Wedding Planning Tips for Great Photographs

Wedding party portrait in the late afternoon at Gas Works Park.

I’m going to tell you two completely contradictory things in this article. The first is all about how you need to plan your wedding day around lighting and getting great images. Once I’m done with that, I’m going to contradict myself and tell you not to worry about it!

Planning for Photography

Wedding portraits in the shade of a mostly sunny day at Washington Park Arboretum.

Planning a wedding is hard. You have so many moving parts throughout the day and worrying about changing or adjusting the plans to make the photographer happy may be a bridge too far. However, the right place, time of day, and feel to the lighting can really help make your wedding photographs look spectacular.

There are some big ways and some little ways to make your day easier to photograph. When things are easier for your photographer, it opens up more possibilities for creative images because they don’t have to spend their time and brainpower figuring out how to make the simple shots look good.

A big way is to allow extra time. Extra time for traveling from place to place and extra time for getting the photographs at each place you would like to visit. If you end up with extra time because you had extra, it is just a more relaxing day as opposed to having too little makes the day rushed and stressful. As a side note, if you are traveling with your wedding party, it is a good idea to provide transportation. The first reason is that it is more fun for your friends to hang out in a party bus with you than it is to navigate around the city completely sober. The second reason is that one of your friends may not be as good at navigating as they seem to think they are. While the iPhone is a boon to the navigationally challenged, it is amazing how little it helps sometimes.

Couple walking back up the aisle after their ceremony at Chateau Lill. The Chateau has a nice shaded area outdoors that works well for good images most times of the day.

Now I’m going to back up all the way to the beginning of the planning and talk about the venue. Ideally, you will choose a place that looks good and creates the drama or feel that you want in your wedding photographs. It is hard to get that light, bright, summer day look during your ceremony if you are getting married in a subterranean wine cellar. The wine cellar does sound amazing though if that’s what you are going for. So think about lighting at your wedding venue during the time of day you will be getting married. There are apps and websites that can tell you what time sunset is and what direction the sone will be coming from on any day of the year. That way, you can know if you plan the ceremony a few minutes before sunset that the sun won’t be streaming into your face so harshly that you can’t see your partner. Things like a little shade on a super sunny day are also nice.

The whole time of day and lighting thing is important during the portraits. It is especially important if you are looking for one particular shot with a certain view in the background. Otherwise, a good photographer can guide you to a place with good lighting or use created light to add to a scene to make it work. That is not to say that lighting during the portraits won’t affect the outcome, only that the ceremony may take precedence since it is at a fixed location and presumably time.

Flower girl getting ready before her big moment at the Arctic Club.

The third time during the day to consider is the getting ready location. The ideal location is light, bright, and clean. The last may be the most important. A darker place that is clean will probably look better, or at least more easily look good than the perfect location that looks like a bomb was set off in an underwear drawer. However, a light, bright, pretty room to take photographs of getting ready is always way more fun for all the people involved, not just the photographer.

Next is the reception. I love it when planning has gone in to make the lighting at the reception really pop. during dinner, the lighting is usually pretty and understated and I’m cool with that. I also love it when the dancing and reception lighting is bold and fun. It can make for some very dramatic and interesting photographs. That being said, say a big “NO” to the DJ or band if they mention lasers. Anything that puts out pinpoint little dots on people’s faces like they have green (why are they always green) freckles or acne is a big no in my book. Anyway, get funky with both the dancing and the lighting - it’s more fun for everyone.

As a final note, I’m going back to the top. Sometimes, you can’t control everything on your wedding day to make things easier and better for your photographer. So plan what you can to improve the images and don’t worry about the rest. I have taken beautiful images in a church that was being renovated and purposely chosen to photograph in a dark alleyway, so do what you can and hire a good photographer to make it look a little better than real life.

First dance as husband and wife at the Lake Union Cafe. I love the candles and purple lighting in the background.