Let's look at a Wedding Day Start to finish

Updated: 11th March 2019. I thought I’d write about the whole process that I go through as a wedding photographer. Starting from the initial email or phone call to a meeting, planning session, wedding day, editing and final delivery.

This post will help other photographers get an understanding of the process I go through as a wedding photographer and it will also give couples an insight into how I operate to help them make a decision about hiring me or not.

Of course, the starting point is always when someone contacts me, be it the bride or groom. There might be questions asked or an appointment to be made for a meeting or phone call. Generally, meetings are held at my office. By the time a couple get to this stage, they are fairly certain of booking me as their wedding photographer and this final step is to get to know each other and make sure we are a good fit before a final decision is made. During a meeting, clients are shown albums and prints. I will also take them through the basics of the day, what sort of photography they want (and don’t want) as well as going over the options for running a wedding day.

When a couple leaves, I email them a link to a booking form online. I'm not a big fan of the hard sell and would much prefer them to go and talk about things in private so that they come to a mutual agreement without any pressure from me.

Once a couple books and pays their deposit, we will have email contact back and forth to help plan their day.

As we go along, we will develop a schedule for the day that covers the day from hair and make up to the end of the night. In the end it goes roughly like this:

9.00am Hair - bride & bridesmaids

11.00am Makeup - bride & bridesmaids

12pm we arrive at Grooms location

12.30pm we finish with Groom

1.00pm we arrive at the Brides location

2.30pm we finish with the Bride

3.00pm we arrive at ceremony location

3.30pm ceremony

4.00pm group and family photos

4.30pm Location portraits

5.45pm us and the bridal party arrive at reception venue

5.50pm we photograph reception space without guests present

6.00pm guests enter reception

6.30pm bridal party announced into reception

6.35pm cake cutting

6.45pm entree served

7.15pm speeches round 1

7.30pm mains

7.50pm sunset photos outside*

8.00pm speeches round 2

8.15pm first dances

9pm night time photos outside

10.30pm bride and groom farewell

11.00pm finish

*Sunset times will change according to the time of year.

Next, comes the wedding day but all along, from the time a couple books to the day itself, they will have questions to ask. I encourage my couples to write down their questions as they go and save them up for a couple of phone calls. This helps manage my time and theirs.

After the big day itself comes loading and backing up original images which I cover in my info page.

The editing process that I go through starts with selection. I view images individually and give them a rating within Adobe Lightroom. The selection process takes anywhere from 4 to 6 hours depending on how many images were taken. Once I have my selections, I then duplicate the images into a new folder. I rename the first folder ‘colour’ and the second 'B&W’, and I’m now ready to begin the editing process.

I edit all images individually with the colour shots having the same base settings and I make tweaks throughout to keep lighting and temperature consistent. It’s impossible to put a timeframe on this process, but it could take anywhere from 8 to 15 hours for colour. Black and white images are a bit quicker to process and I play around with contrast, exposure, grain and other tools to add effects and drama. Again it’s difficult to put a timeframe on it but it could be 4 to 6 hours of work.

Once I have finished editing I then export JPEG files to the server. I export full-size jpegs at 240dpi, and I also export low-resolution copies for my couples to use on social media. Exporting is a slow process, so I generally start it at the end of the day and come back and check it the next morning. In some cases, the total export size is over 12GB.

I then copy the folders across to USB, package it up into a USB presentation box and post it out to the couple.

So there you have it, that’s the process that I go through in my business as a wedding photographer. I hope you get something out of it.