Happy Wednesday y’all! We hope your Valentine’s Day was amazing and that your day was full of so much love. We had such a sweet day together celebrating… Luke woke me up with coffee, I made him heart-shaped pancakes, and I woke up to the biggest bouquet of flowers on our counter! At night, we headed to our all time favorite restaurant and watched a movie when we got back home… it was such an amazing day!
We’re back with part two of three in our “What We Wish Brides Knew” series, and we’re so excited to chat about the next few things on that list today! In case you missed the first series of this post, you can catch that right here. The first post focused on things to know before your wedding day, and today will focus on some things we wish brides knew that heavily involve the actual wedding day. Here’s the back story on this series, and then we’ll jump RIGHT into the content for today’s post!
We’ve had a lot of incredible bridal consults over the past few weeks (engagement season, holla!), and at each one, we’ve been asked the SAME question. It’s super challenging to answer, but it is definitely important:
“What is ONE thing you wish your brides new before their wedding day?”
Since it’s extremely hard to narrow down this answer down to just one thing (and, in reality, there are a lot of things we wish our brides knew about while planning their wedding!), we wanted to share them ALL with you brides! Truthfully, most of the things we wish our brides knew all small, but they are enormous game changes for a wedding day. One of our all time favorite photographers, Katelyn James, always talks about micro changes that have a macro impact, and that is totally the case for the things in this post.
So, here is the second installment of What We Wish Our Brides Knew! Are you ready?!
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Table of Contents
1. Do a First Look
We talk about First Looks all the time on our blog and on our social media because we believe in them so much! We have an entire post dedicated to the importance of first looks, but I’ll go ahead and outline the main benefits of them here, too!
- First looks allow brides and grooms to see each other for the first time on the wedding day without all the pressure… of often 200+ guests watching when they see each other as the bride is walking down the aisle. They can react however they want and be completely themselves, because it is only them there. This moment is so genuine, authentic and sweet and only the two of them get to experience it together!
- First looks still build anticipation for seeing each other when the bride walks down the aisle. They actually take out none of the emotion for seeing each other as the bride walks down the aisle during the ceremony! A common misconception about first looks is that doing one takes all of the emotion out of seeing the bride walk down the aisle. And this just isn’t so!
- First looks allow the bride and groom to have TONS more pictures together. I’ll talk about this more in a minute, but a timeline with a first look allows a bride and groom to have portrait time before the ceremony (immediately following their first look) AND after the ceremony for married portraits (before their reception).
- First looks allow a bride and groom to spend almost their entire wedding day together. After a first look, the bride and groom aren’t apart until immediately before the ceremony. Then, they’re together for the rest of the wedding day!
- First looks allow the wedding day to be less rushed and more calm. I believe this wholeheartedly… and it’s simple, really: Since a first look allows a bride and groom to see each other before the wedding, it also allows us to get all their photos done BEFORE the ceremony! This includes photos of the bride and groom, bridal party, and family portraits.
You can read much more about why we believe in first looks right here!
2. Communicate With All Vendors
One of the biggest mistakes we see and hear about in the wedding industry involves a lack of communication with all vendors involved in the wedding day! For example, the florist arrives on time to deliver the flowers, but the photographer needed the flowers two hours ago for bridal party portraits. Or, the DJ starts the reception on time, but the photographer is only booked for a half hour of the reception and has to charge extra to stay and cover the main events.
These are both scenarios you DON’T want for your wedding day, right? The easy way to avoid them is to communicate with all your vendors and ensure everyone is on the same page for timing. That way, you don’t run into any stressful situations on the wedding day and can work out any timing kinks before the day arrives!
Your wedding vendors are professionals who should be capable of handling any timing issue that is thrown their way, but for both your sake and for their sake, take a few minutes to confirm all timing with all your vendors to see if anything needs to be adjusted! We wish more brides knew to do this.
3. Schedule Detail Time
And all the photographers said, “Amen!” ???? Ha! If there is one portion of a wedding day we are almost always rushed to capture, it is the detail time. A common misconception is that detail time is the same as bridal prep time, and this is actually not true! They may occur in the same place, but your photographer needs about a half hour to photograph your details before they photograph you getting ready. Photos of your details take time to set up, and we wish more brides gave us enough time to capture these so that we aren’t rushed in creating these images. There are SO many reasons this time is important, and you can read an entire post on why this time matters right here!
4. Invest in Your Flowers
We wish more brides knew that their florals are one of the BEST places they can invest their wedding budget! While the bouquets don’t have to be massive or crazy colorful, the eye of a professional florist who has an amazing style is invaluable when it comes to your wedding images! Trust us… you will NOT regret investing here. Simply put, investing in your florals = investing in your images.
If you’re hesitant to spend a lot of your wedding budget on your florals, we recommend spending a lot on your bouquet and less on your bridesmaids‘ bouquets! Your photographer can do so much with just one stunning bouquet. You’d be so surprised!
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So, there you have it… the second post FULL of things we wish our brides knew! We have a few more of these things to share with you guys throughout the rest of this month, and we’re so hopeful that these tips provide some perspective and insight as you plan your best day ever! Our desire is for your wedding day to be smooth, relaxed and simple, and we want to help you make sure you can describe your wedding day with those words when it is all said and done. We say all the time that our goal is for photography to be the BEST and EASIEST part of your wedding day, and if we can help the other aspects of your big day to fall into place, we’re all about that! The fact is, if your wedding day runs smoothly and beautifully, your photography will too.
What do you wish YOU had known while planning your wedding? We want to hear about it in the comments below! You never know if your perspective could help another bride reading, so don’t be afraid to share! Xo! ????
