At Dreamcoat Photography we love weddings. And with three weddings booked and coming up its time talk a bit more about how wedding photography works when you book with us.

The first question is usually the wrong question, how much? And though we have a page talking about wedding pricing this is really only an indication. Package prices are really an insult to you as a bride. Your day is unique to you and your fiancé and trying to package that is impossible. We design  a shoot that suits your specific circumstances and requirements and price that according to your budget. Of course we still have to be realistic, you need to have the budget to suit your tastes, whether that is 5 star dining or burgers and fries.
There are some things we always do. The first is a contract. The details are nutted out with you but a contract contains all the legal stuff about what we will and wont do, can be held responsible for and what we wont accept responsibility for, the payment terms and conditions and so on. This is pretty standard stuff in the industry and any photographer who isn’t using one should really be avoided as they don’t understand the first principles of a photography business.
That out of the way we get to the fun stuff. Actually this happens first so we can get the details for the  contract.

We create an individualised run sheet. for each wedding. What this means is we sit down with the bride, and the groom if he is still naive enough to think he has any say in what happens, and go through every little detail. Usually grooms get bored about ten minutes in and find something else to do which is fine. We just call them back to say “Yes honey” at the end.
By every little detail I mean every little detail. Are you wearing a garter? Do you want it photographed? Are you following the “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” tradition? If so we will plan to shoot those elements. We need time to do that so that needs to be fitted in somewhere. What times in your day are the fixed points in time, the ceremony start, the reception etc? What specific poses and elements do you want recorded because of their particular significance or relevance for you and your family? We work out who to talk to about lighting in the venues, access to ladders or other equipment if needed, access into the reception venue, any family feuds to be aware of, who not to pose with who and who we absolutely must get a photo of.
A very important component is understanding the venues and the lighting – we will try for a dress rehearsal or even a dry run at the same time of day so we can understand the lighting conditions we will need to deal with, the angles, the positions we can be in so as to get the shots while being as unobtrusive as possible while avoiding ugly or distracting backgrounds. If we are using two photographers as we do in most cases we work out what lenses and angles each will use. We also think about the alternate plans for outdoors if weather plays a part.
When it comes to the candid nature of weddings we excel because we have done our homework. Nothing surprises us and those funny little unscripted moments are a joy to capture for you because we are ready for them. The more formal scripted shots and poses, the signing of the register, the ring exchanges and even the first kiss are all planned and prepared for because we talk about them beforehand. We know how much fun your wedding will be and we want to capture all those emotions for you.

Now the big one, the wedding group photos. More and more people are putting the reception close to the ceremony so there is no big gap between them especially for people who have had to travel to be there. This can create two problems. The first is the amount of time there is to do the posed photos and the potential for travelling to the locations required for these photos can be come limited because of the time available. The second is the availability and use of natural light connected to the time of year and time of day.

There are to possible solutions. After working through it with you we can sometimes help you change the time frame where possible in order to ensure that there is enough time in this gap to ensure we can get leave the ceremony, travel to the shoot location(s) and get the photos with the right light – preferably afternoon light. This can be done by either moving the ceremony back or the reception forward.

Sometimes this is just not possible. Eg other bookings at the church or reception venue. The alternate solution which is quite common overseas and becoming more common here is to do the wedding group photos before the ceremony. This is actually quite good for a number of reasons. The wedding party relaxes and enjoys itself and gets all the pre wedding jitters out of the way. With enough time before hand we can capture photos from a range of places. However we don’t recommend the bride getting dropped into a stream or the ocean in her dress before the wedding!

At the end of the day – its your wedding, your day and your photos. We are just there to get them for you and we always do our absolute best to capture the day for you to treasure forever in print.