Back in the days of burlap, mason jars and Katie’s (TERRIBLE) bang days, we said “I do.” It was magical and cringe worthy all at the same time. Some days thinking about it makes us cry, others we can’t help but laugh. For budding wedding photographers we had NO clue what we were doing.
Yep. We said it. Honestly, we absolutely hate sharing about the mistakes we made. It’s embarrassing in our minds to share that we knew so little when we first started. But, if we can help even one sweet, possibly misguided friend from making the same mistakes, it’s totally worth it.
So, here we go. Let’s dig right in to all those incredibly cringy mistakes…
Hiring a friend-tographer
By far our most embarassing confession. To give ourselves credit, at this point we had only shot 3-4 weddings and thought we would save some $$$. We were on a tight budget and decided to focus more on the honeymoon… Picture the scene in pretty woman where Vivan goes into the shop and says “big mistake, big mistake, HUGE.” That’s us right now.
If you’re considering hiring a friend who has “a nice camera,” please take a step back and think about it… Do they have real wedding experience? Can they help you make a timeline? What will they do if the camera dies or the memory card corrupts? There are so many things non-professional just wouldn’t know to think of or prepare for.
Weigh your options carefully. Maybe let your friend take some engagement photos of you and leave the rest to someone you can really trust with those memories.
Getting a hair cut 2 months from the wedding
Yep. Katie broke the world’s biggest unspoken rule. Take it from us, just don’t do anything drastic right before your wedding. She regrets those stringy bangs more than words can say. It wasn’t worth the risk.
Not getting the family together
Honestly, we didn’t care so much about this one until December 2018. We unexpectedly lost Katie’s Grandpa to heart problems. She’d give anything now to have a few extra photos with him, especially ones from our wedding. It doesn’t have to take an hour, but we couldn’t encourage you enough to make time for a photos with the people you love most.
Bypassing a formal timeline
Timelines sound restrictive and go against the idea of having a “fun” day. Really though, they allow you to have fun because you’ll have peace of mind to be able to enjoy yourself. You won’t have to worry about missing important photos, not having time set aside to eat, or big moments you’ve been envisioning like a first look with your bridesmaids. Those things all take planing. Ask your us how to set up your photo timeline so you won’t miss a thing!
Ripping my dress
Haha, yeah, this one happened. Katie didn’t think to test sitting down in her dress and Alec went to pick her up to sit her on a stage for a photo (because I’m so short compared to him). The next thing we know is Katie’s zipper broke and that was it. Thankfully, we were able to laugh it off but it could have easily been prevented at Katie’s fittings.
Getting ready under tungsten lights
If you’ve been dreaming of light, bright & airy photos, please plan for that. Natural light will be your best friend for getting amazing photos. Natural light is sunlight. Think large windows, open spaces outside, etc. Think it through for every party of your day. Especially for getting ready photos! Pick a hotel room with big windows, find a space with clean bright walls. It will make our job so much easier!
Katie got ready in her aunt’s bathroom with one tiny window and a lot of gross yellow lights. That meant in all those photos she looked very yellow. Not flattering and definitely not dreamy.
We hope you’ve hopefully gotten a really good laugh and a little wisdom from our mistakes! Honestly, there are probably 100 more things we could add to the list but these are the biggest ones we could think of!
Blessings,
Katie & Alec
If you want to read a little more of our love story we’ve actually blogged it all here with The Story of Us” series!
