Due to the nature of all these new experiences, things tend to take longer and be a bit more complicated than expected. Most people reason – well, I take 5 minutes to put on my regular clothes so how much longer can putting on my wedding dress take? But since you’re not used to lacing up a corset everyday or trying to put on shoes while wearing a very heavy dress, things take longer. So I always advise couples to give themselves plenty of time for things and to think about scheduling from both a minute/tiny detail way and a big picture, bird’s eye view.

Your timeline should be realistic and well-thought-out. This document will be critical for your photographer to be in the right place at the right angle for all the events. It’s also critical for this timeline to be realistic because if it takes you 45 minutes longer than you thought to get your makeup done, that typically really eats into my couple portrait time. So you don’t get as many fun pictures of just the two of you. It makes me sad

Things that will take way more time than you ever thought:

• Hair and Makeup: For each attendant, expect 40 minutes for hair and another 40 minutes for makeup. For the bride or brides, expect 50 minutes to an hour for hair and another 45 minutes for makeup. For the groom or grooms, expect 20 minutes max if you are getting makeup or hair done by a professional.
• Geting dressed: Usually you should have any attendants get dressed first while you are finishing up hair/makeup so they can be ready to help you put on your wedding gear. I usually say 30-45 minutes should be allotted to get dressed for the bride or brides. This is in case a button pops or a zipper breaks – you have time to sew things back on or fix things.
• Flowers: Most couples want to have their bouquets or boutonnieres with them for their formal shots. Get your flowers delivered waaaay ahead of when you need them as I find most floral deliveries run behind schedule. I have more than once had to delay formal shots and eat into my photo time waiting on the flowers to be delivered.
• Group Shots: While I already addressed how much longer group shots take than you would ever think, I’ll say it again. Do your group shots before the ceremony! I beg you! It also stops the wandering eye problem so everyone looks at my camera and not the 10 others behind me.
• Speeches: Remind your loved ones that a good speech should take no longer than 4-5 minutes max. Once you approach the 7 minute mark per speech (and you have multiple people speaking before dinner), guests start to revolt because they are hungry and want to eat!!
• DIY Details: If you are making a lot of reception/ceremony decor, go you! But be aware that actually setting up everything will be a big production/time sucker. So I always recommend having your Captain of the Day or Planner be in charge of at least 2-3 people who are willing to commit a few hours in the morning to setting up. If you can ask your venue about setting up the day before, all the better.

Resources for making a wedding timeline:

• A Smart Planner highlights the key things you must have on your timeline
• A workshop by the Hive in Virginia on making a wedding day timeline and a lot more (I was just at their office and it’s worth the workshop alone just to see how cute their office is and meet Maria of Ritzy Bee)
• A wedding bee bride has a super detailed timeline which is really helpful

Whether you hire a planner or not you NEED (did I mention need?) to have one person in charge the day of your wedding- the go to person. If the couple doesn’t have a planner, I talk to them about the “Captain of the Day”. This person is in charge of coordinating your vendors and basically keeping on schedule. Make sure this person 1. wants the responsibility 2. you won’t be upset if they majorly mess up 3. is a type A personality that will focus more on your wedding going smoothly then anything else during the day.

Whether you have a planner, a community of friends that help out with a leader, a best friend who is Captain of the Day, a cocoon of willing and able family members, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you focus that day on the amazing commitment you are making.

Why do I insist that couples hire a planner or find a Captain of the Day?

Things go wrong. Not every wedding has an issue someone needs to deal with and most weddings won’t have a disaster. But little things add up very very quickly. Having one person everyone can go to that is not the couple (um, aren’t you supposed to be enjoying this day?) is gold. And if you have a planner, your planner will do things you never even thought of.

I had a day of coordinator for my wedding and while I’m sure there were things she did I will never know, she did 2 things that made me thank my lucky stars I hired her. First, my grandmother ended up in the hospital a week before my wedding and we found out her breast cancer had come back. She got out of the hospital one day before my wedding, she was weak and on oxygen. My planner knew this and brought a huuuge comfy wingback chair for her to sit in during the ceremony. I almost cried when I saw her sitting there, too weak to walk down the aisle but enjoying the ceremony none the less, sitting comfortably in her big chair instead of the plastic ones we rented. The second thing? Oh ya…she sewed my wedding dress together when the train ripped out. As I was talking to my friends she just whipped out her sewing kit and in 2 minutes, I was off again.

You hired a lot of people who have never met each other. The caterer, your florist, your venue, your music, your officiant, me….all these people are there to put their little bit into your wedding day. But most likely, they all haven’t met. They probably don’t know what the other vendor has planned. They have no idea how their little bit is supposed to interact with everyone else’s little bit. A captain or planner knows everyone and the big picture.

Schedule. What gets cut first if things are running behind? I know I know! Picture time. So obviously, I’m a fan of realistic timelines and staying mostly on schedule. I’m not talking a timeline of “And this is what I will be doing every 5 minutes”. But a timeline that allows everyone to enjoy themselves and allocate time to important things.

Stress. You don’t need it. Knowing that someone else is taking care of all the details. It’s priceless.

• Couple and one side of the family
• Couple and other side of the family
• Couple and Partner A’s Parents
• Couples and Partner B’s Parents
• Couple and attendants

Want to add more photos to the list? Sure! Just add an extra 3-4 minutes per photo. So the list right above would take 15 minutes minimum. If your going to take group images after the ceremony, tack on at least an extra 10 minutes. Why? Because rounding people up after a ceremony takes a lot of time. I encourage all couples to do groups shots before the ceremony- it avoids so many headaches(I’m begging people). And you don’t miss your cocktail hour. So if you were *just* doing the list above after the ceremony, your already at 25 minutes.

It’s very important you make a list of group shots you want well ahead of time and talk with your photographer about it. Also, share the list (after you finalize it with your photographer) with all the people who will be in the group shots. This allows everyone to know how many shots they are in and know the order of the shots so people move in and out of the shots quicker.

Most of my couples want to break away from the “Stand in front of a wall and smile!” look of most group photos. Getting creative for group shots can be fun and produce amazing results. If you want some more creative shots, tell me!! Typically, we will go to several locations and get anywhere from 3-5 groupings of people in a half hour. The more people in the shot, the more time each shot will take to set up.

First look shots. Traditionally, if you see each other at the ceremony and only have one photographer, the photographer has to choose between getting one partner walking down the aisle or the other partner seeing him/her for the first time. It sucks. Seeing each other ahead of time allows the photographer to set up a romantic and stunning photo opportunity that’s packed with emotions. You get photos of the first glance- and believe me, it’s always amazing. It also gives you the opportunity to hug and kiss and really tell each other “Damn, you look hot!”

De-stressing. You have supported each other through months of wedding planning. So obviously, you have helped each other through big periods of stress. Often, the morning of the wedding, one partner or both is anxious. This is a big day! But without fail, when that partner sees the other person for the first time, the stress melts away. Completely. A hug is all that’s needed to quiet the craziness leading up to this moment. It’s sweet and always works.

Quicker Portraits. So regardless of how long your group shot list is (which is another tip I’ll be giving), you can guarantee that portraits will go quicker if done before the ceremony. And since you both have already seen each other, we can knock out all the group shots ahead of time. Why does it go quicker? How much time will you save? It goes much faster because once everyone arrives for the ceremony, your friends/family members will undoubtably want to talk to the Aunt or Second Cousin they haven’t seen in a year. This means it’s MUCH harder to find all the family members- meaning your portrait time? It’s going to double. It also means for a lot of wandering eyes because family members are watching what’s going on without them- the cocktail party they are missing.

Getting Ready Together. I’m partial to getting ready together. Why? I got ready with my wife the day of our wedding. I couldn’t imagine spending 1 minute without her on the day we were getting married. And I have found a good chunk of my clients feel the same way! Getting ready together means sharing all the little moments as a couple. Helping each other get dressed. Laughing that you need your mom to put your shoes on. Holding hands as you realize that today, you are getting married.

One of the first vendors a couples picks is their venue. Of course that’s super super important. But another location often gets overlooked and is super important as well- your getting-ready location.Where you’re getting ready matters- a LOT. Think about it. Not only will this location be where your getting-ready shots are, it’s also going to be the place where a ton of photos you never thought of will take place. Dress/Suit shots, ring shots, flower shots, cufflink shots, and other detail shots will most likely be shot here. Super close-ups of the bride(s)/groom(s) will take place here. Most likely your attendant shots will take place here. The shot list is adding up!

Light is the most important factor in your getting-ready location. Pick a hotel with giant windows. Get ready in the room of your house where light streams in. Lots of natural light is key to good getting-ready shots. Giant blackout curtains you can’t move, overuse of artificial light to brighten the space, and walking into the room and having to wait till your eyes adjust to the dark are things you want to avoid. Remember, our eyes adjust to light levels but the camera does not. If you even pause to think if the room is bright enough, most likely, it isn’t.

Space is also important. If you think you and 6 attendants can fit in a regular size hotel room, you are going to hate life shortly. Thinking about who you want in your getting ready room and making a list ahead of time avoids the too-tight-to-breathe-or-photograph-anything problem. Send an email to those close to you about who is invited into the room so you can rent a room big enough for everyone. Not only will this create a more relaxed day since no one is bumping into each other constantly, but it allows your photographer the room to move around and get great pictures. That’s what you wanted, right?

Decor. Everything in the getting ready room will most likely appear in your photographs. Those tacky figurines you keep meaning to give away and hate? Yup, if they are in the room, they will be in your photographs. Did the furniture in the hotel room blow you away? Great! Because your photographer will most likely be using the chairs for detail shots, the doors for dress shots, the bed for shoe shots and all kinds of combinations. So you want to love what’s in the room style-wise.

Cleanliness. I already said all the stuff in the getting ready room will appear in your photographs- that goes for all the crap too. The 5 purses, plastic bags, spare shoes, jackets, clothes, water bottles….it’s all there. So when you are emailing your loved ones about who will be in the room with you while you get ready- ask them to keep it clean in the room too. Designate a closet to keep all the extra stuff in so we can close the door and keep the stuff out of the photographs. Counters/chairs/beds all attract random stuff so ask someone to be in charge of keeping the room clean.

I was hysterical and despite calling the lost and found and obsessively posting ads on craigslist to PLEASE return the laptop, it never returned. And with it went hours and hours of work on school papers Natalie had worked on, family photos and countless other things.

Now that I shoot a lot of digital and it’s my actual job, I have backups upon backups upon backups. So do most photographers. But this post is for my clients, and any couple who has just received their wedding photos. It’s not their job to be uber careful about their digital data and often times, they have no idea where to start.

If you just received your wedding photos, most likely, your photographer sent them all to you on a DVD, CD, or thumbdrive. Consider these your originals and assume you will never ever be able to contact your photographer again. So you want to keep the originals in a dark, dry, place where they will be safe. Make sure the container the DVD is in meets archival standards. Even though I personally worry about technology changing faster than a DVD can degrade(think about vinyl, to tape, to CD to MP3’s) having your originals in a safe place is a good idea.

Now that you know how and wear you want to store your DVD, it’s time to upload those images to your computer. Whichever program you use to keep photos(lightroom, iphoto, picasa, etc), use this to upload your photos but also drag and drop the original files to a folder on your computer separate from the files you upload to your photo program. Some photo programs can overwrite your original files if you decide to edit them(like resizing them to print if you have permission from your photographer). So keeping another set of untouched files is important.

Don’t stop there! One last and really important step is left. Backing them up to an external hard drive. There are a billion external hardrives out there, but my favorite, and the one pictured above, is the Iomega eGo Portable Mac Edition. It’s top rated on CNET, has drop protection(super important at least for my family) and is bright red so if you have a laptop and are always moving, it’s easy to find again and backup. But frankly, almost any external hard drive is going to be fine. If you want to be uber amazing and careful, having two external hard drives is always a good idea, but not imperative. So using your hard drive or computer’s backup software will backup your whole computer. I personally have a mac and use time machine. It happily backs up all my data to my hard drive. But to make super sure my wedding photos end up safe and sound on my external hard drive, I move the files from the original folder you dragged from the DVD and have not touched, and drag it to my external hard drive. So you will probably have two folders on your external hard drive. Your computer backup and a separate folder that says ‘Wedding Photos’.

So here’s a list of where your wedding photos:

• Your DVD/CD/Thumbdrive in a dark, dry, safe place.
• On your computer in your photo editing software(lightroom, picasa, iphoto) because it was imported
• On your computer in a separate folder you don’t touch. These are the originals from the DVD
• On your external hard drive that was automatically backed up by your external hard drive software or computer software
• On your external hard drive in a separate folder from your automatic backup
• If your super careful? They are also on a second external hard drive

So it may seem like a lot of work, but it’s super important to do. And with all backups, doing it now and forgetting about it? Not a good idea. Just like your mix tapes, in a few years, you will most likely have to transfer your photos to another format. And if you get a new computer? Same thing. But considering these are your wedding photos, it’s totally worth it.

• Dress in a way that makes you feel good. If your a girl who loves jeans, wear jeans silly! There is no ‘one way’ to dress for a shoot. This is about you.
• Try to dress in a way that feels similar to each other. If she’s going to wear a dress, pump it up a little. Go for the nice black pants. And look down at your shoes. How many days do those sneakers have left? And girls, if he wants to wear jeans you should keep the tiara at home.
• Classy. That’s what you want to think when you see your outfit. Same goes with makeup ladies. Some mascara and lipgloss is great if you normally wear nothing. The camera zaps 50% of your makeup away, so go for more than you usually wear.
• I love props!!! Bring your dog, your yearbook with you two in it, parasols, boas, whatever. Go crazy. It will just make the session more fun.
• Outfit changes are fun, but limit it to no more than 2. Wear jeans and bring your hot black dress. And those killer heels with some comfy flip flops.

Bring

• Props
• Comfy shoes
• Oil blotting sheets
• A big dorky laugh (or I can supply it, either way)

Don’t

• Wear anything super tight. It will crease and show in your photos. Spandex is a no go.
• But don’t wear baggy clothing either. There will be no relay race where you stuff props in your shirt.
• Wear matching outfits. Coordinated is good, matching is just plain scary.
• Watch out for small patterns, small jewelry, logos, words, holes, wrinkly clothes and clashing colors.