Schedules are made for a reason. On their Wedding day, Brides tend to be in something of a daze or a fog or some sort of giddy dizziness that prevents them from thinking…well, clearly. And Brides should feel that way on their Wedding day. But, even though it’s a magical occasion, you, as a Bride, have to be realistic when it comes to allowing your photographer the opportunity to capture all that magic.
The best way to ensure that your expectations are met is to make a schedule and stick to it. Remember, it’s difficult or impossible for us to get two hours worth of quality photos in a half hour. And this type of time erosion happens all too often because someone didn’t stick to the schedule, which triggers some sort of butterfly effect, creating waves of tardiness that seem to wash over the Wedding and swamp the entire day. Oh, we’re good at what we do, and we can work under pressure. But what we can’t do is magically expand time or somehow create a photo of a person who wasn’t there. And believe me, we’ve been asked “where is the photo of me with my brother by the piano?” The answer: your brother didn’t show up for family photos and you were too busy later to return to the piano with your brother to do a pick-up shot.
All of this broken schedule stuff is the most detrimental to the Bride and Groom, of course. And these days more couples are paying for their entire Wedding themselves. So the rub here is, don’t let someone’s tardiness to your Wedding ruin your chances of great photos. You shouldn’t be forced to be understanding when your Maid of Honor’s kids make her late to help you get ready; she should have planned better and you should have a stand-in to take her place so that you can stay on schedule. The same goes for the Groom: his hung-over Best Man sleeps in and runs late because he left his tux at some girl’s house and lost the directions to the venue – the butterfly effect. All of this is funny stuff if it’s in a movie, but in real life, not so much. Oh, and the Best Man also forgot the rings. In real life.
It boils down to this. If you don’t care about your Wedding day photos or the money you spent to get them, then don’t sweat the schedule, leave it all to chance. You can put on your wedding dress and invite everyone back the next weekend and redo all the shots you missed, right?
Make a schedule, discuss it with your photographer and stick to it. A Wedding is not a race and if you treat it like one, at least keep in mind there ain’t no second lap.
