Congratulations! You’re engaged! Now what? As a newly engaged couple you’re probably feeling a little overwhelmed right now because being engaged means you have a lot of planning ahead of you to do for your wedding day. So what should you do? What are some tips from a professional wedding photographer? I’m going to discuss all about it below!
By the way I don’t mean to scare you with this post. I want to give you the best tips that I learned so that you won’t encounter the same problems that I often see from a photographer’s perspective. I’ve some great tips on maximizing your wedding experience as well as increasing your chance of getting awesome photographs that you can pass down to generations to come! How does that sound?
Are you ready? Let keep reading!
Wedding planning order sequence:
From my experience, most couples plan their wedding vendors in the below orders. There are no right or wrong answers but let me use the below orders to set the tone of this article.
- Set up wedding date – So you can book the venue
- Find the venue that you like + has your wedding date available
- Find a wedding planner that understands your vision
- Find a photographer that fit your photography style, personality and price
- Find a cake vendor that has the design you’re looking for
- Find a Florist that has the flowers you’re looking for
- Find a DJ that has a great voice and knows what he/she is doing on the wedding day
- Find a makeup artist that knows how to work with your skintone
- The list goes on and on…
Does this sound familiar to your plans? If your answer is yes then that’s perfect because this was exactly how Melonie (my wife) planned our own wedding! She did this all by herself (kudos to her) except we did not hire a wedding planner.
Using the summary above here are my top 2 tips:
Choose your wedding date wisely
This is the first and one of the most important tips from a professional wedding photographer point of view. The thing is, if you are not bound with any family or cultural traditions then the only thing that you are being bounded is the season. The most popular time to getting married usually is between June to late October here in Atlanta. Depending on where you live if you are getting married on weekends make sure you are booking vendors at least 1 year ahead during those busy times. Also, pay attention to public holidays like labor day because it’ll affect your guests attendance rate and also vendor rate (for some companies).
First look vs no first look
Once you have figured out your wedding date it’s time to think about the first look. So what exactly is a first look? It’s the time before the ceremony where you’re going to see your fiancé the first time. Some couples that I encountered do not want to do it due to the American tradition. Whereas some couples don’t want to let the emotions go before the ceremony (they want to save it up for later during the ceremony!). At either case that’s totally fine. My best advice is the follows:
Do you want more time for formal family pictures, couples portraits and bridal party photos? If yes choose to do first look.
Do you want more candid pictures of the overall wedding, a traditional to not see the bride/groom before the ceremony? If yes then choose NOT TO do first look.
Again there is not right or wrong answer it’s totally up to you. Feel free to ask me questions about your situation from my contacts on the homepage.
Have a wedding album goal in mind
It may sound silly to think about wedding album even before knowing what your wedding is going to be like. I don’t do this because I’m a wedding photographer. But this step is critical because it helps you plan your wedding and let you have an overall picture. For example, if you are expecting your wedding album to have lots of pictures with you and your fiancé (couples portraits), then pick a venue that you can do the getting ready, ceremony and reception all at the same place! That way you can make sure you won’t waste time for you and your guests traveling and that you can maximize your photographer’s time.
I hope you learned a lot from these tips from a professional wedding photographer!
Meet Gary
My name is Gary Lun and I’m an Atlanta wedding photographer that specializes in wedding and engagement photography. I locate in metro Atlanta but I do travel nationally and oversea! I am always looking for fun and friendly couples to capture their big day!
Contact Atlanta wedding photographers Gary Lun
Email: garylunphotography@gmail.com