Looking back across 14 years of weddings two things have always held true in yielding photographs our couples love and treasure in the weeks, months, and years after they’ve gotten married.  These two things are the ‘secret formula’ for you to receive the very best of our work. 

1. Put intentional effort into being present on your wedding day

On the day you get married, you are no longer in planning mode. We get it – it’s a hard shift, but a crucial one. Don’t let logistics rob you of being actually present on your own wedding day. Instead, let yourself get lost in the happiness of marrying your best friend. 

Why does this matter for your photographs? When you are tense and worried about what comes next on the timeline, if the table settings are perfect, what the weather is transforming into – it reads on your face and it will be reflected back in the faces of those around you. The photographs will show that worry, that tension, that lack of joy and freedom. The other factor is that photographs become intertwined with memory. When you look at that image of you getting ready while mentally combing through the seating chart you will be transported back to a feeling of anxiousness. In short, you won’t like seeing that version of yourself. You instead want to see that bride or groom who was excited, overjoyed, enthusiastic about starting this beautiful new chapter.

This can be achieved in a few ways on a practical level.

Take a moment with your fiancé to talk about how you can encourage and lean on each other to stay grounded in what is actually happening that day. Staying connected to one another physically with a touch or holding hands is one way. Speaking words of affirmation is another. Acknowledging how amazing this day is when you see one another, when you get to the end of the aisle, when you see the reception space, when you witness the friends and family mingling and laughing is good, too.

Communicate this goal of staying immersed in the wedding day to your vendors – we are on your side! We want your wedding to run smoothly which means we want you to actually and actively enjoy it. We love buffering timelines so you aren’t forced to run from one thing to another. It is completely reasonable to expect an honest evaluation from us (and your planner, and your DJ, and your hair and makeup artists) of how long certain parts of the day will take. Give yourself the gift of being unburdened by time.

Lastly, and most importantly, let go of perfection. One of our friends gave us the best advice for our wedding day: “something is going to go wrong – and that is ok.” It is going to be the best day ever in spite of rain, broken flowers, forgotten shoes, mismatched ties, sweat and nerves. Why? Because you’re getting married.

2. trust us to do our job

You’ve hired us for a reason. We can almost exclusively guarantee that every image that drew you into our work wasn’t scripted, posed, or on a shot list. This is because your brain is an excellent detector of what is real. These images stir up something deep within you and carry the promise that your wedding day will be immortalized in a true way.

We do our best work when we are present in the moment with you. When we stop thinking about what comes next then we start seeing the magic and the beauty of what’s right in front of our cameras. We know there are probably all kinds of moments, people, and things that are important to you and that you want us to capture. However, trust that we are going to be with you all day long and that we will use our experience and our perspective to honor your story and to react to everything in real time.

Outside of planning for family formal portraits, we consider shot lists the enemy of being in the present moment as photographers. They keep us thinking about what is coming next, ticking off a checklist, rather than what is happening right now. We’ve found that our creativity and our awareness is enhanced when we have been invited to step into the day with you.

This doesn’t mean we go into wedding days in the dark. We use our planning questionnaire and our final planning consult to talk through important elements, timing, and other logistics. However, on the day itself we tuck those things in the back of our mind and then put all of our mental energy into what is unfolding before our cameras as it happens. Your actual wedding day will be full of so many little unexpected beautiful moments. Give us the freedom to find them.

Notice that these two things don’t require you to spend more money or change who you are. They are simply mindset shifts that will not only create great photographs but allow you and your people to experience the deepest joys on your wedding day. In fact, when you look at your wedding photos in 5, 10 or 25 years you will have the deep gratification of re-entering into the moments that you experienced first hand.