shape
carat
color
clarity

Question, for newlyweds & oldyweds

mrsjacob

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jul 9, 2011
Messages
125
I'm shooting my first wedding in years this Saturday in Florida, and I thought some of you might offer up your experiences, to help me do the best job I can. I want to make the experience perfect for the bride and groom. I just have a short list of general questions, but feel free to share any stories you might think would be useful.

How long did your post-ceremony photo-shoot last?

What were some things that your photographer did that bothered you?

What were some things your photographer did that you really liked?

How long was your turn-around on getting your photos back, and how did you feel about it?

I really appreciate any who take the time to help me out. I'm pretty rusty, and nervous about the wedding!
 

vc10um

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 22, 2009
Messages
6,006
Ooooo! Sounds like fun! I'm sure it will go well!

How long did your post-ceremony photo-shoot last? We did about 15 minutes of portraits at the church, followed by about 40 minutes of full bridal party shots at our first location, and then about 20 minutes of additional B&G only time there, and then 25 minutes of B&G time at our second location. Not including transit time. All included, it was probably 2-2.5 hours.

What were some things that your photographer did that bothered you? Nothing I can think of, really! We worked with a few really awesome photographers leading up to the wedding and we enjoyed all of them!

What were some things your photographer did that you really liked? When my husband said he needed more direction, she gave it to him! But she kinda let me just work off how she'd posed/directed my husband because I was way more comfortable and natural that way. She also scoped out our shooting locations she hadn't been to prior to the wedding to become familiar with them.

How long was your turn-around on getting your photos back, and how did you feel about it? We had our full set of images within 4 weeks, and a 50-image preview within 4 days. I was definitely happy with that.

I hope that helps!
 

Echidna

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
Messages
723
Good luck Mrs Jacob! I'm sure you'll be fabulous.

Here are my answers:

How long did your post-ceremony photo-shoot last?

I think we had about an hour and a quarter (including some travel time from the park where we married to the reception venue). Our entire party stayed with us for this time.

What were some things that your photographer did that bothered you?

Nothing. Our photographer was AWESOME :appl:

What were some things your photographer did that you really liked?

Loads! Big things:

(1) He was very receptive to my timeline and stuck to it exactly, but in a really relaxed way. We'd discussed timing and I'd made sure it was feasible for him. I valued his honesty about timing.
(2) He was relaxed and flexible. This helped me to not be such a stress case.
(3) He often shot from quite a distance, and just allowed us to chat and cuddle and be in the moment. It gave us the illusion of privacy that we needed to relax.
(4) We didn't have time to visit many locations, but there is a huge amount of variety in our shots. That takes some skill, but we really appreciated it.
(5) We had an engagement shoot to get used to his style.



How long was your turn-around on getting your photos back, and how did you feel about it?

We had sneak peak photos (about 12 fully photoshopped photos) posted to Facebook 3 days after the wedding (and the SAME day as our post-wedding shoot). That was awesome! Draft album was presented to us 4 weeks later. I thought at the time that was smart- it capitalises on people being excited post-wedding (before the financial priorities change!).

Hope that helps; I'm sure I'll think of more things later!
 

Clairitek

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
4,881
How long did your post-ceremony photo-shoot last?

We did some portraits after the ceremony and bridal party before the ceremony. The bridal party stuff took about half an hour. Maybe a little less. We had about 45 minutes of total shooting time after our ceremony but we did a few different locations. I didn't include travel time in that estimate and 10 minutes or so was actually the walk from the waterfront back up to the hotel. We stopped and took some photos in that time along the way.

What were some things that your photographer did that bothered you?

Nothing. He was great.
Things that OTHER photographers have done that really bugged me include posing us in super overdone and cheesy poses (though this is a personal taste thing mostly) and saying inappropriate "funny" things (telling a bridesmaid that she looks like a hooker is not a good idea... something tells me you have WAY more taste than that though).

What were some things your photographer did that you really liked?

He let us do us. He would suggest actions to make or take and poses but only when we would kind of come to a natural stopping point in a scene and we wanted more variety. I really liked everything that he suggested and it helped remove some of the awkwardness of our photos and make them look fairly natural. I liked that he didn't use a bunch of filters and affects when editing the photos. I saw some straight out of the camera and they looked a lot like what he gave us as edited.

ETA: He was great about staying out of the face of people who weren't really into having their photo taken. My mom hates the camera and really was upset with me that I would invite the photographer to come to the salon with us while we were getting ready. So I called him the day before and told him that my mom didn't want any photos taken of her while she was getting her hair and make-up done and he obliged happily. He managed to be so sneaky with his photos during the reception dinner that he caught some GREAT photos of my mom laughing with her sister that I absolutely ADORE.

How long was your turn-around on getting your photos back, and how did you feel about it?

We got the edited photos in just over a month. I felt like that was totally acceptable. I think anywhere up to 6 weeks is reasonable.


Best of luck to you! Congrats on growing your business as a photographer. Have you considered emailing the client and asking questions about what they like and don't like about wedding photography experience if they've ever had any (as part of a bridal party or a previous marriage)?
 
Be a part of the community Get 3 HCA Results
Top