#1 Plan Early!

The earlier you plan, the more time you have for the smaller things closer to the day.

As photographers, we start booking out 18 MONTHS before wedding dates, so those popular days get snapped up fast. So if you have particular vendors you want to book, you got to be fast and organised!

The earlier you have a runsheet, the more your vendors can help you tweak things to make it work better for you. We are constantly working closely with our couples to make sure they leave enough time for things on their wedding day. However, when we only get runsheets 1-2 weeks out, there isn’t much we can change as it is too late.

What is your guest size? This is a HUGE factor in planning your wedding. Guest size determines the types of venues you can use and these venues drastically change in price the more people you want at your wedding. Just remember to invite people that you truly want to share this day with!

#2 Budget! Budget!

The costs for weddings can change drastically over a 2-3 year period and this can make it very difficult when researching costs for your wedding. The price your friend paid that got married a few years ago will likely be completely different to a wedding you are planning 12 months away.

So first off, get in touch with your main vendors and get a good idea of prices for the type of wedding you are after. These include venue(s), photographer, videographer, accommodation, florist, hair & makeup, wedding dress.

Once you have a good idea of pricing, then you can piece together an accurate budget.

#3 Plan YOUR wedding

By this, we mean plan the wedding that you and your fiance want, not what others want. Families are notorious for trying to dictate decisions for your wedding day as they think they know best. However, the best wedding is the wedding you plan and is made for you.

Want to get ready at the same house? Why not!?!

Want to elope? Go for it! Less guests to feed!

Don’t want a wedding cake? Easy! Just get some small desserts!

After shooting over 400 weddings, we can tell you first hand that there are soooo many traditions that don’t mean anything and are simply pointless. So just plan what you love and want so you can have the best day possible!

#4 Have a plan for wet weather

As much as nobody wants to talk or think about rain/wet weather, having a plan in place will save a massive headache on your wedding day.

• Plan for a covered ceremony spot - does your venue offer an undercover option?

• Can you delay your ceremony by 30 minutes if rain looks like it will pass?

• Have enough clear umbrellas for your bridal party for photos

As a photographer, we cannot predict the whether and there is often no covered photo options. So with rain, your photographer will likely either shoot in the light rain with no umbrellas, shoot in rain with umbrellas or have to cancel the photos if the rain is super heavy.

#5 Not booking a Videographer is the #1 regret of brides

Videographer is the most underrated vendor of a wedding day as the day goes by so fast, photos don’t often do their memory justice.

Unfortunately, as videography is often overseen and left as an extra at the end of budgeting, it means couples often don’t have the budget to get a videographer that can depict the day in the most amazing way.

Undecided if you want a videographer? Try find family or friends that have booked one and see how they felt about it and their experience. Make sure you watch a bunch of wedding films to get a good idea of what wedding videographers can offer.

#6 Allow time for fun!

A wedding day starting at 7am and finishing at midnight might seem like a lot of time to enjoy the day, but allowing time for yourself to enjoy the day is often overlooked.

First off, don’t overpack your day! There are many traditions that come along with weddings, but try to put any traditions of another day if possible (things such as tea ceremonies). Couples get too tired, and don’t end up enjoying the full day as it gets exhausting.

Two key moments that we always suggest to add in extra time is the time between getting in your wedding dress and heading to the ceremony. If you don’t leave much time, this period of the day can be HECTIC. We suggest having around 90 minutes for this time so you can really enjoy getting ready with family and friends.

The second part is during the canape hour/mingling time. Often we see couples go from ceremony straight to group photos and then straight to bridal party photos. The mingling time is crucial to helping slow the day down and talk to guests to 30-45 minutes so make sure you add time for yourself to chill out and grab a drink!

#7 Speeches get boring

We’ve seen our fair share of wedding speeches over the years and we are definitely not saying get rid of speeches, we are saying plan carefully about the number of speeches

There are two main ways speeches happen - either all at once, or split up over two segments.

If you are doing all your speeches at once, we HIGHLY recommend planning for speeches 40 minutes and under. As funny as some people can be, we see all your guests starting to switch off around that 45 minute mark.

If you are splitting up your speeches, you can get away with two segments of 30 minutes (1 hour total). This doesn’t make the speeches seem as long as often guests get to chat and have food in between speeches.

#8 Sunset photos are KING

A simple look across any wedding photographer’s Instagram and you’ll soon realise that nearly every photo they share will be around sunset time. This is because this is when the light is the best, it falls beautifully across landscapes and doesn’t create awful shadows on your face.

So to really soak up the best sunset photos, make sure you leave plenty of time for this couple session. We normally recommend 3-60 minutes for sunset photos (depending on the venue).

Our sneaky tip - take 5 minutes at the end of the sunset photos to have a private moment with each other away from the photographer. This moment is truly magical.

#9 Picnics/Hamper baskets can be useless

As fantastic as hamper picnics sound (and taste), about 75% of the time bridal party doesn’t get any time to enjoy these. This is due to the fact that we only have minimal time with the bridal party to get the best photos possible and suddenly a hamper baskets delay things by 10-15 minutes which is often time your photographer won’t have time to waste.

If you want to make sure bridal party have food to eat/drink, try add this time into the mingling time. Alternatively, ask your photographer how much time they need for photos and let them know you are adding any extra 15 minutes on for time to enjoy the hamper basket.

#10 Stay close to your venue (and each other)

Probably one of the most underrated tips we give our wedding couples! Having your preparation locations close to each other AND close to the venue makes things can absolute breeze for your wedding day.

Somebody forgot some flowers? No problem, its only a quick drive away.

If you are staying 45 minutes + away from venues, this really increases the risk of things going wrong. Secondly, when your photographer/videographer needs to travel between both prep locations and venue, the further away the locations are away from one another, you are essentially paying them for driving rather than capturing moments. So the less travel time on your day means more memories captured.