Ladies Invest in your bouquet over other florals

When I’m photographing a wedding, if the bride has a gorgeous bouquet, I can make the entire day look like there were beautiful florals everywhere! I can use the bridal bouquet to spruce up details, reception details AND even couple's portraits as well! The bridal bouquet is a focal point for me when it comes to your photography so I highly recommend getting your DREAM bouquet and investing less on the bridesmaids' bouquets since they will not be photographed nearly as much!

number one

Go With Greenery Over Blooms

Greenery is beautiful and photographs well, and it can be half the price of ordering blooms. I recommend actual flowers for a bridal bouquet and other bouquets but then decorating other aspects of the day with greenery to save money while still making a huge visual impact!

number two

Have One Well-Done Installation Instead Of A lot Of Small Vignettes Of Decor

If you’re hoping for a heavily detailed reception but the cost is adding up, focus on one focal point instead of trying to decorate everywhere. For example, invest in a beautiful, large, hanging chandelier or unique lighting elements but do shorter, simpler floral centerpieces on one half of your tables and candles on the other half. 

number three

Double Purposes For Decor

Maybe you choose to have an epic, well-styled entryway decor at your reception that also doubles as an amazing photo booth later on throughout the evening once party dancing has started. Or have elevated florals for your alter and then repurpose them for your reception tables.

number four

Avoid flimsy chair rentals

When renting chairs this is one thing you shouldn’t go low cost on. You wouldn’t believe how many outdoor weddings I’ve witnessed guests tipping over in the lightweight plastic folding chairs. Make sure to ask your rental company is best for the location you’re at. If you’re going with a low cost at least consider low resin styled chairs seen here. These are still on the lower budget but you don't have to worry about your guests falling on the floor.

number five

Ceremony Lighting

Ceremony lighting is really important. If you get married outdoors at 12pm, the lighting will be extremely harsh and not only will there be harsh lines of light on your faces, you will also be squinting. I suggest planning an outdoor ceremony 2 hours before sunset if you are having a FIRST LOOK. If you are not interested in sharing a first look, then I would suggest having your ceremony 4 hours before sunset to ensure that you will have plenty of time for all of your portraits afterwards. The lower the sun, the more romantic the lighting. If you are having an indoor ceremony, it is always best to have EVEN lighting at the altar. If there are two spotlights on the bride and groom, I will not be able to expose the rest of the bridal party. It is better to have soft, even light across the whole altar.

number six

Program + Details

The best advice I have for the program-making process is to remember that not EVERY guest needs a program! We printed a program for everyone attending our wedding but quickly realized that most families only took one. We ended up with many extra programs! Which I printed myself one by one on velum paper. Yikes! Also, before ordering your programs, have SEVERAL people check it for spelling and grammatical errors. Programs and the ceremony decor are things that the bride can plan in advance but then delegate the actual job of setting it up to a friend or coordinator. The last thing a bride needs to be doing the morning of her wedding is running around setting up floral arrangements!

number seven

Coordination

Hiring either a full event planner or just a day-of coordinator is so important! Couples realize very quickly that if they do not have someone in charge of the coordination of the day, that responsibility will automatically fall on the parents, the photographer or the COUPLE themselves! When a photographer is in charge of the timeline and the coordination of the day, the images will suffer. All of my stressful wedding situations were caused by a lack of organization and coordination. It’s so important to make this a priority. If you need any recommendations on wedding coordination services I would love to share some of my favorite vendors with you.

number eight