As wedding season quickly approaches, it’s time for all those final details to come together for the spring brides!! This is where I am discussing all the nitty gritty wedding details with my brides about their big day- timeline, locations, family formals lists, etc. And one other important thing that we discuss at this point is the instructions for gathering their bridal details! This is something that isn’t really intuitive for brides to think about, but ensuring that you plan ahead and organize all the little items that your photographer will gather from you on your wedding day will make the morning of go much smoother AND will ensure that you get beautiful photos of all your little bridal details!

Today I am wrapping up my weekend in Charleston for the Rising Tide Society leaders retreat! I can’t wait to get back and tell you guys all about it! Until then, you’re going to hear from another amazing Hampton Roads wedding vendor, and my dear friend, Kelsey! Kelsey is a wedding and events planner based out of Newport News. She has a heart of gold, impeccable style and wisdom beyond her years! She has helped so many brides plan and execute the wedding of their dreams, but she also knows that there’s a lot more than just centerpieces and escort cards that go into planning your dream wedding! The little behind-the-scenes details are just as important! So today she is sharing 3 vital tasks to be done during the week of your wedding!

I am SO excited to start this new blog series! One of the ways I like to utilize my blogging platform is providing tips for brides planning their weddings! Wedding planning can be quite stressful and overwhelming at times, so being able to provide practical and sound advice to these ladies is something I am honored to be able to do. But I am only an expert on one aspect of the wedding planing process! So I’ve decided to do a little blog series where I feature tips from the other pros of the wedding world!! Each week I’ll be sharing a post featuring a wedding vendor sharing vital information about their particular aspect of the wedding planning process!

Spring is just around the corner, so that means it’s almost time for engagement session season! After you book your wedding photographer, the next step is planning your engagement session! Your engagement session is a chance to capture your relationship exactly how it is in this season of your life! It’s important that your engagement session be unique to you and your relationship. You don’t want a cookie cutter Pinterest engagement session that says nothing about your relationship! As the photographer, it’s my job to capture your dynamic and personalities in a genuine and authentic way! But there are also a few things that you can do when planning your engagement session to ensure it is unique to you!

It’s time for the final installment of the Wedding Day Timeline series!! Now that your ceremony has come and gone, it’s time to party!! The scheduling of your reception timeline will most likely be determined by your planner/coordinator, DJ and venue. This is the one part of the day that the photographer doesn’t have too much of a hand in scheduling, but there are still a few things to consider when planning your reception that will affect your photos!

In my last post of the Wedding Day Timeline series, I talked about the portraits that occur before the ceremony. Now that the ceremony has come and gone and you are officially married, it’s time for more pictures! After the ceremony we’ll do family formal photos, wedding party photos (unless you did a first look), bride and groom portraits and possibly reception detail photos. There is usually a small window of time between when the ceremony ends and the reception starts, so it’s important to plan your timeline wisely so that you have plenty of time for all these photos! So let’s break it down!