Helpful Tips For Calgary Brides: part 2

The first post on Helpful Tips For Calgary Brides turned out to be well…really helpful! 🙂

A little bit of {ancient} history 🙂 hehe When I was getting married – 8 years ago – (mind you planning a wedding in Russia was/is a bit of a different experience ! – Alex and I got married in less then two months after applying for a marriage license and the first thing we did was we booked a restaurant for all of our 16 guests, because the Russians love to party! :)). And we had an awesome party!!

…..Too bad I only have a handful of photos to remember everything by….and it breaks my heart (for one, because I would love to have lots of wedding photos plus I know when I get reeeaally reeeeaaallyy old I want to be able to remember my wedding and share the bliss with my grandchildren…*sigh*).

I wanted to share some thoughts on how you can plan your wedding so it runs smoothly. This one will be on how to choose your photographer and a little bit on why professional photographers charge what they do for their services.

There are million posts giving the breakdown of what’s actually left in photographer’s pocket after minimum of 2 hours getting to and from the wedding, 10+ hours of shooting a wedding, downloading the photos, backing them up, backing them up again, days of editing, hours of designing an album (or 2 or 3 of them for one family!), submitting photos and canvases to print locally , in United States, or sometimes even as far as Europe or Japan, picking them up at the professional lab, delivering the final products to the clients, answering all the phone calls and emails. Plus maintaining annual memberships with various photo organizations, expensive gear, travel and liability insurance, thousands of $$ in gear upgrades, software, etc…you know all that. And you get the idea that it’s not just the shooting, it’s all the work before and after the shoot as well. Also, during the editing process the photographer adds their personal touch to all the photos before showing them to the client or creating an album or a fine art print for them.

When I’m meeting my couples (or even chatting with them on the phone or via email) I try and feel if we “click”. After all, we’ll be spending the whole day together and it’s really important that we like each other. 🙂 And that we’re on the same page when it comes to the style of the photos they want and what you want included in the package. So first you may want to decide whether you want fun or romantic photos, or maybe edgy and urban, do you prefer really staged and artistically posed portraits or a more candid style, when you would get to do whatever makes you feel comfortable? Both scenarios are perfectly fine and just show your individuality! Make sure you find a photographer who fits YOUR style.

As a bride, you have probably looked through many websites and blogs. Blogs are great because you can see the most recent work and read about what’s going on in your photographer’s life. It’s a great way to connect! I give a shout out to my new brides of 2011 (am I the only one who want to say 2010 still?? I hope not! haha) who comment on my posts here and on facebook, I feel like I know them and by the time the wedding comes I will be there as a good old friend..:)

I came across this amazing link on Swoon Brides.net called Tips For Great Photography During Your Wedding Day, check it out!! Lots of helpful tips for brides and on how to get the most beautiful photos on your wedding day!! VERY important! F’reals! Here’s a few paragraphs from it, please follow the link above to read the rest!

1. Light is EVERYTHING when it comes to photography. Don’t get ready in a house with no natural light. Choose a spacious well lit room or better yet, a fabulous hotel room. It will make such a difference to your photos.

2. Natural light coming from open windows or doorways creates pretty soft FLATTERING light. Thinks lots and lots of soft pretty natural light. Your skin will look better, your details will look better, *everything* looks better in soft pretty natural light.

3.Don’t hang your dress in some dark spare room with mess, boxes and crap everywhere. Before the photographer arrives, hang it somewhere dramatic with lots of natural light. Maybe hang it from a ceiling hook, ceiling fan or a light fitting or a pretty doorway. If you want to see your photographer pass out with excitement, be brave and hang it from a tree in the garden….. ” And there’s much more! Please follow the link above.

Btw here’s something for you that is not related to the topic: I am having a fun Valentine’s Day GIVEAWAY on my fan page on Facebook, please join and you can WIN some pretty awesome prizes! 🙂

I love catching the little moments between the couple, like these:

I would love to hear your input! How’s your wedding planning going? Where do you find the biggest challenges?

PS. It’s been snowing so much in Calgary for the past few days! Maybe that’s why this post came earlier than I thought?:) I feel like it will be a Watching-Movies-In-My-Pijamas kinda day…:) What’s the weather like in your part of the world? 🙂