7 Tips For Planning Your Wedding Ceremony

First of all, I would like to say CONGRATS ON YOUR UPCOMING WEDDING!
I’ve gotten into the habit here of sharing a few hints + tips to help with your wedding planning, today being no exception. When it comes to planning your wedding day, the sticky point is usually ceremony timing + how to schedule everyone.

Heres 7 tips for planning your wedding ceremony…

1) Plan what time of the day will you want for the wedding ceremony. Would you want the ceremony in the morning, afternoon, or early evening? Photography-wise, natural lighting is excellent in the daytime. I’ve photographed as early as 2:30pm, and a standard time is 3-3:30pm but you could stretch it as far as maybe 5pm.

2) Scout for a beautiful venue. It’s better to start searching for venues where you want your wedding to be held. The options are too many, but choose one where you feel can give great memories on your very special day that will last a lifetime.

3) Organise your wedding theme, music, officiating celebrant, other vendors Seriously think these thing through to maintain a consistent look + feel for your day. With good communication, everyone should be on board and able to provide you with the best version of what it is that you want. There are many and varied vendors to chose from, so do your research!

4) Weather check: have a backup plan READY. If you’re having an outdoor wedding, check the weather for that week. Discuss the possibilities beforehand with the organisers involved so they can assist you and make sufficient changes at the venue, just in case. I’ve photographed one wedding in the wind + rain, and whilst it wasn’t ideal it didn’t matter in the end. My couple were happy + in love, their friends and family were there to celebrate and it didn’t stop the party!

5) Choose what kind of “tone” or “feel” to the ceremony. At some point, we’ve all attended weddings where the moods are different from each other. Would you like it to be formal, or otherwise? Light-hearted, perhaps? No matter the kind of mood you like, make sure everything’s in accord. Create a vision board on Pinterest, and share it with your vendors. This imagery will help inspire them with all the feelings your having, and work towards making it a reality!

6) Keep yourself alert.  Eat a hearty breakfast, keep chugging the waters and practice those deep breathes as you arrive at your ceremony location. If your a super anxious kinda gal, can I make the suggestion that you consider doing a first look? They are super popular these days and as your photog, it gives me extra opportunity to capture you and your hubby-to-be. What also happens is that you two have seen one another before you both get to the ceremony which kinda takes away a bit of the nerves!

7) Coordinate with your official wedding photographer. Remember I’m here to serve you. If your booked with me, we will have done a engagement session together, have multiple emails back + forth and maybe even gone for a walk around the lake together to discuss plans. We’re good, promise. I’m here to capture your day as it unfolds, so think of me as your official third wheel through all of the moments from getting ready to first dance.