When planning for your wedding photography, there’s a little something many couples forget to take into account: the sun. Are you wondering if I’ve lost my mind? Stick with me. There’s a good reason you should consider daylight and your photography package if you want to get the perfect sunset wedding pics.
Planning for perfect sunset wedding pics
You’re scrolling through Instagram and you fall in love with a photographer’s glowy, warm sunset images. They flatter her couples and you can feel them glowing in those pictures. You reach out to that photographer you fell in love with, you hit it off immediately, but you’re on a budget so you decide to only book for a 6-hour wedding package.
for your wedding photos.
As you’re planning your wedding, you decide to have your ceremony at 4 p.m. (you want to spend your day celebrating with all of your people, after all!) You ask your photographer to start her 6 hours at noon. You’ll get your getting ready photos, group pictures and do a first look all before the ceremony. That opens up your whole evening to visit with your guests, have a few drinks and get out on the dance floor. It sounds perfect and like exactly what you want.
But then your photographer reminds you, sunset on your wedding day isn’t until 9 p.m. — over three hours after her time with you is up. That means it won’t be possible for her to get the glowy, warm wedding photos for you AND all the images you wanted before the ceremony. So, what do you do?
This is just one example of why you should be thinking about sunlight when it comes to your wedding day photography, or better yet, keeping your photographer in the loop and letting her or him help guide you to get the photos you want most.
Communication with your photographer well ahead of time
Please don’t take this to mean you have to get out a sundial and be super meticulous about planning your wedding photos around the sun. That’s crazy and way more stress than you need!
What you should take from this is it’s important to:
- a) Talk to your photographer about his or her process for getting the photos you loved in their portfolio
- b) Know which photos are most important to you
- c) Communicate with your photographer to make sure you get those images.
In this scenario (which is one I see with quite a few of my brides who are ballin’ on a tight budget), it becomes a question of what’s most important. Would you rather have getting ready photos in the early part of the day and spend your evening partying it up? Or would you rather have photos in that warm, beautiful light and take a little more of your post-ceremony time for family and group photos? By pushing those photos to after your ceremony and being willing to sneak out of your reception for just 15 minutes of peace, you can get those gorgeous images and a little alone time as a bonus!
The ultimate answer for all your photo needs
The best way, the only way really, to have it all is to book your photographer for your whole day. I’ve never heard that a bride regretted having too many wedding photos, but take a poll of your married friends if you don’t believe me. How many of them wish they had or are grateful they had their photographer there the full day?
It seems obvious, but in order to get the sweet photos with your team before you get into the dress, a first look, ceremony, family photos, reception and gorgeous golden hour portraits, the ultimate answer is to have a full day of photographer. I promise you it’ll be worth it.
