More Thoughts On My Wedding Photos...

The other day I was flipping through my professional wedding photos, trying to see how our escort card table had been laid out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a single pro shot of this table. At best, were some pictures, taken by a friend, of how it looked later in the night, once it had been switched over to our midnight snack table.

This made me realize that I didn’t have pictures of a lot of the “little” and even not-so-little things. For example, I didn’t have a decent picture of my centrepieces or any of the guest tables. And while we didn’t have a lot of flowers as décor, if you look at our photos, it’s almost as if the bouquets and corsages were the only flowers we had.

When it came to photos, I had made up a list of shots I wanted taken but these were almost all formal “people” shots (you know, me and my grandmother, me, my grandmother, sister and mother, that type of thing). While I did have some other shots down (like the outside of the building), I didn’t list out everything.

Part of this was because I assumed our photographer would just take shots of certain things like centrepieces. The other part is because I didn’t realize I wanted certain shots until after the wedding. For example, we had a signature drink, which was explained in a picture frame. I would have loved to have had a shot of the drink by the frame, but I didn’t think of that until it was too late.

Several months ago, when I was putting together our Photobooks, I realized all the great, creative, people-oriented photos that we could have taken (be sure to flip through these example books before your wedding day for ideas). Now, as I’m trying to remember the various details that made up our wedding, I’m realizing all the other photos that I wish we had.

So my advice to you, future brides, is to write down every possible shot that you want taken and then give that list to your photographer. Odds are, this is going to be a long list so you’re probably going to want to break it up, by location as well as by priority (I do realize that not even the best photographer in the world is going to capture everything).

I’d also explain to the photographer that you’re being thorough, not crazy, and that you’re just trying to ensure that you end up with photos you love.

Because once your wedding day’s over, it’s over and trust me, it sucks to be sitting, wishing that you had a picture of A or B (and yes, I’m still disappointed that I never got my wedding day “wow” shot).