Welcome to this 5 week blog series on the things I would re-do if I got married again.  It’s been 9 years since I got married and when I look back at my wedding day, there’s not much I would change.  Everything went as planned and it was a super fun and smooth day.  Although, now that I’m on the other end of the camera, there are a few things I would do different that would enhance our images.

If you missed previous posts in the series, check them out here:
5 Things I Would Re-do if I Got Married Again- First Look
5 Things I would Re-do if I Got Married Again- Engagement Session
5 Things I would Re-do if I Got Married Again- Makeup Artist
5 Things I would Re-do if I got Married Again- Personalization

 

Choose One Venue
When I got married we had our ceremony at a church and then the reception at a hotel. If I could do it all over again I would pick a venue that I could have both my ceremony and reception.  Here’s three reasons why:

1. It would help the day flow more smooth by having less travel time, which means more time for photos.

2. There would be a getting ready room for both the bride and groom.

3. There’d be an area to have the ceremony outside.

1. It would help the day flow more smooth by having less travel time, which means more time for photos.
Here’s what happened on my wedding day: I had a hotel room to get ready at the same location where we were having our reception. That’s where me and my bridesmaids did our hair and make up and got dressed. My husband had a room at the church for him and his groomsmen to get ready, which was 15 minutes away.  We had chosen not to do a first look so when I was ready, my photographers took pictures of me and my bridesmaids and me with my immediate family at the hotel. We then drove over to the church to get ready for the ceremony.  When my husband was ready he and his groomsmen drove to the hotel to have their pictures taken. Once they were done they drove back to the church for the ceremony. Then once the ceremony was over and we were married we took a few photos at the church and then we drove back to the hotel for more photos and for the reception. As you can tell it was a lot of driving around and a lot of coordinating vehicles especially when we had our bridal party of 10 to shuttle around back-and-forth. Everyone split up, using their own cars to get back and forth, since having a limo for that long of a time period wasn’t plausible for us. Going to and from wasted a lot of time that could have been used for more photos, since every time we got in the car, that was time the photographers didn’t have with us to photograph. Looking back, the ideal situation would have been to choose a venue where we all could get ready and then go straight to the ceremony and reception with out needing to travel.

That brings me to number 2: There would be a getting ready room for both the bride and groom.
Typically when you choose a venue where you can have your ceremony and reception, they also have separate rooms for the bride and groom to get ready. The bride would have her own room and the groom would have his own room. Even more ideal, their rooms would be close proximity to each other and that would allow the photographers to go between both rooms so that getting ready images could be captured for both the bride and groom.  Not only does this make it easier for the bride and groom because they don’t need to be traveling back-and-forth, it makes telling the story of the wedding day more cohesive from the photographers and album layout perspective.  On my wedding day, since my husband was at the church getting ready and I was at the hotel, we didn’t get images of him getting ready. And since I’m all about telling a story especially when it comes to images for the album I would’ve loved to have more pictures of him getting ready and even better, I would have loved to have more images of him getting ready in a great visually appealing room! My husband got ready in a room that was small, didn’t have a lot of natural light, and was decorated like a luau party. Not exactly my favorite background for wedding photos.

I loved where Joanna and Josh got married- The Windmill Winery.  They had separate rooms for the bride and groom to get ready.

3. There’d be an area to have the Ceremony outside.
We got married in a church. If I could do it again I’d get married outside (If I had to choose today I would would choose a rooftop overlooking the city or the beach in Aruba). When it comes to photography my personal preference is beautiful natural light as opposed to flash.  When shooting in a church, photographers will need to use flash or use the available light, which most of the time is nonexistent. None of those are my favorite lighting situations for weddings, so doing it outside in open shade is a lot more ideal and will visually improve the quality of images.  I do want to stress…open shade.  Sometimes ceremonies are outside with harsh sunlight or spotty light coming through a tree, etc.  Most of the time that type of light is not appealing.  So when looking for a venue, look for a place where the ceremony will be in beautiful open shade.  Your guests will appreciate not having to sit directly in the sun as well 🙂

Dallas & Emily got married outside in the open shade at Stonebridge Manor.  I love that they had a circle ceremony, where their guests sat encircled around them.