Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

Q&A ABOUT PLANNING YOUR WEDDING


I am a Toronto wedding photographer and today I'm going to be doing a Q&A; about all the different wedding related things that you guys wanted to know first off I want to say that I am sorry that I have had less videos this month and with the bridal store that we just purchased which you have not heard about I'll link a video up here it's just been extra busy I've had so many engagement sessions and weddings this month and all sorts of things to do I have a really big wedding this upcoming weekend which I'm very excited about we've also been having our condo remodeled which is gonna be done really really soon but basically that means that the only day that I am able to film is typically Saturday or Sunday and when I have a wedding on Saturday the last thing I want to do is like wake up put on makeup on Sunday and film and work so it's just been a little bit tougher but hopefully November will be a little bit better and I'll actually be able to film some things with a dress stop and do a little bit of a series on that so you guys can learn a little bit more about the dress process I have already learned so much becoming a new owner of the shop so I'm really excited to share that with you guys but for today I'm gonna be answering the questions that you sent me here on and I'm gonna start off with Jenna's question she says maybe because this is a silly question but when I'm looking at colors of items like bridesmaids dresses they tend to photograph very different than the color I see with my eye is it silly to worry if my photographer will capture the color as seen or will be different like a phone photo captures so that's a really great thing and I love that you notice that Jenna because yes a lot of digital cameras just seem to tweak the color in that photo as opposed to what's true to life that's one of the reasons that I love film photography because I find that my film photos capture the colors especially different Reds purple tones things like that a lot more true to what they look like in person wears a lot of times the digital photos I take even if I've made it the cleanest and it possible those colors still look very different from what they look like in real life and that to me is very important because if a bride is choosing a particular color of flower or dress she's going to want that to look the same in the photos and that is one of the hang-ups with digital photography as it does that now sometimes it can be easily tweaked but I would say if you are worried about this and you have a particularly bold color in your then just let the wedding photographer know that you want to make sure that those colors are true life in the photos as much as possible if they do shoot film it's probably more likely that they'll be more true to life but film photography can be a little bit more expensive just because filaments help is very expensive so just one thing to keep in mind if a couple does a first look how long is their portrait session so actually been an entire video about timelines which I'll link to up here typically what I'm doing with my couples is they'll have a first look and I will oftentimes schedule 45 minutes for first looking portraits I do make sure to have padding and the time before that when they're getting ready because the last thing I want is for a hair-and-makeup to run late and then we lose out on first look in portrait time I will always also schedule sunset portraits later in the day typically for about 10 to 15 minutes but if I know that this is a couple who's got a bigger venue we want to cover more ground do a lot more with bride and groom portraits then I might make that first look session an hour and then make sure we definitely get another 15 minutes during sunset or if there's not a sunset because it's take earth there's not like a sunset time later on in the day because it is during cocktail hour then I'll go ahead and pull them during cocktail hour form or whatever photographer is different some photographers might only want 15 minutes some might want to hours so you're gonna have to check with your own photographer this one person asked me how do I manage my schedule respond to emails call clients for updates edit and have personal time that's a great question and I have the very simple answer for that which is that I am organized I like automation so I have a lot of software that automates my work for me in this business and I'm really efficient so I try to for example social media I will sit down one day a week schedule out the full week or maybe even two weeks in advance worth of posts in one sitting and then it's taken care of I have email templates for just about every scenario you could ever think of and I have an online scheduler so Brides can schedule calls with me so there's no back-and-forth so if there is anything of tedious in my business I have cut that out and made it really efficient that's really the answer to it before I bought the bridal boutique I was feeling like I had too much free time but now I'm feeling like I don't have enough or at least till we get through construction and the bridal shop settles down a little bit but honestly it's just really good time management prioritizing well being efficient and being like extremely organized that is pretty much it any thoughts I'm having service dogs and pictures or present for the ceremony yes I love that I would say have your service dog in all of your photos maybe take it out for a couple I say that because I love animals and photos so I would highly recommend having them in your pictures anyway and my hope would be that like you're so bonded with that animal it feels like just as loved as a non service animal would be that somebody would want at a wedding so I would say definitely include the service animal in your photos you can have like a handler or somebody nearby that you can pass them off to so you can get a couple of photos without your service animal but I love it like the more animals the merrier and then Kristi also asked do I have any thoughts about photographing more complicated and intricate ceremonies would you need a dedicated space to set up have you ever shot multi day weddings can you talk about that a little what goes into it for you how does the package change what can you expect from the photographer so I don't do too many of those a lot of times I see that with Indian weddings I simply just don't get any enquiries for Indian weddings like I've probably only had one or two in my entire career and be happy to do them but I don't get increased for them but I would honestly take my same packages and just add extra hours to them and they could split it over two days there would be a minimum amount of hours like on each day especially if they wanted a Saturday and a Sunday I need to make sure that both of those days are I cannot work for me to justify you know basically taking up two days with one client so for example they can't just get me for one hour on that Sunday it's probably gonna have to be at least three hours so something like that to make sure that it's worth like my time and then for intricate ceremonies the only thing that I would say about that is if you have a ceremony where you're going to be doing something that's out of the ordinary or something that very culturally specific just make sure that your photographer knows what's gonna happen because they don't necessarily know what happens in that cultural type of ceremony so things that could pop up they might not be like not not ready for but not aware of like the significance or of the timing or they might just be confused on the ordering so just let them know I don't think they need to have shot that particular kind of ceremony before as long as they're prepared know what to expect ahead of time thank you guys for sending these I really like when you guys have things to ask me or things to tell me it makes me feel like I'm not just talking to my camera all the time that I'm actually talking to you guys which I really appreciate so one bride Hannah says can you please talk about what his second shooter does throughout the wedding she also was saying that she has to design her second shooters timeline for the wedding and I told her that is not a bride's job the main photographer so me and my business should be the one designing the second photographers timeline so what I typically do for my second shooters this I will have them start with me in the bride's room most of my weddings are bride and groom so I'm just gonna say that for this example so they would start with me for a little bit shooting the bride and her friends her mom getting ready while I'm shooting all my pretty flat lace and then I'll send my second shooter to the groom's room because grooms typically get ready very quickly there's not a whole lot of like stuff happening so that is pretty much where my second shooter goes well I finish up with the bride getting into her gown and then pretty much the second shooter stays with me for the bulk of the day I will typically during family portraits send them to go ahead and photograph the ceremony details before guests arrive because guests love to throw their purses and their coats and all their stuff all over the chairs and then that's not as pretty of a photo so we always try to get those details before people mess it all up with their accessories so that's what I'll do and then during the ceremony we're shooting different angles during cocktail hour I'm usually photographing the reception details while my second shooter stays at cocktail hour to get candid photos smiling at the camera photos all sorts of things like that and then during the reception just shooting different angles so they're with me most of the day but then I told them when I need them to go shoot something separate from me that's pretty much how that works so that should always be the responsibility of the primary shooter to designate what the second shooter is doing what's your recommendation on calligraphy I love good calligraphy but I cannot afford professional writing for all the invitations and escort cards for over 250 guests I love that and I actually just covered this in my video on like ways to make your wedding feel and look more grand in photos if you want you can simply have your calligrapher or hire a calligrapher to do one set for your photos and it's not to pretend like you had that for all your guests it's something that you could keep for yourself like you wanted that but it's not feasible for you to do it for every single one of your guests but at least you have one for your own keepsake and that is exactly what we did and I plan at some point when I get my life together to frame it and have it hanging on the walls in my office so that's what I wanted to do even though the guests didn't get the envelope liner and they didn't get the hand calligraphy on the envelopes I wanted a pair for my photos and for myself to keep so that is something that you guys can do which gives you the look you want but you don't have to pay for it for all of your wedding guests and then Jillian asked have you ever seen a wedding where cocktail-hour food is laid out on a grazing self-serve table as opposed to past finger foods yes I have a lot of times I see a combination of both or just tray pass it's pretty rare that I see just a grazing table but it does happen and Martha Stewart recently did post a whole like vlogs all about inspiration for grazing tables so if I can find that I'll link it below so that's something you guys can check out but they're really neat like you can just have guests self-serve you don't have to have tray pass um with tray pass sometimes there might be a higher cost because I don't know there's labor involved in people that have to be hired for that so a grazing table might be more cost effective at the same time the grazing table might not keep fresh as long just depending on what's out there and once it is kind of dwindling down it doesn't look as nice which is not a really big deal but it's just something to keep in mind if that's something that would bother you where's tray pass they're always coming out fresh when the tray gets emptied they go back they reload they come back so it's a little bit cleaner of a presentation but honestly whichever one you want to do I think would be totally fine as simply curated says I'm a micro wedding under 50 guests restaurant reception small park ceremony in Brooklyn on a Wednesday what would be some things to consider when looking for a wedding photographer and videographer for a small and non-traditional wedding well one really great thing is the fact that you're doing this on a Wednesday is phenomenal because a lot of photographers will have lower hourly minimums Monday through Thursday so for me for example on an actual wedding day my minimum is typically 7 or 8 hours 8 is preferred that's my minimum unless you're booking me like a month in advance I'm not gonna come shoot a Saturday wedding for 4 hours because I could very likely look a really large wedding however if you want to have me for a minimum of 2 hours on a Wednesday you can have at it so your costs are going to be way less even if the photographer is charging the same prices for their time it's way less hours you're having to pay for and I would be willing to bet the videographer is the same if I was having a 50 guest wedding that I was shooting I would probably still have a second shooter my general rule my own personal rule is anything over like 25 people I'm gonna have a second shooter for just for certain areas of the day when I can't be in two places at once I can easily capture 50 people on my own but I might not be able to do things that are happening simultaneously so that's when I would want a second photographer usually when it's 20 people logistics are so much easier and there's not as many details to shoot because it's smaller but 50 I would say you could probably get away without a second shooter but I would recommend one anyway the frugal bride asked how can I ensure the photographer and videographer will work well together they've never met but I need them to get along in each capture the best moments first of all hopefully they're really professional and they can work together easily regardless what I always tell my bride like here's my list of preferred videographers like I really love them they work great they have a similar aesthetic they work easily alongside me because I have had some videographers in the past who would interrupt me in the middle of my posing and made the couple do really bizarre things and it was just really rude of them to interrupt my process because I would not have done the same thing to them if it was their turn to be working with the couple so I mean honestly I would just ask your photographer or videographer have you ever heard of each other check out your work want to connect here's each other's emails and that should be great and as long as they're professional they're gonna be courteous and get along hopefully you have not hired a photographer videographer who's like super wild and in the way and like really selfish about what they're shooting so hopefully you'll be all set would love to see a video from a guest perspective I could have totally done that in Massachusetts at my brother-in-law's wedding but I wanted to just relax and have fun and then what do guests remember most and notice from a wedding I can only account for my own wedding which was they actually talked about the flowers for several days I had really fun flowers they were really lush asymmetrical very colorful so I had several people texting me about the flowers like four days after the wedding which is really cool because flowers were extremely important to me I also had people talking about our welcome dinner drinks those cocktails were really good so people talked about that people talked about the food from our wedding a lot and that's probably the main things they really loved our venue they loved how cool it was and how neat it was to be outdoors because a lot of my guests were East Coast so they're used to indoor receptions so that for them was unique so at least from my wedding that's what our guests talked about from the wedding that I just went to for my brother-in-law the things that I think of the most are probably the food and the alcohol so that's pretty much it and the cookies they gave us those favors which some of you guys know my opinion on favors I don't really think that they're a good use of money however I love edible favors because those usually will be consumed whereas like little trinkets often get left behind so what is your opinion having an officiant for the ceremony what would you say would be pros and cons of not having one my state is a Quaker Steak so officiants are not required to get married very interesting I honestly feel like for an officiant not only in a lot of states they have to be there legally but they help with the flow of the wedding and they help keep that structure so I think if you're not gonna have an officiant that's completely fine like do whatever you want you save a little bit of money you don't have to have one to have one but make sure that you have some sort of structure memorized so that you guys don't just get up there and like it ends up being drawn out and going forever and you like like so I would have some sort of a plan like that to make sure that you're keeping things on track and on time so for example your guys are gonna walk up the aisle I don't know maybe we'll both give like a welcome speech I've never seen a wedding without an officiant so I don't really know here's just my idea so you give like things will be here maybe I don't know or have somebody else like introduce you guys and then they go sit something like that you'll have to work that out I don't know and then you could just read each other your vows and then that could be it like it'd just be really short and sweet maybe you have a friend or a reading that's important to you I don't know like you could really just do whatever you want My partner and I planned to provide child care worker and a courtesy bus for our guests so they can have the best of both worlds but it is expensive what do you think of asking guests to contribute to the costs for the ones with children or planning to use the bus sort of splitting the cost is this rude how would you ask I feel guilty but we really want a child for a reception and most of our guests have to travel a distance for our wedding I think you definitely need to be either providing for your guests transportation if they're supposed to get on this bus or saying that they can get themselves there I don't think it's right to hire a bus yourself and then ask the guests to pay for that however on the child side I have seen a lot of weddings that provide childcare where the couple pays for all the childcare or they simply tell their guests ahead of time child care will be provided like this rate per child per hour and then that way they know in advance that that's going to be something that can be offered so they as the adults choose to bring their children to this wedding instead of leaving them home with a relative or babysitter they at least are prepared for that so I think it's perfectly fine to ask the guests with children to pay for that childcare I don't see anything wrong with that they're bringing their kids so it's kind of on them we're like in the nicest way possible but I do think that you need to pay for their bus if you are hiring a bus now if you don't want to pay for guest transportation then you can just encourage people to mover or just get there on their own but hiring a bus you need to hire the bus and pay for yourself do you have any recommendations for wedding planner books I'm really picky and trying to find one that is functional and aesthetically pleasing to me as well flute Co and they do wedding planner books I did a video about them a really long time ago I think so that could be when I can link down in the comments and then my friend Alicia from bridezilla I believe she has a wedding planner book as well I have not read it but knowing that it's coming from her I'm sure it's incredible so I will link that one down below as well [Music] [Music] what have been some of your favorite songs you've seen used during processionals and what did I use for my own every song I like seems so overdone yes there are a lot of songs that I hear at multiple weddings a year and as somebody who attends a lot of weddings like I can get really targets of songs I think ultimately choose what song you like I have a whole video about songs up here I think that the most memorable ones for me were songs that were unexpected they did not seem cliche or overly used it was a song like Oh like okay that's cool make it your own if you guys have a song that's important to you even if it's like a rock song or something that doesn't seem very oily just do it do what you want for your music I think that that's really cool I know there are some wedding blogs maybe green wedding shoes whenever they post a real wedding day will typically put the songs that they walk down the aisle to so you might find that green wedding shoes does tend to have some more non-traditional wedding so that might be a good place to find some song inspiration for you for us since we'd have a ceremony we ended up just having our reception our first dance song was goodbye horses like you Lazarus that was a very unique song and it was cool for us so it was just something that was neat we were like this can't work like this isn't a wedding song but whatever we like it cool it's the only song between us that has any sort of meaning so that's what we chose so that is pretty much it for all of the questions right now I again I'm gonna be a little bit slower for the rest of this month this might be the only video I put out this week so apologies in advance but hopefully once I get a little bit further into November then I can actually start posting more I did want to ask you guys I posted a behind-the-scenes video from a wedding that I shot up in Northern California about a month or two ago and it just didn't get that many views so I do no if you guys actually want to see videos of behind the scenes it does take some effort to make sure that I'm reminding my assistant to film things throughout the day so if that's not something you guys care that much about then let me know if it is then I can try to do it for my wedding this weekend it's gonna be a really cool beautiful wedding in Palm Springs but again like I don't wanna make my assistant go through the trouble like taking all these videos if that's not something that you guys actually want to see but anyways I hope you guys enjoyed this Q&A; video I hope it was helpful I know that I haven't been posting again so sorry it will definitely get better in November I will see you guys next time bye