I'm a big believer in making educated decisions.

That's why we try to keep our clients informed. We meet frequently with our clients, post our prices to our website, and try to give a pretty good idea of everything involved in our sessions—particularly for weddings. Bringing a creative vision to life requires clarity and communication with everyone involved. Why wouldn't we be as honest as possible?

To that end, I want to talk a bit about the wedding day schedule. Specifically, the photography schedule.

I LIVE for helping my clients execute their creative visions, and I love getting to be around the beauty and excitement of the wedding. This is my day job, and it seriously rocks. That said, brides rarely have a realistic idea of how long wedding photography takes. And that's okay! We don't expect brides to be professionals—about 90% of our clients come to us with no personal wedding experience. That's why we've put together a list of tips, ideas, and recommendations for how to schedule your wedding photography.

Now, no two weddings are the same, but this is a good starting place and should set some reasonable expectations. Talk to your photographer about this, and understand that the push for more time is a push for quality on their part, not for more hours to charge. We're photographers because creativity runs in our blood—we want to produce beautiful photos just as much as you want to get them.

• Your photographer is doing more than one job. Okay, not a tip, but hear me out! There's a reason I want you to know this, and it's not an issue of complaint (my job rocks, after all). Your photographer is a photojournalist, a food photographer, a portraiture expert, an architectural shutterbug,  a schedule keeper, an entertainer, and a roadie. Seriously, there are a LOT of skills we have to balance and use on the wedding day. What may look simple on the outside (snap a few photos) is in fact VERY complex and time consuming. Your photographer is a professional who gets run ragged in the course of their profession, yet sticks with it because it's a labor of love. So understand, we are FOR you in all our discussions of time, obstacles, and goals.
   
• Schedule plenty of getting ready time. And we mean plenty. While you can comfortably schedule 30 minutes to an hour for the photos of the last bit of hairstyling, the groom tying his tie, and the bride putting on her wedding dress, please, please ensure that you have several hours of time from the start of getting ready to the end. If you don't, you'll cut into the time for your formal and couple photos. More on missed photo time later.
   
• Do a "first look" before the wedding. Most folks are familiar with the tradition where the couple don't see each other until they walk down the aisle. While this can be managed, I strongly encourage our couples to do a private first look well before the ceremony. Not only are these more intimate, personal, and memorable (so testifies everyone we've ever worked with!), it also solves some problems with the formal photos. If we follow tradition, then the only formal photos we can finish before the ceremony are those that don't require both bride AND groom in them. That's very few photos we can actually take. Anything we don't finish before the ceremony will have be finished afterwards—either making your guests wait for the reception to start or causing you to miss a chunk of the reception. And honestly, you're not going to care about photos after you say "I do." Newlyweds want to celebrate! So if we do a private first look, we can also take care of ALL the couple photos, ALL the family photos, and ALL the bridal party photos before the ceremony, leaving you to fully enjoy your reception.
   
• Give at least two hours for the formal photos (and preferably more). We've found that, for the kind of creativity and quality most folks want, this is an absolute bare minimum. Anything less and we're scaling back on photos of the couple as well as the variety of formal photos. In fact, when people are running late, they often choose to skip photos of the bride and groom altogether. For the average wedding (no more than eight attendants, no more than 20 family members in formal photos), this would be a reasonable expectation for formal photo time:
  • 50 minutes for first look and couple photos
  • 35 minutes for bridal party photos
  • 35 minutes for family photos
    
     
• Build 10 minutes of wiggle room into everything. Build "just-in-case" time into your day. Give yourself the gift of knowing that screwing up on one part of the schedule isn't the end of the world. It'll relieve stress and help your wedding photographer plan. Best case scenario, we're ahead of schedule and get to spend more time on creative photos of you two! Worst case, we're running on time (or close to it).
   
• Finish formals 30 minutes before the wedding. I can't argue enough for this. Aside from allowing more wiggle room in the schedule, this gives you that necessary last moment to stop, breathe, and relax. Eat some food, drink some water, catch up on a minor detail or two. We always build this into the schedule and it's been a lifesaver on more than one occasion. 
   
• Inform your photographer of potential challenges. These range from "My dad has a heart condition and can only stand for about 30 seconds at a time," to "My brother has Tourrette's  and may unintentionally tell you to 'go F!@# yourself.'" We've seen a lot, and almost every bride has tried to tell us they have the craziest family we've ever met. Honestly, you probably don't, and we're ready to roll with them. Just let us know in advance so we can know whether or not we'll need more time for the photography.
   
• Set aside more time for photos during the reception. Now, this one's a personal preference, and it's one in which I rarely get to indulge. I love having more time to get photos of just the two of you, especially if the sun is going down. All those amazing Pinterest photos you see of sparkler trails around the couple right after sunset? That was planned, purposefully, to be taken during the reception. We don't make a habit of trying to sell this one too hard, as most folks are trying to be conservative with their time, but you'd be amazed at how many more beautiful photos you can get! At the same time, don't set your heart on this time. If the ceremony goes long, you may have to cut the extra photos. That's why we'll get the vital photos taken before you walk down the aisle.

We hope you found this list helpful, and we'd love to hear your perspective and recommendations in the comments! For more info about my wife and I and our wedding photography, head over to jasoncomerford.com, or send me an email at [email protected].