This list was born from personal experience, gained over the years. These are just modest recommendations for the bride, groom, friends and family.
Don’t pose. For most of you, being photographed so intensively might be new, uncomfortable or even strange (one of the reasons we usually do a pre-wedding casual shoot session). Try not to think too much about whether your upper/lower lips look good or not from that angle. Just let go. Forget about the camera and enjoy, be yourself. The photographer will do it’s thing. The best photos tend to be the ones on which people don’t know they’re being photographed or they don’t get intimidated or think about the camera. The ones that reflect a true, uninhibited self.
Casual clothes. By all means wear casual, comfy clothes on the pre-wedding shoot! Clothes you feel good in, but bear in mind that casual doesn’t mean pajamas or the jeans you painted your apartment in last summer. These photos will end up in your album. I’m not saying you should wear a suit (you can if you fancy). Try to avoid clothes with huge brand names all over them, stay away from glitter, tiger or lion skin imitation-ish pants and so on, unless you want us to do a themed photo-shoot :)
Sleep. Get enough rest before your wedding day. Resist the “let’s go out one last time” kind of invites from friends. These usually have a tendency to stretch till dawn and will heavily tax your eyes, mood and precious energy levels. Kindly refuse late night visits from relatives, friends, before the big day. Reminiscing about good old times also tend to take long hours that will cost you dark circles under your eyes the next day… and no makeup, photoshop, camera gear or photographer can make them disappear.
Makeup & hair. This is for the ladies. I know you eyeballed that hair and makeup for months. I know it’s your big day, but: 1. See how it looks on you several weeks/months before the event. Take it for a spin. Maybe it looks great on that specific model, from that angle on that specific photo but that doesn’t necessarily mean you will like how it looks on you. You might have surprises that’s all I’m saying and it’s better to have a bad surprise while you still can do something about it. 2. Hair. Don’t go with some extreme fancy stuff you don’t usually wear. I’ve seen this countless times. Ladies looking much better on the pre-wedding shoot than they do on their big day (personal opinion). I’m not trying to change your mind here. It’s just a humble advice for you to consider. Also, like I said with the makeup. Test it before the big day. See how it looks, feels and if it lasts.
Dress code. This one’s for the guests. It’s an unwritten rule but I’m going to write it down, because not everybody seems to know it. Do not, under any circumstance, overdress the bride!! I know the temptation is big, lot’s of people will be there and everybody will be feasting their eyes and chatting, gossiping, about each others outfit but let’s keep them chatting and gossiping about the bride, not you. It’s her day, her night, her time to shine! It’s a unique occasion where she’s the star of the night, not you so let’s keep it that way. Doing otherwise is rude, impolite, indelicate and other harsh words.
Mood. Put your personal mood swings in the trunk, leave them at home. Again. This event is about them, not you. Getting drunk and drawing attention to yourself, making a scene, damaging property will backfire, ruin the party for the bride and groom primarily. Don’t neglect the trust and kindness they showed towards you by inviting you to this very special and important event in their life. Respect it. Be civilized. They won’t forget it.
Help. This one’s for the parents, friends. Try to help the couple. Getting calls from people who come to the event from another city asking for directions while on the main shoot or driving to a location is pretty frustrating. The stress of making a huge step in life and constantly focusing on making sure everything goes well is enough. If you can, help them out by taking tasks like that off their shoulders. In an ideal situation the bride and groom should only worry about looking good and having a good time.
Keep calm. Bride and groom. I know it’s big pressure, but just keep calm and carry on. Everything will be just fine. Don’t let some small insignificant detail ruin your day. Be prepared, be well rested, put everything else aside. Carpe diem!! :)
Questions & Answers
Q: Why does it take so long for you to deliver the final products / album? Some other photographer delivers photos on the night of the wedding! The album is ready the next day or maximum a week.
A: There’s an old saying, cheap things are not good, good things are not cheap. The kind of photos you get on the night of the wedding are, raw off the camera files. They just copy-paste and print them. That’s it. No color correction, blemish, wrinkle removal and other fine detail tuning is done. That might seem “nice” when you get them because of the adrenalin and because they’re new to the eye but when you look at them the next day, they won’t seem so ok as they did the night before. Same thing applies to the albums that these people deliver in such a short notice.
All our final products go trough a thorough process. Photos are carefully selected, processed, fine tuned. When the photographs are ready we start to build the album. No templates are used. It’s all custom design. No two albums will ever be the same. Even the individual frames around certain photos in the album are custom hand made/painted. Deciding which photos work together the best and how many should fit on a page or a spread so it’s all balanced requires time and creativity! We think about these small details because the devil is in these small details. These small details make a huge difference! We don’t just drag and drop them in some predefined template in the order they were shot and send them to print. Products created using templates and mass-production optimized work flows leave a cheap taste in our mouths. It’s like sitting in a cheap, low-cost, low-end car. Cheap plastic, no extras. Not a pleasant experience and considering the fact that this album is made for life, even your grandchildren will flip trough it and it’s a once in a lifetime event that’s documented in there, on of the best days in the bride and groom’s life… we think it should be treated accordingly!
“Long” is a relative term. You get what you pay for, they say.
Q: Why do your services / packages cost so much?!
A: In the case of wedding photography services, a couple’s one, maximum two months salary (ex: Fehe package – 1000€) in exchange for 3-5 months of intensive work that will result in customised products created with precision and heart, that will last for a lifetime and that you and your family will cherish and flip trough even with your grandchildren is, we think, pretty cheap. We won’t go into describing how much work hours, effort, energy and resources goes into all this, not to mention the many thousands of €-s invested in photo gear, software licenses, computer hardware, insurance and so on! You decide how much that’s worth to you and what feelings you want to summon every time you touch and flip trough or show your wedding album to someone.
We rather work more, on just a few jobs/year, and deliver quality products that meet our standards, than to give out a hundred small, rushed, low quality work that we’d be ashamed of.