Picture perfect on wedding day!

Here's the secret - have more fun than everyone else! Be in the moment! Your wedding is the happiest day of your lives.  Think of your new life together, and how excited you are to marry this person. The way you gaze at each other will reveal this passion, and it will allow the photographer to capture those moments. It truly is all about you!

Weddings can be very stressful for the bride and groom. Here are some tips wedding couples can use to reduce the amount of stress they encounter during their wedding to look their best in the photographs.

•               Be up-front about your expectations: Inform the photographer and videographer well in advance the type of shots you want to be taken so that he or she can learn positioning and style. Don’t be afraid to tear out magazine photos or to request photographs of special heirlooms or wedding day accessories.

•               Pre-Wedding Photo shoot: Let’s face it; those "Magazine Bride” photos that you see are planned, practiced, and picked from hundreds of options. Planning a pre- wedding shoot will undoubtedly improve your pictures. This practice will give the photographer the chance to capture that special once in a lifetime moment for you. For more information on how a Pre-Wedding session can benefit you call your photographer.

•               Know about restrictions: Get consent from the ceremony location as to where photographs and video are allowed. Many churches, synagogues, mosques and chapels have specific areas that cannot be photographed or filmed, so make sure to check with them before the big day.

•               Consider a unique wedding-day gift: A great new idea for a groom’s gift is to capture the bride’s primping process, and show the groom what he missed. Documented by beautiful, tasteful pictures, the groom is allowed a peek into the bride’s final moments before she becomes his forever, which will definitely become a keepsake for the groom.

•               Plan a Make up Rehearsal: Your wedding day is not the right time to experiment with makeup and hairstyles. Be sure to plan a separate day to have a hair and makeup "dress rehearsal". Try a few styles and pick one that’s sophisticated and romantic, but lets you look like your beautiful and radiant self.

•               Know your Make-up: Being a blushing bride may take more than the simple mascara and lip gloss you’re used to. For your wedding day, add a bit more make-up so you appear as beautiful and glowing in your portraits as you are in real life. Consider a bit of blush around the cheeks or matte lipstick to “pop” in your pictures. But don’t go overboard; let your true beauty shine through on this joyous occasion.

•               Have your bridesmaids match: Double check your bridesmaids and try to get their makeup to match each other. Having a theme with hair and make up will make your wedding party look more unified and will really tie into the overall wedding look.

•               Find time for intimate shots: Let the photographer take shots of just you and your special someone. Try sneaking off to a remote location for a few minutes to capture a truly loving moment that will definitely highlight your wedding album.

Breathe, relax, and smile: The brides who take the best pictures are always the ones who smile the most, and look as though they don’t have a care in the world. While this day is to share with friends and loved ones, it’s really about the wedding couple. Enjoy your wedding: laugh, smile, and gaze at your new husband/wife. Forget about the cameras and flashes and have fun!

Danny and Monica

Why hire a professional photographer

Budget conscious couples often opt to have a family member or an amateur photographer document their wedding. With the abundance of good cameras on the market these days many are calling themselves photographers. Barnes and Nobel is full of “become a photographer” books. Most of the time these people have another job and don’t have the time to really learn to use their equipment and polish their skills. They play it safe and usually use their gear in automatic mode. The result is not much different then a point and shoot picture. Sure they got the picture but “deer in headlights” or “flash not flashing” is not what the couple had in mind for her wedding memories. In auto mode the camera decides everything for you. The camera does not know the bride and groom or what their vision for their wedding is. It just picks based on a generic algorithm. Anyone can take a picture. A professional creates a photograph.

Taken with my iPhone

In the hands of a professional photographer a point and shoot or even an iPhone camera can create amazing results. This is because the equipment is secondary to the skill and vision of the photographer. As a professional photographer I purchase the best equipment available. A typical lens in my gear bag runs $1,900.00. Your average consumer lens is about $250.00. The difference comes from the ability of the lens to deliver flawless images in poorly lit rooms or in harsh sunlight. Couple the technical ability of the photographer with that of the gear and you have memories that were perfectly captured for the rest of your life. No “oops” I did not get that shot! 

I realize that a wedding budget gets stretched from all directions. Keep in mind that after the wedding the flower arrangement goes bad, the food and cake gets eaten, the DJ goes home and the venue is rented by someone else. Aside from the rings all that remains is perhaps the dress (if it was not rented) and the photographic images of the day. Despite this, many couples choose to budget very little towards the one thing that can bring the day back to them to relive over and over.

Window light on wedding gown.

A professional wedding photographer should know how to tell a story through pictures. Capturing details that bring the flavor and feel of the event. You want the people who couldn’t make the wedding to be able to look at the photographs and to be able to get a mood and feel of how the whole day actually went. A professional wedding photographer knows how to capture every single moment of your wedding in all its glory. They can give your photographs a polished look, rather than a simple point and shoot effect. They can suggest some unique ways to photograph your wedding. For example they will assess the location and suggest good areas in which to take the photographs so that the scenery will enhance the images.

 A professional photographer will offer different ideas on how your final images can be presented in a way that is unique to you, so they don’t just become another set of photographs tucked away in a drawer. 

I would love to be the photographer you choose for your most precious day. You may reach me through my web site or at 305-457-3100.