The Definitive Guide to Creating a Wedding Day Timeline For Photographers

Wedding days are busy for photographers — I mean pretty much the entire time we’re there. We bounce from photojournalism to portraits to details and back to photojournalism and then back to details again in a non-stop fashion. Our couples have lists of people who are important to them, moments that are crucial and decor/mementos that they never want to forget. They’re expecting us to remember all of those things and get photos of ALLLLL of it.

The way you prepare will make all the difference, not only in how well you do all of the above, but also how you feel on the wedding day while you do all of the above. Your printed wedding day schedule (or a digital copy on your phone if you’re like Sean and don’t want to keep up with paper. Whatever.) is your key to success.

Over the years I’ve tweaked and honed our wedding day schedules as we’ve figured out what works best for us. You’ll do the same as you continue on in your career, but today, I can help you get a jumpstart on things. Continue Reading

Road tripping with kids

As we gear up for our cross-country road trip to the west next month, it got me thinking about our last big road trip back in 2014 (pregnancy really cramped our style in 2015). We piled the then 3 kids into the car, hitched the pop-up camper to the back and hit the road for an undetermined amount of time. We drove up along the East Coast to New Hampshire and back over the course of 3 weeks and it was amazing trip! We saw and did so much and the kids had a blast. Looking at the photos now, I can’t believe how little they were! Why does time have to go so fast??

I thought I’d share the details here in case you’d also like to plan a trip eastward with your family. There is certainly lots to do and with a little planning (because let’s be honest, I don’t do a lot of planning, like…ever) you can make being on the road with a bunch of toddlers a fun experience for everyone. :) Continue Reading

Someone asked me the other day if I had any advice for photographing their very first wedding. When you’ve been shooting weddings for 12+ years, a lot of things become second nature, but when you’re just starting, those same things might catch you by surprise.

So I sat down and thought it through: what are the things I naturally do on a wedding day that a first-timer might not think of?

Here are my top 10 tips:

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