Digi-sign Wedding Photography Schedule Made Easy

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hi I'm Karen Hill from Karen Hill photography fine art wedding photography I'm here to talk to you today about creating a timeline with your clients and having a successful wedding day shoot so the first thing I want I do when I am contracted for a wedding and we're getting ready to work on the timeline together I send out a questionnaire I send it out about a month before the wedding and the client fills in all the questions and I get an idea of locations addresses size of the wedding size of the bridal party and their desires for the day that may mean the last question on the questionnaire is how do you envision the photographs for your day dot-dot-dot and I find that to be one of the best questions because what they usually return to me is their thoughts you know that they want vintagey cool Mad Men look so I have sort of a cue from them their visual experience what they want I also work with the wedding planner to make sure that we're working together and they have a good idea of what I need and I have a good idea what they mean so it's a perfect working relationship on the day of so the first thing that we do is we set ourselves up with the bride where she's getting ready and I worked with my husband Frank so he starts with the men and what I do is go in and I take about 30 minutes to set up still ice with the dress the shoes the veil if they have one the hair pieces the jewelry and I pick a nice corner with some nice light and I start setting up still lifes and then I pop over and do some shots the guy getting ready with the hair and makeup then I pop that over to finish with the dress and the invitation and the shoes and when I have that all recorded then I read it the bride usually is ready to get dressed so I I get shots of her getting in the dress you know toasts with the bridesmaids hugs with mom all the usual shot that are actually really important because they all tell the wedding-day story and then we're off so usually we set up for either a first look or we're headed straight to the ceremony if we're headed for the first look and we have to coordinate with the second shooter with Frank and Frank's gonna bring them down and the groom particular to the guide and they're gonna see each other for the first time and that's a wonderful shot and I always love the expressions because they get so excited to see each other so once that's done we do portraits of the bride and groom and I'd like to have 20 to 30 minutes alone with them and that's kind of the most important part of the date for me so the first thing I'm looking for is light and we follow light wherever we are we're looking for like just a little bit of light over there we go over there and we start shooting what I love is back light and I love putting the bride and groom right in front of the light and I start shooting and of course people get nervous they're not used to being photographs so first thing I tell them is I laugh here you guys are alone it's your wedding day and that makes them hopefully a little more comfortable first of all and I think that's really important because what I'm looking for is really authentic moments I don't like to interfere and I don't like to set up a lot I like to see what's there and shoot it so the next part of the day is a family group shot and bridal party so what I like to do is set aside 30 minutes for that and that's the 10 to maybe 12 portraits we try to keep it short and sweet and that's really important because we don't want to spend the whole day doing portraits so the group shots are the immediate family on either side and then shots with the parents on either side and then the full bridal party and then all the guys and then all the girls and then we do a shot with everyone together and I feel like that's the most important shot of the day so that's the bridal party and the families on both side with the couple so that's once I have that shot I feel like I'm done I feel like that's the shot so from there we usually go to the ceremony or off to the reception so if we're going to the ceremony since I work with Frank he does the second shooting he's usually up in the choir loft or it's some different vantage point for me which is fantastic because he gets the best shots and I'm secretly always a little jealous that he gets to do those shots because those are that's the dream shot with the bride coming down the aisle from above I love that so that I'm usually in front photographing everyone coming down the aisle and then we quietly walk around or photographing the ceremony you know there's a lot of iPhones at the church these days and that's an interesting problem or you know addition to the day is working with all the iPhones lining the aisles now it's really fun so the other thing after the ceremony my favorite shot is actually the bride and groom coming out of the church if there's a church or a synagogue or a home wherever we are where they're passing through a doorway with backlight because I love backlight I'm so I'm inside focusing on the couple and Frank is outside waiting for them to come out and that's that's the moment to that I feel like kind of the moment that they're married and they're happy and everyone's there so the group shot list is usually about ten or twelve portraits in 30 minutes and every once in a while I get a list from the bride wanting about well it could be about 50 group shots and I have to gently let her know that that's not the focus of the day for us that we really want to concentrate on the candid moments and that the group shots are 30 minutes where everyone is kind of tied to this moment and we don't want to extend it longer so I let her know that what we do is focus on the main group shots and then we get everything else candidly and very often we do a lot of group shots during the reception and these are like the college group shots so can be a lot of fun I think good communication with the couple is really important and again with the families and with the wedding planner making sure that we're all on the same page about the timing of the day and the expectations of the client and the amount of pictures they want so when we get a list of let's say 50 portraits and I have to let them know gently yet firmly that it will take about two hours to do fifty portraits and if that's not how we want to manage the day we want to manage the day you know quickly I always say short and sweet short and sweet is exactly what we want to achieve at the reception is another opportunity to photograph everyone when they're more relaxed and our goal is to photograph all the guests so once we arrive for the reception it's usually cocktail hour and Frank goes in and photographs everyone enjoying the cocktail hour and I usually go in and photograph the room and that's one of my favorite parts of the day because I get to photograph all the details and the beauty that's been created by a team of people and it's beautiful so I have my camera on a tripod usually and you know some reflectors going and you know I photograph the tables the details the silverware the flowers everything the beginning of the reception is a lot of fun because usually the couple is announced into the room and usually they'll have you know everyone stand up and cheer and that's a lot of fun and after that it's a lot of dancing toasts eating dancing fun timeline is an important tool for the day it gets everyone on the same page but it is in set in stone every wedding has a flow and it's our job my job to tap into the flow and I find everyone in has a life of its own and that's really the joy of shooting a wedding