5 tips for stress-free photos on your wedding day

Wedding days being stressful is a tale old as time…but they don’t have to be! Tradition and society may say you need to do certain things, follow certain rules, and invite everyone you’ve ever met…

You don’t have to do any of that (unless you want to!)

Hi, I’m Caitlin and I’m here to say let’s break traditions. Let’s create and capture the most magical day ever – stress-free! I’m starting simple too with five easy ways to eliminate stress from your wedding day from a photographer’s perspective.

I may make this a little series. Follow me on my socials – @caitlinandcamera – to stay up to date on all my posts.

1. Allow for plenty of time

One of the most important things to have a smooth-sailing day is to collaborate with your photographer on creating the day-of timeline. I include wedding day timeline creation in all of my wedding packages because I believe it’s that important that I help create it. You need to make sure you have ample time to take your wedding party photos, family photos, intimate photos, and/or whatever type of photos you are wanting.

Consider if you need:

• travel time
• social breaks
• time to change or freshen up
• time to pump for my moms out there

Pro Tip: If you aren’t a very social person, you may want to allow for alone time to refresh your social battery.

If you’re getting ready location, ceremony, and reception are all in different places, you also will need to factor in travel time which could eat up a lot of time.

2. Don’t have a million combinations of family photos

I know we all love our families (oooooor maybe not…) but sometimes when our families are huge wrangling every single person can take quite some time. Consider taking one big extended family photo rather than individual photos with separate aunts, uncles, cousins, and whoever else you consider family! Reserve individual photo time with just your immediate family.

If you are not a picture person, swapping so many people in and out while you stand there and smile eats a lot of time for you to enjoy your day as well as tires you out! Yes, smiling is hard work!

3. Consider a first look to allow time to take photos prior to the ceremony

If you have a ceremony that is held later in the day, consider an intimate first look alone so you can also take the wedding party and intimate photos before the ceremony. Trying to fit all these photos plus family photos in between your ceremony and reception can be super rushed leaving you stressed.

Check out my article on first looks vs aisle first looks!

4. Hire a second shooter to allow for the main photographer to be in two places at once

If your photographer has the option to add on a second photographer I would highly consider it! This allows capturing different groups of people or details at the same time your main photographer is capturing something else.

5. Trust your photographer

Lastly, trust that your photographer knows what they are doing! If you loved their work, they have years of experience and could answer all of your questions then I can assure you that they know what they are doing. They have the poses ready, they can wrangle your family, they can capture those intimate details, and they can keep the day moving. Sometimes trusting is hard but when it comes to the day of, let go, have fun, soak it all in, and go with the flow!