A category full of blog posts and articles to do with wedding photography.

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How to ask guests not to take photos at your wedding

In a time of mobile phones, social media and the internet, it takes mere seconds to publish something online. Around 300,000,000 photos are uploaded to Facebook every day, as well as over 300 hours of video to YouTube PER MINUTE. This is a lot of online content.

Would you care if someone posted a photo of your wedding before you’d had the chance to? Maybe you wanted to do some kind of social media reveal and a guest has ruined that moment for you. Or what if they tagged you in a particularly unflattering photo? It’s likely that you want the photos that are published to be the ones taken by the professional photographer and published on your terms.

It can be hard to control what your guests put out on social media, but how you ask them to not take photos of your big day and to not publish them online? You want to ask them politely without being seen as a bridezilla.

If you want to ask your guests to not take or publish photos of the day, you’re not alone.

 

Tell them in advance

The best way to stop your guests from taking too many photos is to give them plenty of notice. This is the kind of detail that could be included in your invitations so that guests are aware of the rule before the day. You could include a short poem on the invite that politely requests the only photos are the ones taken by the photographer, such as:

 

There’s a photographer here,

We asked her to come,

So put down your phones,

Our wedding only needs one.

 

You should also let them know whether the rule applies to just the ceremony or the whole day.

 

Remind them on the day

If you sent your invitations out a few months before the day, it may be worth reminding your guests of the no photos rule. Use a sign that can be hung outside the ceremony rule or put it in their order of service. If you’re having a church wedding, it’s likely that the priest or vicar will remind your guests of this anyway. Some churches are very strict and the officiant may even have rules about the official photographer taking pictures.

 

Bridesmaids taking a photo of the bride on her wedding day

Alter your privacy settings

It’s likely that your guests will still be tempted to put some photos of your day on social media. If you’re worried that this will be the case, you could change your privacy settings so that you can’t be tagged in any photos without pre-approving them first. Alter your settings on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to prevent anyone from seeing the photos appear on your timeline.

 

Post sneak peek photos

If you want to be the first to announce your wedding day on Facebook with a few photos of you and your new husband and wife in your beautiful outfits, you could ask for a sneak peek from your photographer. This works well if you don’t want to wait months for your wedding photos. They could send these to you to publish on social media shortly after your day. At least these will be published on your terms. And why not change your Facebook relationship status while you’re at it?

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How to choose photos for your wedding album

If you’ve decided to book a professional wedding photographer for your wedding day, you’ll likely want to flaunt the finished images anywhere you can: in your home, on your Facebook page, as your background on your work computer. But there are so many beautiful images to choose from, where the heck do you start?

 

How many photos does a wedding photographer give you?

First, we’ll start with how many finished, edited images you can get from your photographer. Each wedding photographer will differ, however it’s usual to receive any amount from 300 to 1000. Obviously you can’t put 1000 wedding photos into one album, so how on earth do you choose your favourites?

If you’re based in North Wales or Cheshire and would like to book me as your photographer, you’ll receive access to an online gallery so you can download each image as many times as you like. You’ll also receive a USB that contains EVERY image I’ve taken on the day. This means that you need to create an album yourself using your favourite images.

 

How do I choose my favourite wedding day pictures?

When it comes to creating an album and choosing the photos to go in it, there are some suggestions I have that you should keep in mind.

 

Wedding album lying open on the bed

Memorable moments

Are there any particular aspects of the day that really stand out to you? Maybe you loved the car ride from the church to your venue, dropped a piece of wedding cake down your dress or a bridesmaid did a drunk impromptu speech at 1am. These moments, the ones that really stand out to you, should be included in your wedding album.

For example, if you loved the car ride, find an image of one of the wedding cars. It is these memories that made your day, so they have every right to go into the album.

Being attacked by an owl is surely one for the photo album.

 

Best man being attacked by the owl at Peckforton Castle

 

People you love

The people that were a big part of the day should feature in the album somewhere. It should include at least one photo of every bridesmaid and groomsman. If you had any flower girls and pageboys, these should be featured somewhere too. You’ll need a photo of your parents/grandparents in the book and of course at least a few of you as the happy couple.

Making sure that all of the best people feature in the book will make it that much more special.

 

An overview of the day

Aside from your favourite moments, the album should also include a photo of each part of the day. You’ll likely want some photos of the bride and groom getting ready separately, the bride getting into the dress, leaving the house to go to the church/venue, pictures of the ceremony, and then the wedding breakfast/speeches. Don’t forget any crucial moments like cake cutting, bouquet tossing or midnight dancing.

How you arrange these is up to you, but chronological order tends to work best.

 

Your favourites of YOU

After getting caught up trying to include all of the above, don’t forget to include the photos of you that you love or the ones where you look your best. These photos are just as important as the other ones we’ve mentioned.

If you have a favourite of you and your new husband or wife, definitely include it (and maybe download it so you can save it everywhere else too. Hello, new Twitter profile picture).

 

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What questions should you ask your wedding photographer?

As you plan your wedding, it’s likely that you’ll get to know each of your professionals very well. Hair and makeup trials take time, so you’ll probably spend a couple of hours speaking to your hairdresser and makeup tech. You’ll usually have various wedding dress fittings and appointments with your wedding photographer or videographer to make sure you’re on the same page. This is why it’s so important that you get along with each of your suppliers. You should see eye-to-eye and have the same ideas about what you want from them.

When it comes to choosing your photographer, every one has slightly different methods and techniques and their photos can look very different from one another. This is why it’s imperative that you choose a photographer because you love their work. But what kind of questions should you be asking a photographer before you go ahead and book them for your big day?

I’ve included a list of questions that I get asked by brides and grooms all the time to help you choose your photographer when the time comes.

 

Are you free on my wedding date?

How long have you been a wedding photographer for?

Do you have any examples of your work?

  • Every photographer should have a website and a couple of social media channels. You should look at all of these to see some examples of their work. You could also ask the photographer to send you some additional examples when you’re making the decision.

How many weddings do you do a year?

Have you shot a wedding at [X] venue?

Will you visit our venue before the wedding day?

Have you shot a wedding similar in size to ours before?

How would you describe your photography style?

What packages do you offer?

How much do you charge?

Do you have a contract that we need to sign?

What information do you need from us before the day?

  • There’s quite a lot of information that your wedding photographer will require. They may need to know what formal shots you want (e.g. which groups of people), what photos you absolutely want from the day, where you’re getting married and where the reception venue is and what the schedule of the day is.

Do you have any reviews from previous couples?

Do we need to cover your travel costs or are these included?

What’s the farthest distance you’ll travel for a wedding?

  • If you’re getting married 100 miles away from your hometown or even abroad, you need to make sure that the photographer is willing to travel this distance. For this reason, it’s also important to ask the question above this one to check what the additional costs are for this. Remember, an abroad wedding could take up more of the photographer’s time, meaning they have to turn down other couples.

What time do you start photographing on the day?

What time will you finish for the day?

If we want you to stay longer, is there an additional cost?

Can we have a secondary photographer and can you provide one?

Do you need to meet the videographer before the day to discuss anything?

What happens if you’re ill and can’t work on the day?

What will you wear on the day?

Are guests okay to take photos while you are?

  • Guests can sometimes get in the way and some photographers may prefer that guests don’t try to take photos while they are, for example during the wedding service or the speeches. It’s definitely worth asking your photographer what their stance is on this.

What extras can we have? (e.g. smoke bombs, props, etc.)

Can we provide examples of the kind of photos we’d like?

What kind of camera do you use?

Do you bring back-up equipment on the day?

  • Most photographers will be organised and bring backup cameras, memory cards and batteries so that there’s no chance of anything going awry, but it’s always good to check this with them beforehand.

Do you have insurance?

Do you require a deposit?

When is the full payment due?

Do you offer a payment plan so we can pay in instalments?

Are albums included in the price or can we pay extra for these?

Do you edit all the photos?

How long will my photos take to arrive?

How many final photos will we receive?

Do we just receive the prints or do we get a USB with the photos on that we can download unlimited times?

  • Many couples want to get their photos on a disk or USB so that they can have additional albums made, send the photos to friends and family, or even create memorabilia such as printed canvases or cushions. Therefore, you should double check that you’ll be sent all the photos digitally to do what you want with.