The Wedding Playbook

Generally, we will arrive at the guys getting ready first (as the girls are often working to a stricter timeline with hair and makeup and the guys are more flexible). The ideal scenario is that the guys are showered, hair done, suit pants and shirt's on, this allows us to capture them hanging out casually. Then we will capture the finer details: the groom doing cufflinks, ties, mum helping with the boutonnière, the best man helping the groom with his jacket etc. Once everyone is fully dressed, we may still have time for a couple of portraits with the boys and any family members that are there at the time.

Speaking from experience, if you are looking to keep things relaxed and stress-free, try keeping the groom and bridal parties close in proximity to each other. Having the Bride closest to the venue will also be a godsend on the wedding day. If you have a large bridal party and need more than a hotel room, no worries, you can find some absolutely amazing places on Airbnb, they will not only look beautiful in photos but you could make a whole weekend of it with your friends and family.

You might think I’m being overly pedantic but you’d be surprised how much clutter can impact on the final images. While I don’t expect you to be getting ready in a spotless room, it is always helpful to remove extra clutter that is not needed (empty water bottles, clothing and underwear lying around, used packaging and wrapping paper etc).

If possible, I prefer you get ready near large windows – the light is much better than it is in a dark room which makes the colours pop and it also evens out skin tones.

The best time to schedule an outdoor ceremony is about 3-4 hours before sunset.

Spring/Summer Weddings (September to April) – If your ceremony will take place outdoors, I strongly suggest that you schedule it after 3pm (avoid scheduling it between the hours of 10am and 2pm as the light is harsh and shadows are strong).

Autumn/Winter Weddings (May to August) – During these months, and especially in winter, the light disappears very quickly at the end of the day. Your ceremony should start no later than 2-3 hours before sunset.

These are the family photos that are done straight after the ‘post-ceremony congratulations’. We will send you a detailed email one month prior to your wedding day outlining how to plan these portraits but in short, we gather a list of your combinations and we systematically run through the list.

Note: if your family portraits are not organised effectively during this time it can quickly descend into chaos. We also suggest keeping this time for close family members. Remember that there will be time to shoot various friend groups during the reception.

We ask that you allocate a loud helper who knows the majority of the people on the list and who can assist in rounding up the various family members. On average, it takes about 2-3 minutes to gather and shoot each combination, we recommend about 8-12 combinations is the perfect amount to cover the important family members - This method really works in creating beautiful family portraits in a short amount of time.

*Tip: asking your celebrant to make a small announcement about the family portraits prior to your exit back down the aisle can be helpful too!

This isn't a shot that we usually include as standard, as we feel the time taken could be better spent on small groupings. Trying to take a well-composed, evenly lit image where 80-200 people are all visible at once takes time to organise (about 10 minutes) and for some venues, it's near impossible to capture effectively as we require elevation, however, if this is important to you, let us know before the wedding and we will do our best to make it work.

It is so important to allow yourself (and me) plenty of time to do this part of the day without rushing. After all, you are not hiring a professional photographer with all their skill and creativity to take a handful of photos and call it a day. When couples say to me that they just want one or two good photos of the two of them together and then allow 5 to 10 minutes for this they don’t realise that beautiful and natural photos don’t happen in 5-10 minutes.

You need time to stop and breathe, time to go for a wander with your new husband/wife and time to just be in each other’s presence.

Please allow some good time for this part of the day. You might think I’ll be constantly shooting the whole time but that’s not the case – I like to use this time for us to explore our surroundings, chat and have a laugh and for you to relax and have some alone time with your partner.

These are the photos taken with the bridal party after the post-ceremony congratulations & family portraits.

Generally, we will do the photos with all of the bridal party for about 15-20 minutes or so, then spend a little time with just the newlyweds.

The best time of the day for photography is during ‘Golden Hour’ (about one hour prior to sunset). We try to avoid shooting when the sun is at it’s highest in the sky so planning portraits in the middle of the day or early afternoon will not yield the best possible images.

Now, we certainly don’t have to plan all of your portraits around this time, that’s not usually possible (unless you’re getting married in the cooler months when we don’t have daylight savings).

During the warmer months, when daylight savings is in full swing, we recommend planning a little bit of extra time (on top of your Bridal Portraits allocation) to pop out during your reception to grab some sunset photos - we find that 15 minutes in that beautiful golden light is enough time and will yield some incredible images.

We highly recommend building some sunset portraits into your reception timeline. Keeping in mind that the weather and available light will play a big part in the success of these images but we can advise on the day what is going to work best.

You can calculate what time the golden hour will fall on your wedding day via google, search 'Golden Hour Calculator'.