Got a wedding this weekend? Are you running around your house trying to find your camera batteries, cleaning your lenses and making sure your black jumpsuit is clean? I completely understand the feeling. There is so much that has to be done in order for you to be completely ready and prepped to pull out of your driveway Saturday morning to shoot for 8-10 hours! That’s why I am laying out my exact wedding day workflow below. I hope you find it helpful!
Before the Wedding Day
As photographers, we know that so much has to happen before you even get to the wedding day. There are a few key things that I do before the wedding day to help make sure I can stay organized!
1. Send a pre-wedding questionnaire.
This questionnaire is my lifeline for the wedding day. It goes over every detail I need to know in order to love and serve my clients to the best of my ability. It covers so many important topics like: family shot list, reception introductions, special moments to expect, all the vendors working and so much more. I typically try to send this about 4-6 weeks before the wedding day to give my brides plenty of time to get it filled out.
2. Create a day of Timeline.
I typically have a final meeting (either in person or over the phone) about 4-6 weeks before the wedding day. During this call I send them the pre-wedding questionnaire and we create the timeline together. This is SO important. Some brides don’t have wedding planners, so they are relying solely on you as their photographer to tell them when things need to happen.
3. Prep yourself and your gear
The day before the wedding I like to make sure everything is packed and ready to go. I hate the feeling of being rushed, so I like to make sure to do this the day before and not the morning of. Here is a list of things I do to prep myself and my gear!
- Clean Lenses
- Format Memory Cards
- Charge all Camera Batteries
- Charge all Flash Batteries
- Organize Styling Kit
- Pack Camera Bag
- Print off Wedding Questionnaire
- Print off Timeline
- Confirm Wedding Location and Time of Arrival
- Check in with Second Shooter
- Pack a Lunch Bag with Snacks and Waters (and Redbull)
Night of the Wedding Day
As soon as I get home the first thing I do is go into my office and start backing up all of the memory cards. I can plug in 3 at a time. While those are being exported to my external hard drive I will typically run take a quick shower. When I get back, I finish backing up the remaining memory cards. I will then go ahead and pull a sneak peak for my couple and edit those in Lightroom. I think it is so important and special for my couples to have a few photos the night of their wedding so they can post about it if they want the next day. It’s a sweet little surprise for them while on their honeymoon. Here is a full check list of what I do when I get home.
- Back up all images to my external hard drive
- Cull a sneak peak (15-25 images) in Photomechanic
- Edited those sneak peak images in Lightroom
- Post 1 photo on Instagram
- Share 5-10 photos on Instagram Stories (tagging all vendors)
- Send clients and vendors the sneak peak gallery
Those of you that aren’t photographers can see that it is SO MUCH more than just showing up and shooting. There is a lot of prep work and long hours even after the sparkler exit. It’s been so helpful for my business to have a simple workflow for every wedding day. I am also a huge fan of checklists! I hope you found this helpful and can start implementing ab awesome wedding day workflows in your own business!
