Before you even begin to read what I’ve written below this short paragraph, please just look at the photos below the text. ALL of these images where taken BEFORE the wedding ceremony. This is a CRUCIAL part of wedding day coverage for many reasons.
In my experience couples have a preconceived notion that photographing wedding preparations is photos of people getting dressed. This sometimes (ok, most of the time), is met with wrinkled noses and blank expressions. I don’t fault the couples I speak with when this topic comes up. It’s just an area of wedding photography that has different meanings to different people.
I like to start my coverage at least 2 hours before the scheduled wedding ceremony start time. I do this to give the couples that hire me a great depth to their coverage. I use that time to document the details. I use that time to do family formals on both sides of the wedding party separately. This saves A LOT of time if the couple desires traditional family formals which are normally done directly after the wedding ceremony. I often do formal bridal portraits and portraits of the groom during this time. There’s a bit of the actual “preparations” for the wedding, but that’s not the focal point. The focal points are the details, the people, the candids, the emotions, the relationships in the two families that are about to be joined by the ceremony.
Many images from this part of the coverage are chosen by couples to be included in their albums, and there are ALWAYS photographs from this part of the coverage that become favorites of the newly married couple.
So, before you dismiss the notion that the extra time required to do this coverage is worth it, ask to see a few full weddings worth of my coverage so you can see how many great images are taken during the pre ceremony time. I’ll be happy to show you.
