After photographing nearly 300 weddings, I have seen it all. I have seen the most beautifully perfect wedding day and the most unplanned mixed up wedding day. After 7 some years watching some of you struggle and some of you strive, here are my top 10 ideas for better wedding images.
1~ Clean up your getting ready space
Before your photographer arrives to photograph the bride getting ready remove the half eaten sandwiches, empty soda cans and those horrible plastic bags from bridesmaids dressed laying all over the room. Having the bridesmaids dresses and shoes in the room is a great detail in the shots, but not the packaging, and certainly not old food.
2~ Make sure mom and bridesmaids are ready first
Your mom has been waiting for this forever. Really, since you were born probably. Even if she hasn’t mentioned it, it is her dream to help you into your dress. Make sure she is ready before everyone else. She needs to be dressed and looking good to help you into your gown. So many times, the bride is ready to go and get dressed, but mom is missing. Make sure she stays near you and knows when to be ready.
Your bridesmaids also should be dressed before you. Well, anyone who will be helping you get into your gown at least. When you begin to get dressed, all others should either be helping or away in another room. Girls half naked in the background of your getting ready shots will render them useless.
3~ Stand correctly during your ceremony
During your ceremony you will most likely be facing away from everyone (cameras included) for most of the time. Its when you do your vows, rings, unity candle and KISS that we get to see you – so don’t waste it~! Ask your officiant where they like to stand for those moments. Some officiants stand right in front of the bride and groom, blocking your faces and your ring exchange. If this is the case for your officiant, kindly ask him to reconsider. While we totally understand that your ceremony is just that, a ceremony, not a photo session, we know that you want those special images, and we want to provide them to you.
If your lighting a unity candle, please stand behind it, never in front of it. Then all we have is a photo of your back while you light a candle that we cant see 
4~Tell immediate family + bridal party to STAY~!
When the ceremony has ended and it is time for the super boring family shots, nothing is worse than going 15 minutes over schedule because half of the family is missing. Parents are often the number one offender of this. They want to mingle. Mingling is fun for them and it really is their job that day, but this is not the time for mingling. If you’re at a church, chances are you have a limited amount of time to get these posed shots done. We have been kicked out of churches BEFORE the posed shots were done due to missing people.
A lot of times an aunt is put in charge of driving grandparents to the reception. Most of those times, they whisk grandparents away right after the ceremony without even thinking of posed pictures. Whoever is in charge of the grandparents, make sure they know that you want photos with the grandparents and not to run off.
At the rehearsal, let the people (immediate family + bridal party) know that they will be needed immediately after the ceremony and tell them exactly where to be (if @ a church, the altar) and let them that this is serious. You could end up missing some important shots.
5~ Choose photo locations with semi-easy parking
You get a limo or a bus or whatever. We have a car. Your limo drops you off right where you want to be. We have to find parking and then walk to where we want to be. We LOVE urban downtown locations, but they can be tricky with parking. What good does it do you to be standing at a killer location if we are blocks away, running to get to you? We know of many great urban downtown spots that also have parking for us. It’s a shame to waste precious wedding day time on parking.
6~ Hire a lighting designer
No matter where your reception is, it can use the help of a professional lighting designer. Want to know what separates most weddings from the ones you see published in fancy magazines? Lighting. It can completely change the vibe, feel and look of ANY room. Here in Detroit, we have a few great companies that do some incredible things with lights. Don’t rely on your DJ or band. Sure, they have a few lights but nothing that is going to make a HUGE impact like a lighting designer.
7~ Use a traditional head table or sweetheart table
There are a few different ways to set up your head table. Traditional long table with the bridal party spread across, a sweetheart table for just the 2 of you, or this weird square everybody faces everybody thing. When you sit at a traditional head table or sweetheart table, you face outwards towards the guests AND cameras. During toasts, we can actually see your faces and reactions. When you sit at the weird square table thing (I think they call it King James style??) we struggle to see your faces and you reactions to the toasts. This is a time for giant laughs and smiles and sometimes tears, and we want to document that for you, but first we need to be able to see your faces.
8~ Pick a semi-lengthy first dance song AND dance to all of it
The first dance is one the best times at a wedding for us to capture some seriously candid romantic shots of you. It’s our very most favorite part of the day. So, when you dance to Etta James “At Last”, a song lasting a whopping minute and a half, your cutting so short the amount of spectacular images we can give you. Your doing the same things by cutting any other song in half. I know that dancing might not be your thing and being out there for a whole 4 minutes is terrifying, but it is worth it!
9~ Pretty please do not do the dollar dance
Dollar dance. I think it’s definition should be “reception killer”. There is nothing worse at halting fun at your reception than the dollar dance. It clears the dance floor and puts a stop to any great times people were having. Also, it’s a waste of photography. There may be a few cute moments during the dollar dance, but with the average dollar dance lasting at least 6 songs, there’s not much to document. We could have been getting you some great shots of people having a dance off on the floor, you laughing with your college friends or you and your husband cutting loose together on the floor.
10~ Hire a wedding planner
So often yet SO crucial. You have never done this. You’ve probably never planned a giant party for 200 of your closest friends. Seriously, its hard. A wedding planner has done this hundreds of times and knows exactly what to do and when to do it. Instead of your wedding turning into a nightmare of stress, a planner will do the hard stressing for you so you can actually enjoy the process.
A planner on the day of the wedding is also super duper important. Do you want to be bothered all day and night by all the little things that go wrong or cause trouble? NO! Your planner will put out each and every “fire” that occurs without you ever having to know.
It also makes out job easier when their is a “point person” to go to. The last thing we want to do is become another person in line to ask you a question. When we are able to go directly to the planner, things get sorted out quicker allowing us to spend more time capturing your memories.
BONUS TIP~!
Be yourself. Forget about all the wedding rules, they are BORING~! Don’t want to wear a white dress? Don’t! Love funky hot pink heels? Wear them! Don’t like real flowers? Make your own out of tissue! Love damask? Use damask print linens instead of boring white ones! Love color? Forget that overdone plain white cake and do something fun!
This is your one chance to throw a huge YOU themed party. Don;t let it slip by while your busy following ancient wedding rules.
