1. Delegate!

Don’t try to be responsible for every detail and every person at your wedding day – it is the recipe for full stress disaster. The tasks will accumulate quickly, and you will be running around like a headless chicken trying to finalize all bit and pieces instead of enjoying the time.

Advice: Find a trusted person in your family or friends to help you. Ask your Groomsmen’s or Bridesmaids for help, they will feel important and honoured. So, give them responsibility for flowers, rings, confetti, cars, gifts etc. If you don’t want to engage your friends or family, just hire professional wedding planner/coordinator – you will be sure that all is under control and you will be able to enjoy your most important day in your life with your family and friends.

2. Find the wedding theme that makes you happy (details, colours etc).

You know the feeling when going inside a five-star hotel or restaurant, this ‘WOW’ effect that grabs all your attention. They know how to design – how to connect colours, details, motifs. The same strategy will work on your wedding day if you focus a little bit on this side of preparations. Carefully selected motifs and colours can add a lot of personality and finesse to your big day.

Advice: Pinterest will be your friend here – it’s obvious, but also wedding magazines and wedding expos can give you a lot of inspiration. Create a written list with the items that you love/like, shop for decorating companies, discuss the options and possibilities to create a customised offer for you. Sometimes you can be surprised how a small budget can make wonderful décor. Maybe you have A talented friend that can design some stuff for you, It’s always worth to ask. It’s important to discuss all your requirements during the planning stage so will be no surprises later.

3. Be Yourself!

Don’t follow others, it is your wedding. Be inspired by others but don’t copy. Put your personality in to this day, will be no replay from this event – make this magic to remember. Tradition is important, standards are safe, but still you can add some “alternative parts” to your day.

Advice: Don’t stick with standard dance, add some choreography to surprise and entertain your guests, do you want smoke during your big entry - ask for dry ice, maybe fireworks – a lot of companies provide the controlled pyrotechnic effects for interiors. Do you want a fire dance, plan your outside wedding area? Go with the idea! Don’t feel minimalistic – Minimalistic people go with the wedding parties at McDonald’s, there is nothing wrong with that, but you are probably expecting much more from your big day, so go BIG!

4. Pre plan your Family / Group photo shoots.

One of the most stress generating moments during the big day happens just after the ceremony, when you try to organize everyone for group shot or family photos (only if you are interested in these photos – 99% of couples are interested).

Advice: Ask your celebrant to inform everyone just before the end of the ceremony that group photography will happen in a few minutes in designated area, so no one will run away. Also, it’s important to delegate the coordination part to one of your friends or family member- pick the loudest/bossiest person you know J. With a list of “must have” groups for photography created earlier, it’s much easier to tick who is done and be sure that no one is missing from family portraits.

5. Take care about your reception lighting.

This point was not created to help me in my work – I’m prepared for all challenging lighting conditions. I always have with me external flashes etc. The light at the reception creates the mood of the party, not only for good images but also for the fun on the floor. Some receptions are aware about this and well prepared to create for you the best possible look during wedding day – some of them don’t care and here is your call to action.

Advice: Ask Venue manager to demonstrate for you the light presentation of the room, if you like what you see – you will like this later. Some DJ’s have a great lighting setup that not only lights up their DJ booth but also all reception. In most difficult cases you can start looking for lighting specialists that will create wonders for you at your reception. But trust me, it’s like with the most amazing home, if you have ugly lighting inside, the whole architectural effort is wasted, so don’t make a mistake here.

6. Look for positive people.

I’m sure that you heard a lot about rude wedding reception managers, bossy photographers or irritated DJ’s, unfortunately this is a part of life and is high possibility that you will meet them during your wedding planning. This is why it’s important to choose people that understand the importance of your big day and are willing to help you. Positive people always see the solutions, not the problems 😉

Advice: Don’t plan everything remotely if that possible. Try to meet with everyone personally, trust your gut. Check their previous work and testimonials but be sure that you “click” with them. Don’t be focused only on price or technical aspects of your choice. Of course, your budget is important but should not be the major factor when choosing your wedding service suppliers for the big day – now every service have the price tag on it but your memories after the wedding are priceless – remember this!

7. Drink! A lot of water before and during wedding day 😊

No one wants a headache during the big day, but in the all rush and excitement it’s very easy to get dehydrated and later fight with a fun-ruining headache. Make sure you also have snacks- protein balls/nuts/fruit will keep the tummy from rumbling but won’t make you bloated in your wedding dress.

Advice: Drink lots of room temperature water and have small snacks, this will help you to stay in good condition throughout the day! Avoid soft drinks at least in the first part of the day.

I hope the information above will be useful for you. If you have any questions, contact me!

Seven tips for planning ...

Planning your wedding day from a wedding photographer’s perspective.