Hi! Well, the new year began, it’s raining softly outside, and I’m busy creating albums for my clients. What an amazing time!
But I realized that I had really slacked off on accomplishing what I really wanted to do with this blog, which is helping couples with little things here or there about weddings and wedding planning and wedding photography that they might not get from friends or magazines. After all, I see and experience a LOT of weddings.
I’ve talked earlier about the vital components to a fantastic wedding experience – the planner, the person officiating, and the master of ceremonies. Think about it – you’re not planning a big party, you’re planning a chance for ALL of your favorite people, most of whom haven’t even met before, to help you celebrate a huge milestone. And while you’re both the honored guests, you should be just that – guests. The planner (or coordinator, but that’s another blog) is the host, the one who runs the show and makes sure that all YOU have to do is show up. The officiant is the one whose job it is to bring your guests into your ceremony and make them feel like they’re participating rather than just, well, sitting there. And the master of ceremonies is the one who can read, anticipate, and guide the party fluidly and flawlessly from one part to the next. SO vital!
What I’d like to focus on with this blog is the person who actually marries you. In a way, the officiate is indeed the master of ceremonies for YOUR ceremony. It’s up to him or her to bring the audience in so that they feel like they’re participating a bit – or keep the focus all about the two of you and treat your guests more as an audience. You should consider how YOU want the ceremony and if there’s a way to influence it, get your wants known.
Here are some things to consider when finding the right wedding officiate:

How involved should your guests be?
Maybe you’re NOT looking forward to saying your vows in front of everyone. Maybe you’d rather be facing your guests than your officiant. Maybe you’d like to share the experience with your guests. Or maybe you just want someone to say, “Do you? and you?” and be done with it!
Whatever it is, discuss it with each other first, then find someone who fits the bill.

How do you know them?
If it’s the parish priest and you don’t get a choice, so be it. But then it’s on your shoulders to be as open and candid with the priest or pastor to get to know you two a little bit. By knowing a little about you, it can only bring a little personalization to what can be a very rote ceremony. I’ve seen absolutely fantastic Catholic wedding masses because the priests knew the couple, or saw one of them grow up, and could engage the audience with bits and pieces of their lives.

And while we’re talking about officiants…
Keep in mind that any rules your officiant has for photography must agree with your own wishes. So find out those rules before you book them, or their church. You don’t want to find out after your wedding that two minutes before the wedding, the officiant said no photos were allowed in the center aisle. And yes, that’s happened to me before – even at an OUTDOOR wedding! So find out what those rules are and if you don’t like them, speak up.

Cheers!
Rhee

So much has changed in just a few short years.

If you had decided to get married 15 or so years ago (you know, back when you told a boy you liked him by not hitting him so hard with the dodgeball), you chose a photographer who was all about the posed photos. This is when everyone dressed in their best and flew in from all over the world, and it was his or her job to get wonderful portraits of not only the two of you but also all of your families.

Then, months later, your photographer would bring you into the studio and hand you a proof album from which to choose which photos you wanted to keep. The proof books had to be given back to the photographer, never to be seen again unless you ordered all of them. And most of the photos were posed photos of every imaginable grouping of family you never even knew you had.

Thank god it’s not like that anymore!!!

Sure, these days, you can still find a great photographer who believes the posed portrait is key. But there are other choices for you! There are photojournalistic style photographers, art photographers, artsy photojournalistic photographers, “vogue” style photographers, and the “photo artists” who do most of their work in photoshop after the wedding. Wow!

No matter what style of photographer you choose, there are a few things that most have in common.
1. They will present your wedding to you in some way/shape/form (proofs)
2. They will give you something to keep from your wedding in some way/shape/form
3. They will have options of other things to buy in some way/shape/form

I’m going to try to break these down a bit for you so you can understand what’s available and what kinds of questions to ask. Remember, the better the fit with you and your studio, the happier everyone will be! If you want a true photojournalist, you might cringe when you see heavily retouched proofs! And those who really don’t want to be posed a lot will just hate the vogue style photographer, even if they appreciate the art.

Number one – “They will show you your wedding in some way/shape/form”

Think of proofs as the first way you experience your wedding. It could be a slideshow, or through an online proof site, or a proof book. It could be an album or box of proof prints, it could be a disk of the images in either high or low resolution, to see and enjoy when you wish. Maybe you’ll see every single shot from the wedding, untouched and as is from the camera. Or, maybe it’s just the best of the best, color corrected and artistically interpreted. Or, like we do here at rhee bevere photography, something between the two.

That’s way too much choice for most people. Which is why the two of you should consider how you want to keep your wedding proofs, if at all, before you even start looking for a photographer.

Questions to ask each other:

• How do you want to see your wedding photographs for the first time?
• Would you love to have your friends drink champagne while viewing each proof on a large screen?
• Would you want to snuggle up with your honey and see each 4×6 print?
• Would you want the entire day at your fingertips, or just a few hundred artistically rendered and posted online?
• And then, how would you want to keep these images?
• Do you want all the digital negatives from everything that was shot? And if so, would you really do anything with them or would they just sit in your closet for a few years?
• Would you want the best of the best to keep in an album or display box? Or maybe a few hundred printed and bound as a proof book?
• Maybe proofs are irrelevant to you – just a way to pick the very best and put into a gorgeous album.

Questions to ask your photographer:

• May I see what you give to your clients as proofs?
• If it’s a slideshow, is it one we can purchase or keep?
• Do you color correct your proofs?
• Do you do any retouching or artistic interpretation before we see the proofs?
• If we keep the digital negatives, do we also get the artistic interpretations and retouched images?
• What are the ways we can keep our digital negs?
• Do you include digital negs in any of your packages? If not, are they available to purchase in the future?
• What size are the digital negative files? Can I print them larger than 4×6?
• If they do include digital negs, when do you get them? Do you need to purchase anything first? Do you need to wait for a year or six months?

Things to keep in mind:

Just because a photographer doesn’t include digital negs doesn’t mean you should immediately write them off. Exactly the opposite – they’ve put a lot of time and effort into the wedding and may offset the cost of including those negatives with other things, such as artistic interpretation or retouching all images. If they shoot film, they’ve got other steps that must be followed, such as scanning in all those negatives and retouching as needed. See if they are available in the future. Just because you can have them doesn’t mean you necessarily need them. You might want to use that budget toward a gorgeous album and forget the proofs altogether.

It will probably take you months to organize your thoughts for your album, so if you do need to wait before obtaining your negatives, don’t worry. Life has a way of keeping you busy in the meantime! ::grin::

Does this help? I’m hoping so!

What do we do for our clients? We’re pretty flexible, so we provide:
1. Online proofing (this was a must when I was a bride, since ALL of my family is from out of state)
2. Your choice of a set of 500 proof prints or 500 in a handbound book
3. All (with our boo-boos deleted of course) of your images on disk as digital negs, which can be printed up to poster size.
(and sometimes, we’ll suprise people with a slideshow!)

G’night! More soon!

One of my favorite parts of the day is the getting ready. If things are going well, and the ladies are all there for you, it is a magical time. It’s when you change from a fiancee into a bride. And at some point during this brief but unforgettable time, it will hit you that you’re about to marry your best friend. When that happened to me, I was blessed with my ladies all around me. I want every bride to feel that way, to know their girls are there with support and love.

I’ve noticed something as an impartial yet compassionate photographer. I’ve seen bridesmaids more interested in themselves than their friend about to step into a not-so-pret-a-porter ivory ballgown. I’ve seen bridesmaids just kinda stand there and watch instead of rolling up…uh, wait, sleeveless!…grabbing a fistful of tulle and helping fluff the skirt or filling up the wedding purse with necessities.

And then, I’ve seen those bridesmaids who know that their best friend might be a little frazzled and need their help – and do it instinctively.

Not all bridesmaids are helpful. But then, not all brides are kind to their bridesmaids. So when did the most amazing opportunity to bond with sisters/friends/family members/soon to be in-law relations deteriorate?

Some thoughts on getting the most out of your “getting ready”…

1. Ask for help. They might not know the customs of helping a bride into her dress, shoes and jewelry. They may think another bridesmaid’s in charge of everything. Or they may assume the coordinator should do it. Be vocal.

2. Delegate and appoint jobs that are within reason. One of my more popular suggestions with my brides is to appoint a bridesmaid and a groomsman as the “where you at” contact. It’s their jobs to call each other if the bride needs to know where something is from the groom, or, if getting ready in the same hotel, can call to be sure the groom is nowhere near where the ladies will be taking photos!

3. The most important job for one of your ladies is timekeeper. You should never have to look at a clock or a watch, period. But at the same time, you need a little help moving from one phase to the next of your very busy day! Consider having one of your ladies the timekeeper. She’s in charge with letting your makeup artist know that there’s only five minutes until the limo arrives, without worrying you about it! Or gently remind you that you need to be in your dress, now. And yes, you may have a coordinator, or a photographer, or stylists in the room, but don’t assume that they’ll be keeping your timetable for you. Your coordinator will be popping in and out to see how you are, but won’t be prodding stylists or photographers. And the photographer is busy capturing the day as it unfolds rather than dictating it.

4. Offer a “be straight with me” clause. Most women feel that being asked to be in a wedding is, well, a retorical question. There is no “no” really. You may find yourself with an unwilling or unsupportive bridesmaid for this reason. So when you ask, be sure they know that your friendship is the most important thing of all. And when they do accept, be up front about what you expect from them. If you’re laid back and just want moral support, then fantastic! But if you know you’ll be counting on them for things like delivering the groom’s gift or making sure the bouquets are all dry before you pick them up from their vases, let them know you need them.

5. And finally, let them know how much you cherish them and appreciate them for standing with you on your most important day. A handwritten card, a little gift, a hug throughout the day goes a long way. But then, y’all knew that one already.