiful details that we capture during this part of the day!

 

 

In fact, there are so many different things we like to capture during this portion of the morning, that we actually send out a list to our brides the week before their wedding. These “Bride Bag Essentials” are everything we know you’ll want captured on the morning of your wedding, and we advise getting them together a few days before the wedding and putting them in a bag so when we walk into the getting ready suite, no one has to run around looking for anything since everything we need is already together!

 

 

The Ceremony Site

The other two kinds of detail photos are equally important. We always recommend — no matter what the timeline looks like or what time the ceremony begins — that all photography stops about 30 minutes before your ceremony. This is mainly so you and your groom can hide away from the guests and take a few moments, either just the two of you together, or separately with each of your wedding parties, to relax and take a few deep breaths. You can settle your nerves, grab a sip of water or a little snack, touch-up hair and makeup, and just not be seen by all your guests!

 

 

But this time also allows us to step out to your ceremony location and capture a few photos of the site all decorated and ready for your guests. Like we mentioned before, you’ll be hard-pressed to take your eyes off each other during the ceremony, so we want to take time to make sure you can still enjoy the beauty of your ceremony site, even if only in posterity.

 

 

The Reception Details

Then there are reception details. We love to use time during the cocktail hour to capture your reception site, dressed to the nines, just before guests are seated. This, of course, is easier with the First Look timeline because we have fewer portraits to capture after the ceremony, but we try to grab these photos at every single wedding, regardless of timeline.

 

 

From the ultra-wide “open venue” shots to the smallest icing flower on your cake, we try to run the full spectrum of photos so that you two can grab a drink and enjoy your night and all your loved ones who are gathered, and know that you’ll be able to relive the beauty of the site you so carefully selected for years to come.

 

 

We since hope you’ve enjoyed this series, and that it’s helped you think more closely about a few of the different aspects of your wedding day. If you have any questions about how we schedule or photograph our wedding days, we hope you’ll reach out to us!

 

Happy planning 😊
Sarah + Hunter

 

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Check out the other segments in this blog series!

• Building Your Perfect Wedding Day Timeline Part 1: The First Look
• Building Your Perfect Wedding Day Timeline Part 2: Family Portraits
• Building Your Perfect Wedding Day Timeline Part 3: Wedding Party Portraits
• Building Your Perfect Wedding Day Timeline Part 4: Bride and Groom Portraits

 

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If you’d like to chat with us about your own wedding day, or learn more about our Wedding Photography services, click here!