The Process —

A Planning Expectations Guide

As a recently-engaged couple, running headlong into wedding planning can seem fairly daunting. Rest easy — the process can be as simple and, most importantly, as enjoyable as you’d like it to be.

Defining our big picture…

Because this whole deal has a bit of a “so, uh, where do we start?” dynamic to it, I like to chat about just what you can expect, with respect to photography, at these key points:

01 now – the very beginning, moving forward

02 engagement portraits, if such are on your radar

03 at least a couple of strategically-timed sit-downs or video chats along the way

04 wedding weekend

05 wrap-up and gallery delivery

Okay. So let’s talk more about what these key points look like in actionable items...

01 Getting things rolling…

Right out of the gate, we’d work together to assemble a timeline of all of our planning pieces as they relate to photography. Typically, one of the first orders of business is engagement portraits, if you’re interested in such (we’ll talk more about what a portrait shoot looks like here in a minute). And from there, we make it a point to sit down at least a couple of times prior to wedding day to ensure we’re staying on the same page regarding various moving pieces.

02 Engagement portraits

More than just matching turtlenecks and silly poses

First things first – let’s address a stigma. Engagement portraits don’t have to be cheesy, posey, unenjoyable and so on.

Oftentimes, I hear folks drop a line that goes like this:

“Man, we are just sooo awkward in front of the camera... you’ve sure got your work cut out for you!”

Rest easy... I’m fairly directive during portraits; I give prompts to encourage some natural interaction but the overall goal is to create some space in which you can be you. And, tell your folks not to worry – we’ll take a small handful of the more standard, posed portraits as well.

In terms of locations for such portraits, this is a back-and-forth conversation. I primarily want to know if there are any spots toward which you and your fiancé tend (the park, a bar, your couch at home, the lake). From there, I’m happy to suggest spots with which I’m familiar. You’re welcome to change outfits if you’d like, and we’d take as much time as we need. Turnaround time on these portraits is three weeks, and they go into the full gallery where your wedding photographs will eventually also live. I mail you a USB drive as well, accompanied by a small collection of fine art prints, along with a print release.

Most importantly: I’m a staunch supporter of pre-portrait whiskey shots.

03 Keeping the momentum going…

Configuring how the moving pieces of your wedding day work together

From here on out, I’m happy to be as hands on or as on standby as you see fit. Some folks have called me their “wedding psychologist” – and friend – after sitting down together every few weeks. Other folks may have a wedding coordinator on board with whom I’d work behind the scenes to stay atop our moving pieces. Either method – or somewhere in the middle – is of course completely fine. As a general undercurrent, though, I want to get to know you as best as possible; I feel that the better I know you, the better pictures I can make for you.

In particular, a big part of my role is helping you figure out how to meld your existing day-of schedule with the timing and location of three things:

01 portraits with your families (more on this below)

02 portraits with your wedding party (if you’re having one)

03 portraits of you and your partner

On the topic of family portraits: I feel that these are immensely important, but they shouldn’t take more than twenty or so minutes to efficiently accomplish (in other words, simpler is better here — try to imagine ahead of time what family portrait groupings you’ll really want to print and hang on your wall vs. the ones you won’t). To this end, we’d put together a list of all the folks involved with these portraits, so that I can be direct with everyone present.

For the sake of reference, you can see an example of a day-of timeline we built for our recent clients, Amy and Nick, below:

04 Wedding weekend

Our grand masterpiece

Wedding weekend is most accurately described as me playing fly-on-the-wall – with all of our plans in mind and with the exception of my direction regarding those portraits mentioned earlier. My goal is to capture all of the planned-for moments, as well as the spontaneous ones, while remaining inconspicuous, giving minor input and direction when necessary.

Come reception time, I typically work closely with your coordinator and/or emcee to stay on the same page regarding the evening’s flow. And regardless of the amount of time we’ve agreed I’ll stay for, I’ll touch base before departing to be certain we’ve accounted for everything.

05 That’s a wrap

Now that you’re married, freshly off a remarkable honeymoon perhaps, and back to some much appreciated routine, here’s how things look.

Within eight weeks of wedding day, your photographs are all polished off and uploaded to your gallery. While I take a quality over quantity approach, you can expect around 75 images per hour of day-of coverage. These images are high resolution and are downloadable right away, which means you can pull them from your gallery and make prints of them immediately. This gallery stays online for a minimum of ninety days.

Within another couple of weeks you’ll receive in the mail a portable drive containing your images and a print release, as well as a nicely-arranged stack of fine art prints.

After a few additional weeks, now that things have settled and you’ve had a chance to “experience” your photographs, we’ll chat once more. This is essentially a quick quality check, and we also use this conversation as a chance to kick around options like albums and additional prints. While this is the last scheduled interaction of the process, I keep your images on file for at least twelve months, and am happy to help in any capacity at any point.

Reach out anytime…

Truly. Anytime.

And I’m happy to spitball on any topic. I’ve seen my share of weddings, so I like to think I can advise on just about anything – entrance songs, cake decorations, hotels & Airbnbs, anything. If you’ve got questions I want to hear ‘em. Additionally, more information can be found anytime on my FAQs page, and my current and continuously-updated work can be found on Instagram.