When Should I Schedule My Engagement and Bridal Sessions?
Our schedule fills up very quickly, so please schedule your photography sessions and wedding events as soon as you are able so that we can reserve the dates for your sessions. In the event that you need to reschedule any of your sessions, be sure to let us know as early as you can.
Where Can I Have My Pictures Taken?
When selecting locations for your photoshoot, please review our locations page or invite us to try somewhere new (we love this!).
When Is Payment Due and What Types Are Acceptable?
A retainer fee is due by the date of your first photo session. Payment is due in full by the wedding day. We accept payments for retainers and for the balance of fees by check, by debit card, or by credit card through the invoice we send you after we have finished booking your sessions.
How Can I Best Prepare for Engagement and Bridal Sessions?
Engagement Photo Session Tips:
We recommend only one outfit change. Increasing the amount of time changing clothes will reduce the amount of time taking pictures.
You don’t need to bring anyone along to this session unless you want to.
Please let us know if you are planning to make prints of a specific size (see the note above).
Let this be a relaxing time for the two of you! If you’re running a couple of minutes behind, don’t stress. If the weather is looking threatening, don’t worry—we can work around it. If you just focus on enjoying being together during your pictures (when you don’t have to do anything else or make any decisions!!), your pictures will reflect your happiness.
Bridal or Formal Session Tips:
We recommend you bring a helper along for this session to help arrange the bride’s gown, carry it or other accessories while we walk around, and check the bride and groom’s hair and ensembles (clothes and jewelry). This should be someone both the bride and groom are comfortable with and comfortable being affectionate in front of. We’d also encourage you to remember the following:
Don’t forget both the groom’s wedding ring and the bride’s wedding band (if she has one).
Don’t forget flowers if you want to have them in the portraits!
Please let us know beforehand if you’d like to get photos of the groom’s first look of the bride.
Again, please let us know if you would like to have a lot of prints of a specific size.
Can I Show You My Pinterest Board?
Of course! We will have a lot of excellent shots in mind for your session, though, so a Pinterest board isn't strictly necessary or required. However, sharing a board with us can be a really easy way for us to figure out the style of shots you love. It's also much easier to show us an example of a shot you're interested in than to try to describe it. If you do decide to share a board with us, please do so before the photo session! While we love to see new ideas, keep in mind that because of lighting, location, or weather we will not be able to precisely reproduce the pictures you love on Pinterest or Instagram. We would also encourage you to take a look through our recent work and find (and pin!) images that you love there.
What Happens After My Engagement or Bridal Sessions?
Shortly after each session, we will send you a link to a selection gallery that you can choose from. These images will be watermarked and are not intended to be recirculated or used in any other way than for you to be able to make your selection of images to be edited. However, we may need to swap a picture you chose with a similar picture from the gallery if you select a picture that is out of focus or unusable in some other way. The pictures from your engagement and/or bridal sessions will be finished within 3 to 4 weeks of the day you send us your selections. When they are finished, we will share a link to the edited portraits as high quality JPEGs for you to download. Each portrait will be available in four artistic styles. If you selected a session or package that includes this option, we will include the remainder of the unedited portraits as JPEGs on a set of USB flash drives that we send to you after your wedding (additional sets can be purchased and delivered for $50/each).
Can I Get the Unedited Pictures from My Engagement or Bridal Session Before My Wedding?
We love to be generous and share images that we know you may want and use in years ahead. Because of this, we are happy to provide you with the additional unedited pictures from your engagement and bridal sessions after your wedding. We do not provide unedited images before the wedding because those unedited images (with or without third-party edits) may be misinterpreted by guests of your wedding as representative of what they can expect from our work. Displaying unedited images may negatively impact our brand with potential clients. We ask you to wait to receive your unedited images until after the remainder of your wedding pictures have been finished and then to only use the unedited images for personal use.
What Is the General Plan for Pictures on My Wedding Day?
We know you'll have a lot going on, but make sure you plan ample time between your events for photography. Often that happens most naturally right after the ceremony. Generally, having 90 to 120 minutes for group shots and couple portraits is required to effectively capture the magic of your wedding day. It may be useful to leave a buffer if you anticipate your ceremony may be behind schedule or slightly delayed.
After the ceremony, we usually take group photographs first. This allows the guests to attend to other business (or for grandparents to get out of the heat or cold) while couple portraits are taken. Unless you specify otherwise, we will plan to take charge and direct things during the group pictures. We generally proceed with group pictures with these general categories: entire wedding party, bride's extended family, bride's immediate family, groom's extended family, groom's immediate family, bridesmaids, and groomsmen. This is the general outline, though we will take other pictures in these categories as applicable (such as bride and her siblings or bride and her parents both fitting under "immediate family"). As always, let us know if you have any specific suggestions or adjustments!
You are hiring us to document your wedding as it happens. We do not guarantee a specific set of photos. Weddings and the gatherings surrounding them are very fluid affairs, and we can’t always control where your wedding party or family members are when we’re taking photos. You can look through our recent work for an idea of what we usually take, or ask to see an entire wedding collection for a more comprehensive idea. If it is important to you have certain groups photographed or certain settings/poses photographed, please compile a list and assign someone in your wedding party to keep track of photos taken and notify the photographer of any missed to make sure you have the photos you would like to have.
At your reception we love to capture everything that is happening, both big or small. Candid pictures of your reception guests in action and occasional portraits of the attendees is usually how we roll for the bulk of the time. In terms of taking charge, we will follow your lead (or the lead of the event coordinator) for the timing on the bouquet toss, first dance, cake cutting, or send off. Just make sure you don't start the action without us! If there are specific pictures you'd like to get with specific guests, don't hesitate to let us know. If you would like to photograph a large group (such as a family or group of friends) at your reception, ask someone who will know who to look for to gather the required people and then let us know once they're ready.
What Happens to My Pictures After the Wedding?
The pictures from your wedding day will be finished within a month of your wedding. Because you will be happily honeymooning (and to allow us to begin working on your pictures as soon as possible), we do not send selection galleries for weddings. However, we will be sure to carefully select the portraits to finish from the available options. We will deliver a set of USB flash drives containing all of the other photographs from the engagements, bridals, wedding, and reception as well as all of the edited portraits from each of those sessions (additional sets of flash drives can be purchased and delivered for $50/each).
After the pictures are delivered on the USB flash drives within a month following your wedding, please verify that everything is accounted for and appears to be functioning properly. If there are any issues, please let us know immediately as we cannot maintain indefinite backups of all of your images. We recommend you backup your images at the earliest possibility.
How Do I Order Prints? What Sizes Should I Get?
Getting pictures printed from a quality source is essential! Check out our our page on photo prints to be sure and get the most out of your printed pictures.
How Does Bright Angle Use Pictures from My Sessions?
We retain ownership of the photos while granting you full printing rights for personal use. Our use of the images is restricted to business purposes, such as advertising and portfolio material, which means we may post them on our website and social media. If there are legitimate reasons why you would like your images to not be shared online, please let us know and we will happily take that into consideration.