5 Things to Make Your Wedding Photography Easy- Tacoma Wedding Photographer

Every bride wants awesome wedding photos. In places like Hawaii, where all the weddings are on the beach, it's soooo easy! There's a great background in place pretty much everywhere there. Here in Seattle and Tacoma, where it's gray and or rainy? Ehhhhh, maybe not as much. However, there are ways to make it easy to get great photos.

1. Make time for photos. A lot of your wedding day will be shot on move, like a photojournalist does, but there are a few key times you'll need to schedule in. Formal wedding photography is obvious. However, make time for the family groups. Your wedding is probably one of the few times you'll get all your family and friends together and dressed up. Take advantage of it! Build in half an hour or so to make sure your photographer can get all the different combinations of family members. This leads me to the next tip.....

2. Have a "who is" person. The weddings where I've had the easiest time getting great photos was where I didn't have to bother the bride and groom to ask who was who. Unless your wedding photographer is family or a friend, they don't know your family! If you can ask someone to be the "who is" person for your photographer, it will let you enjoy your wedding instead of me pestering you to ask,"Now WHO is Aunt Mildred again?" The perfect person for this job is actually the family gossip, the one who wants to get in on the wedding planning. They know EVERYONE, and you can give them an "important" job.

3. Make a shot list! Or fill out the one your photographer provides you (if they don't give you one, ask!). A shot list is our plan for the day. I like to have one so I know which parts of the day are your top priority. Some couples absolutely want to make sure I get every second of the reception, while others want me to get tons of details of the decor and flowers. This is also used to make sure I get the right family group shots and candids during the reception. I don't leave until I make sure I have all the shots on my list done.

4. Communicate, communicate, communicate! I know things are going to change throughout the day. Nothing ever goes as planned in a wedding. However, if you want me to photograph you getting ready, let me know if you've decided to have hair and makeup done elsewhere, or if you're going to be late! If you see something you want shot that isn't in the list, speak up! I want you to be happy, so I want to make sure I get everything and then some documented.

5. Have some items that are YOU. One of my recent couples are HUGE soccer fans. They both play, they watch it all the time, they MET because of the Seattle Sounders! So we incorporated soccer into their photos. Take some time to talk to your photographer about what you may e abe to do to inject your personality or in-jokes into the photos.

One last tip.... above all, HAVE FUN. This is your wedding! The whole day is celebrating you and the person you're spending the rest of your life with. Make sure you enjoy it!