Tips for planning your wedding day. Number 1, Do a pre-wedding engagement photo shoot at your wedding venue

5 tips for planning your wedding day – a guide

1. Engagement Session

Sometimes called a pre-wedding photo shoot, these relaxed informal photo shoots can be great fun. As most people have not had their photo take by a professional before, it’s a great chance to have a practice run before your big day. A photo shoot can take from 30 minutes to one hour to complete.

One of the biggest reasons to do a pre wedding shoot is to build up a relationship with your wedding photographer. Your photographer is going to play a large part in your wedding day, and they will certainly be pointing a camera at you for most of it. Knowing your photographer will mean you are likely to relax a bit more and this will come across in the photos.

I would advise couples to arrange to do their pre-wedding shoot about  4 weeks prior to wedding at the venue if at all possible, and around the same time as your wedding. This gives your photographer a chance to see what backgrounds work best for you at the venue and to see the level of natural light, as this plays a big part in where photos will be most effective. If you can’t have your photos taken at your venue, try to use somewhere special to you, for example where you got engaged.

After your photo shoot, I would advise you to discuss your wedding day in detail with your photographer. One month before your wedding, you will have most of your planning completed, and it is always wise to talk through your plans with your photographer. This way we will be able to capture every detail that you have been planning all these months.

2. Planning for hair and makeup

Hair and make up artists are the first part of bridal preparation. They play a vital role in getting the bridal party ready for the wedding. They can also end up running late. If this happens, it means the bride has to rush get to the ceremony on time. What can happen in this scenario is the photos of the bride with bridesmaids and family can end up getting left out. I would suggest to brides to book hair and makeup earlier than they think. This way the bride is not under pressure if things run over, and it leaves more time for photos with the bridal party and brides family.

3. Transportation

If the bridal preparation is taking place in a different location from the ceremony, I would suggest using a reputable wedding car company. I have been the photographer at weddings where the wedding car was late, causing unnecessary stress for everyone concerned. Most wedding car companies know the location of the wedding venue, but just to be safe I would also recommend giving them a postcode for the sat nav, or directions printed from the internet.

4. The dress

It goes without saying that check you have the dress, shoes, jewellery, bouquet etc. with you at the bridal preparation. Photos of these can provide some lovely fillers for your album so keep the gift boxes and think about where they can be displayed until needed.

5. Organising Family formal pictures

Some brides give their photographers lists of formal shots they would like taken on their wedding day. I would suggest giving a copy of this list to the best man or someone in the family who will know most of the people at your wedding. It is very easy for us photographers to arrange the formal shots, but not so easy for us to spot that your Uncle Bob is missing from the photo. This sounds silly, but often the only people we know at your wedding is the bride and groom. A little help from someone who knows family members goes a long way.

We hope you find this list of tips useful. Careful planning does go a long way towards a successful wedding, but do be prepared for the occasional timings to not go 100% to plan. Good luck, We hope you have a great wedding day.