Wedding days aren’t about us in any way whatsoever, we totally understand that. We love being able to be in the background snapping away, freezing moments in time and watching love stories unfold. We’ve stood by encouraging more couples than we can count and feel like we’ve seen it all. Very rarely does anyone ask us our favorite parts of a wedding day, what makes our hearts beat a little faster, the details we love to see. When it does happen we get overwhelmed with excitement because there are so many tips & suggestion we have bottled up inside!
If we were able to go back and re-plan our wedding, or if we could give our KA couples some advice on what makes a gorgeous, photo-worthy day… Hmm. Where do we even start? We just have so much to share!
Let’s start by saying that these suggestions are 100% specific to our style of photography and our tastes. If your wedding falls outside these lines it doesn’t make it non-photo-worthy. These are just what gets us excited! But, if you did ask here is exactly what we would say!
Clean Walls
We love bright white, neutral colored walls, especially for getting ready photos and reception spaces. Clean colors make everything look cleaner, brighter, and it makes it was easier for us to edit. Dark walls, cluttered spaces and the link make it a little more challenging to get our signature style of light, bright & airy photos. Give us all white everything any day!!
Natural Light (Windows)
We LOVE window light!! It is so much more flattering than florescent light bulbs, dark dingy rooms, or having to bring in lights. The more windows the merrier too! We promise that the camera loves all the extra light it can get! It helps make sure you have bright, natural looking skin-tones without lots of shadows on your face.
Extra Details
Family heirlooms, your grandma’s pearls, the necklace he gave you on your second anniversary… we love it ALL! We always ask our couples to bring at least their shoes, invitation suite (with envelopes, please!!), all 3 rings, and dress for detail photos. When we show up and there’s extra goodies we freak out! It gives us more to play with and lets you get extra incredible photos! Ideas of extras include perfume, any hairpiece or veil you’re wearing, extra flowers from your florist, your groom’s details (cuff-links, shoes, watch, etc.).
Outdoor Everything
We are suckers for an outdoor wedding ceremony! The natural light can be your best friend in creating bright, airy photos. Again, outdoor light is also so much more flattering! When you’re considering an outdoor ceremony though make sure you’ll be in shade. You don’t want the sun in your faces making you squint. We also love natural light receptions. Sunlight will make your photos extra special for all those big moments!
A bonus tip: open shade is the best kind of shade. Open shade is what you find when you’re in a shady spot but can look up and still see the sky! If you can’t figure this out ask us and we can happily explain more!
Lots of Flowers
Totally a biased opinion but we LOVE lots of flowers! It’s our favorite when we see our couples have invested in them because it makes your photos pop a little more! Lush ceremony set ups, epic reception installations… it all lights us up inside!! Flowers can really make a huge difference in your design. 
Ribbon
Simple and sweet, one of the easiest ways to turn us to mush is a bouquet with ribbons on it. It’s cost effective and an easy way to make your photos pop. Just think, your bouquet will be in nearly every photo of you!
Wedding Planners
We love having wedding planners and other truly professional wedding vendors on our team! They make wedding days soother, less stressful and more beautiful for our brides. It gets us so excited to have one around! We promise they make a huge difference!
Extra Time
This one makes us do a happy dance! We love it when couples add on time to make sure they aren’t rushed. Plus, the more time we have the more sweet moments we can capture for you. That means the world to us!
Flower Petal Exits
Honestly, sparkler exits are terrifying. Katie got burned a while back during one and it was one of the most painful experiences. Rather than having drunk guests waving around fire sticks we would rather see flower petal exits! It’s the same beauty, same wow factor but much safer. They’re also safe for the environment which we love.
Smaller Bridal Parties
This one is all personal preference. We think wedding days with 7 or less people on each side are so much easier. The fewer the people the less chaos, less stress, and it is so much easier to coordinate. We often see our brides with bigger bridal parties feel more stressed because it’s just too much. We feel the same way about the number of people in your getting ready room. It’s so hard to navigate your way around a bustling, bursting bridal suite. 
First Looks // First Looks with a Letter Exchange
We just adore first looks!! They make wedding days so much easier and when our couples say they want one we get so excited! Your wedding day will go by SO fast and on ours we didn’t feel like we got to see each other very much. It was a blur. First looks allow you to spend the whole day together, have a private moment, and get to your party faster after your ceremony. We LOVE them because they serve our couples well and are just so special!
It’s even sweeter to us when a couple exchanges gifts & letters after their first look. It keeps the joy and emotion going and is SO sweet to photograph. We love it!
Sunset Husband & Wife Photos
YES. We love this! Sunset photos have something so magical about them. The light, the excitement of just being married, the joy as it really soaks in. It is a perfect combination. It means so much to us when couples make time for this on their wedding day! Especially when they plan their timeline around it.
The Magic Words… “We Trust You”
Nothing makes us *quite* as excited as hearing a couple say they trust us. Really having our couples trust means we can get creative, take our time, and get shots we might not have been able to get otherwise. It also means we can have a little more say in the timeline and build a day that truly serves our clients well. It’s not lost on us how big of a privilege it is to hear this from so many KA couples!
We loved this adorable beignets station at Francis & Josh’s wedding reception!
Unique Things
Dogs wearing flower collars, champagne towers, traveling to new places, Spanish moss, and unique pieces on wedding days just get us. When couple’s choose to make their wedding day truly their own we get excited. This is what gets our creative juices flowing! We live for new venues, traveling to new places, and experiencing fresh wedding designs! It is just so fun watching our couple’s personalities come out on their wedding days!
Sweet, Caring Couples
Ultimately, it’s all about marriage for us. We couldn’t possibly be any more excited than when our couples are more excited about their marriage than anything else. Nothing blesses us more than fun, laid-back couples who believe in marriage.
When they treat us like old friends or family, when we get a seat at the reception with a name plate, when they bring us gifts on the morning of their wedding… this makes us cry! If you really want to see us turn to mush, this is it. We once had a couple add a photo with us to their family list and we lost it. Those moments make us so thankful to be wedding photographers and to know we’re making a difference.
Gosh, we could easily go on-and-on until the cows come home about what gets us excited on wedding days, but you get the picture!! We’re so thankful for what we do and every wedding day we are blessed to be a part of!! We can’t wait to see what the next year full of weddings holds for us. Hopefully we’ll see a little more of these things this year!
Blessings,
Katie & Alec
Looking for more wedding tips, tricks and inspiration? Check out our Best of 2019 Weddings & Engagements blog post here, or our entire series dedicated to helping brides here!
