Your Photographer Will Thank You! | 10 Tips for Wedding Clients

I absolutely love, love, love my wedding clients. Sometimes they do the most amazing things completely unprompted. For all the brides-to-be and even the grooms-to-be out there, here are some ways you can attempt to be just as awesome as my lovely clients. Your photographer will thank you for it! Plus, in the end, it’s mostly your wedding photos that will benefit from these considerations!

Do something really awesome with your engagement photos. I love when clients take their retouched photos and do something extra special with them. Kristen’s grandmother took a photo as inspiration for a painting. Gina printed their photo on a canvas and had guests sign it as the guestbook. And on that note, do an engagement session. It gives you practice for even better portraits on the wedding day.
Schedule extra portrait time and consider doing a “first look.” An hour for portraits? Great. An hour an a half? Even better. My clients have been great when it comes to setting aside portrait time! Most of them have also done “first looks” where they have an intimate moment to see each other for the first time before the ceremony. It also has led to the best bride & groom portraits and much better pacing for the rest of the schedule. One of these days I’ll do a little feature about why I am so in love with first looks.
Provide your schedule a week or two in advance. Your photographer will love you for getting your schedule to them early so they can make sure there’s enough time for all the important photos and so they can orient themselves to your wedding and get organized about what they’ll be doing throughout the day.
Leave all your accessories and the rings with the bride during the morning preparations. This is a small thing, but I prefer shooting a lot of the details in the morning while the girls are getting hair and makeup done. This is my time to shoot the dress, the shoes, and the jewelry before they’ve been put on. I often like to shoot the rings with the rest of the accessories too. Having everything organized and in one place just makes everything easier.
Point out important details. Tell the stories. I love it when clients point out the little things, like that little blue button that belonged to your Great Aunt Sally, which is serving as your something borrowed and something blue. I would never have known otherwise! I love to know the stories behind what I’m photographing.
Get ready in a room with great window lighting. Ahh, the little things in life. Like gorgeous window light. In fact, I will thank you even more if just everything the entire day is accompanied by great lighting.
Have a designated group photo wrangler. I actually ask my clients to do this for all of the family formals. If you have a group shot list, designate someone to be in charge of it and gather all of the people in the appropriate groups. Julie at the Campbell wedding was amazing at this. When there’s an organized effort, everything is just so much quicker, nothing is missed, and everyone is happier.
Enjoy your day! Be open to the experience and don’t mind me. I love it when clients can let me do my thing and they can just immerse themselves in their day. I’m there to photograph you having the time of your life and celebrating your love. What could be better?
Leave some love! I love my blogstalkers. Seeing comments on my blog, whether it’s before or after the wedding, is the best. Facebook is also great. Comments let me know that you’re there. And I suspect that anyone who’s blogstalking me has fairly good expectations about who I am and what I do, which is all the better for our working relationship too.
Get all your friends to hire them. This one’s a freebie. There’s no better source of clients than by direct referral. The word of a past client is gold. So I am beyond thankful to my clients who have supported me by sending me more clients. There is no greater honor.