Wedding Ceremony
Organization and preparation are key to getting great photographs at your wedding ceremony. Follow the tips below to help your wedding photographer get the best wedding ceremony photographs possible.Hold a Rehearsal Lunch or Dinner and Request the Attendance of your Wedding Photographer(s) If attendance at the wedding rehearsal is not part of the wedding package, you may have to spend a little more to have your photographer at your rehearsal, but this is money well spent. At the rehearsal, decide on where the officiant, couple and bridal party will stand during the ceremony. Get your photographer's input on this. It is a good idea to invite your photographer to join you at the dinner. This is a good opportunity for the photographer to get to know your bridal party and for them to be comfortable with your photographer.
Don't send your entire bridal party down the aisle together. If you do this, your photographer will good photographs of the person who walks down the aisle first, but may not have enough time to get a good shots of the rest of the bridal party. Instruct your coordinator to space apart each of the bridal party members. For example, send the maid of honor, wait until she is close to the altar before sending the next bridesmaid. When it's time for the bride to walk down the aisle, a small pause is not a bad thing; after all, you want all eyes to be on the bride and her father or escort. The coordinator should remind each member of the bridal party, particularly the children, to walk slowly, look up and smile at the camera and the guests. Many couples incorporate special touches such as lighting a unity candle into the ceremony. In Hawaii, where I live, giving flower lei to family members and special guests during the ceremony is common. Instead of the bride and groom presenting the lei simultaneously, let the bride present the lei first and then the groom. Couples who have children often include children in the ceremony - by either acknowledging them with a simple hug, giving them a gift or reading a special vow to the child. If you plan to do any of this at your ceremony, make sure that you have communicated this to your photographer. The more prepared your photographer is, the better shots you will get at the end of the day. One photographer cannot be in two places at the same time. One photographer has to move around a lot to get different angles and this can be distracting during the ceremony. No matter how small and simple your ceremony, it is a huge advantage to have two photographers. But make sure that the two photographers work together on a regular basis so that they each know which angles to cover. I shoot weddings with my husband, who is the lead photographer for AinaKai Photography (http://www.ainakai.com), and brides can usually spot our different photography styles. With two photographers you will get double the number of "wow shots," a greater variety of angles and two different perspectives.