If you are anything like me, you are a planner and love to dissect every possible variable when it comes to your wedding. So if you’re curious about the best way to approach the ceremony from a photography standpoint – look no further, because here is everything you need to know about ceremony photos!
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Unplugged ceremonies are in!
An “unplugged” ceremony is a wedding ceremony that puts emphasis on requesting that the guests do not use their phones, cameras, iPads or anything for pictures, but rather that they be present in the moment with the couple instead of watching from behind a screen. This might sound silly to you, but let me tell you – I can’t count how many times the first kiss photo was PERFECT but yet had some hands with phones poking into the sides of the photo!
Do yourself a favor and create a fun sign that encourages guests to put away their phones during the ceremony. You are paying GOOD MONEY to have your photographer there, but by having these obstructions on the day of, we are not able to do our job to the best of our ability!
“I don’t really care if there are phones in my photos…” Well, that may be true, but a factor that most couples don’t realize (because they are otherwise occupied reciting their vows or kissing their wife) is that there is not always the level of self-control that most couples would assume there may be with guests. There have been countless times where multiple people have stepped out into the aisle at very important moments. There was one time where an individual decided it was a good idea to stand right in front of me for the first kiss – I quite forcefully re-positioned myself, moving them out of the way, and didn’t miss the shot, but if we as vendors have to worry about everyone else getting in your images, the quality of our work decreases because we are not able to truly focus on you two during your ceremony.
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Adequate space
I know this might not be the first thing on your mind, but if you do value having your photographer get as many moments as possible, make sure that there is adequate space all around the ceremony spot in order to get some really fabulous shots! I understand that some locations do not allow the vendors to be certain areas (primarily churches have those boundaries) but even just in any other setting, allowing for us to get different angles means more memories for you to hold onto in the future!
Now I need to preface what I’m about to say with: there is NOTHING wrong with the above wedding. There is nothing that makes this wedding any less beautiful. Daniel & Kailey were so incredible to work with and they LOVED their images! 🙂
But as you can maybe see from the above pictures, the guest seating was strung all the way to the sides, which meant there was no way for us (myself, my second shooter, and two videographers) to be able to work around each other well and make sure we’re not in each other’s shots. Professional vendors should be able to adapt in any situation, and we did! We all worked together to help each other get what shots we needed, but if the sides of the ceremony had been opened up, we could have spread out more and gotten some closer and more unique shots from the sides rather than only from straight on. The other aspect is that for the processional, my second shooter and I had to use 2 guest seats in order to stay out of the way, because the front of the ceremony didn’t have enough room for vendors to stand as well as allow the wedding party to get by and to their places. If seating is limited and you truly are planning for every seat to be taken, without allowing access in other areas, your vendors might need to use some seats in order to capture what’s happening!
As I said, there is NOTHING wrong with the above wedding, and we adapted as we needed to! But if you do want more unique shots from different areas, the more space we have access to the better!
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HOLD HANDS & face each other
For most couples, standing in front of 150+ people for 20+ minutes can produce some anxiety, and something I have noticed from my years of photographing weddings, is that not being able to hold hands with each other (unless you truly feel comfortable) can sometimes look awkward, and as spectators, we can tell you guys just want to hold hands 😉
There might be a worry of blocking the officiant, but genuinely, I think I might look at the officiant maybe once or twice on wedding days. All eyes are on you guys – no one’s really looking anywhere else. And if holding hands with each other is going to help you feel at ease, then I always encourage you guys to do that!
Another part of this is facing each other. I know sometimes the officiant has you facing them because they are addressing you both, but whenever possible, I would suggest that you always face each other. This allows your guests to see part of your faces, and it also allows us vendors to see your faces too! My philosophy is that I want to blend in as much as possible during the ceremony, I don’t like to physically get super close in the center aisle, or around you guys by the arch, because I can be a distraction to all the guests (and block their view). Facing each other means that I can still capture some closer images from the sides, without having to walk up there and be in the midst of everything (and be a distraction haha)
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Ask the officiant to move for the first kiss
There are ways to do this without the officiant awkwardly saying “Now before I pronounce you, I am going to move” haha. You can set up the ceremony so that either 1) a fun, traditional aspect of the ceremony (like a unity element, candles, sand, etc) happens towards the end or 2) the ending prayer happens towards the end, because by putting those things towards the end, it provides a natural way for the officiant to move out of the focal point without drawing attention to it. Once that ending part is done, all they have to do is pronounce you both from the side and then BAM – first kiss without someone in the background 🙂
The alternative, is to make sure that there’s some space for the officiant to move to right after he says, “You may kiss your bride.” The best man/groomsmen can step back a little bit to allow the officiant to move over while you two kiss. Win win for everybody!
There is actually another way to work around this too haha… if the officiant doesn’t move, I usually try to position myself so that the couple is blocking a good chunk of them to where it looks like no one is there. Ways to help us do that on your end would be to fully come together when you guys kiss – don’t do a little peck by reaching/bending towards each other 😉 fully embrace and come together. Your bodies together help to block the officiant! See the photo below as an example.
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Lighting is important!
I talked about why golden hour is so important in this post and I also mention this point there as well. But how the light is hitting your ceremony area will play a huge role in how those photos will turn out! Now, if you are NOT doing a first look.. it’s important to know that you might have to sacrifice your lighting at the ceremony in order to have good lighting in the portraits of you two after – because obviously, we only have so much time before the sun goes down 😉
But if you DO do a first look, there are ways to still take advantage of good light for both the ceremony AND the photos after. Part of this is to have the sun going down behind you guys. Now I know that sounds weird, and you guys might be thinking “What about the guests? The sun is in their eyes at that point…” and that could be true! But there are angles that can be worked to help with the sun being there, as well as providing umbrellas or sunglasses for the guests during the ceremony. Here’s an example below:
The photo on the top left was taken about an hour and a half before sunset. The photo on the top right was technically taken after the sun had already gone behind the hill. The photo on the bottom was taken while the sun was setting. And so as you all know, there is obviously the golden hour, but what most people don’t know, is that there is about 20-30 minutes of usable light after the sun sets that produces really creamy, soft light! Here are a few more photos from the time after sunset:
Incase you’re worried about timing… it takes not even a full second to take a photo, some cameras have shooting frames of up to 60 per second. But even if they’re not being taken so quickly back to back, I can still easily take 3-5 photos per second. And I could also easily take 25-40 pictures per minute. So even if we had 20 minutes of light, at 30 photos per minute – that’s still 600 photos that I can work through and edit. I NEVER encourage couples to plan for or only use the bare minimum of time, I ALWAYS encourage couples to have more time than less.. but if in the process of trying to do that some things have to be taken care of on wedding day that then results in only having 20 minutes of light left – magic can STILL happen 🙂
The last thing I want to share in regards to this topic of lighting comes from a bride herself. I was not the photographer for this bride (the photographer’s name is Jordan Voth – check out the wedding here – no seriously, CHECK IT OUT!!!) but she posted the caption below on her instagram photo that is linked. I thought that her insights were super helpful and wanted to share them! Here are two photos from her wedding – AGAIN, NOT MY PHOTOS!! CHECK OUT THE LINK ABOVE TO ACTUALLY VIEW THE PHOTOGRAPHER, JORDAN VOTH, AND HIS WEDDING GALLERY FROM THIS COUPLE’S WEDDING DAY!
Lauren Rote (https://www.instagram.com/lauren_rote/ )
(link to post: https://www.instagram.com/p/By-n9v6gL9f/ )
Here is what Lauren had to say:
“Let’s call this tip: “Timing the S u n.”
I know I’m going to get some eye rolls for this one, but hey ♀️, my neuroticism really paid off. I’m also not really sure if this tip will be helpful to brides who are getting married outdoors, or…cause more stress. Keep me posted on that.
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Ok. So 2 weeks before our wedding, I went to our venue to see where the sun would be at the time our ceremony was set to start. Why? Because I’m nuts. Also because lighting is SO important in photography and god knows we already spent so much on this wedding I was going to get everything right.
I was looking to see where shadows were hitting the ground. Would the sun be in Edmonds face as I came down the aisle? Would there be shadows of peoples heads landing on the alter? Long story short – we moved the entire direction of the ceremony because as you can see, there were lots of shadows. I nervously rallied my Rental Co, Florist, & Planner to the venue to discuss what would be possible.
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In the 2nd image, you can see we turned everything 90 degrees to the left. The next few images are me and @leslie_kaplan determining where the flower wall would best fit. Measuring the length & width of the property, crossing our fingers. All to avoid harsh shadows. ✨Wedding Photographers can attest how important this is!✨ Last image is the end of our 20 minute ceremony. Mission accomplished. ” – Lauren Rote (https://www.instagram.com/lauren_rote/ ) (link to post: https://www.instagram.com/p/By-n9v6gL9f/ ) (to view the images talked about above, visit the post link)
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Look at your people at least once – and take it all in!
A lot of couples have told me that during the ceremony is one of the best times to really take in the moment of what’s happening. Some officiants even tell the couple to look out to the crowd and take it all in – which I LOVE. If you don’t already know by now, I ALWAYS try to facilitate ways for you guys to enjoy your day and remember as much as you can instead of rushing through it. Even if the officiant doesn’t necessarily tell you to look out, still do it! I remember when my husband and I eloped and we looked out to our immediate families watching – that moment is ingrained in my mind forever 🙂
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Throw something
Your smiles and emotions after you’re pronounced husband and wife are seriously THE BEST and even though that alone will make those photos incredible, adding a little extra something can also spice them up so beautifully! And there are SO many options you can choose from: bubbles, rice, lavender, flower petals, those fun little sticks with fabric on them… you name it, really! Get creative 🙂
Hope all this info is helpful when it comes to everything you need to know about wedding ceremonies!!
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