Wedding prep

Often when folks look for wedding photographers they get hit with a level of sticker shock.  Normally things get a little pricey.  And then the shoppers think to themselves that wedding photographers must make huge bank, and that they’re busy year round.  Not the case at all

This weekend I’ll be shooting another spring time wedding.  Today I’ve spent a good bit of time reviewing our locations, planning for lighting, planning for bad scenarios, etc.  Additionally I headed out and got an extra 16GB CF card & more rechargeable batteries for the speed lights.  There’s part of my wedding prep.

What else goes into the wedding prep?  Let’s see:

• Met with the bride initially for an hour several months ago.
• Met with bride and groom for an initial time line review for several hours at several locations.
• Spent another hour with the bride 2 weeks ago to revise the entire schedule due to family issues with the timing of things (I do feel for couples getting married, somebody always wants to change the way they want their day to go).
• 2 hour review with my lighting staff
• Final walk through of locations tomorrow for several hours.
• Gear check the night before.
• Recharging all batteries the night before.
• Researching the latest in “dramatic” wedding photography (the past few weeks I’ve rewatched so many videos it isn’t funny.

Up front I’ve got well over 20 hours invested in getting this right.  There’s no complaining, just giving you an idea of up front work with couples.  We’ve got one chance to get it right, so I put a lot into making sure we do.

The day of the wedding we’re going all out.  Meeting at the hair dresser’s mid-morning.  Getting to mom’s house and shooting the dress, shoes, bouquet, etc.  Getting initial shots of the bride and bride’s maids…….  Then I jet off to see the groom as he gets ready.  Shoot the suit, the groom, groomsmen……..  Then race to meet my assistants (who will stay with the bride doing more shots while there) and get setup at the chapel before everyone arrives.

Then comes the ceremony.  The big moment.

Afterward we’ve got about an hour with the bride and groom before all the big reception events kick in.  Then we’ll have to work around the DJ and his schedule.  It will be a jam packed day.

Bottom line?  8 a.m. to probably 11 p.m.  We’ll be in motion the whole time I can promise you!

So, prep up front?  Yeah, it has value.

And that gets back to the beginning of this post.  Hours of prep work, multiple assistants to pay, a mega rush day when it all comes together, and then days of working through image selection and editing.  Then album layout, meeting with the couple for approvals, getting all the prints done……  Before you think wedding photographers make bank take all those items into account and you’ll realize that the big money isn’t so big after all.  Once again, not complaining, just breaking it down for you.