Planning
Building The Wedding Photography Timeline
A working schedule built around light, emotion, your vision, and the chapters
Most wedding timelines are built backwards from when the caterer wants to plate the food. That works fine for the food and badly for the photographs, because the light does not negotiate. Building the day around two fixed points — the ceremony and sunset — allows everything else to slot in around them.
What follows is a shape rather than a schedule; every wedding gets its own version, written with you and shared with the planner and the band.
Early afternoon
WEDDING DAY DETAILS & GETTING READY
As wedding photographers, we arrive while the room is still quiet and shoot still life details. We also photograph both parties getting ready. Ninety minutes here is generous; sixty is workable if the couple is in the same building.
ONE TO TWO HOURS BEFORE THE CEREMONY
INDIVIDUAL WEDDING PORTRAITS, THEN FIRST LOOK, THEN COUPLE PORTRAITS
after the getting ready portion of the day, we often shoot individual portraits of each of the soon-to-be-wed. Then, a first look buys back an hour later in the day and takes the pressure off a newly married couple. Immediately after the first look is the best window for couple portraits, because everyone is dressed and looking their best.
NINETY TO SIXTY MINUTES BEFORE CEREMONY
Wedding party and family formals
We have 30 years of experience photographing family and wedding party formals, often with a written shot list. Though in many weddings NOT shot by us, formals are the single most common place a timeline slips, we get the job done with plenty of time left over for you to relax before the ceremony. This is where the experience level of a New Orleans wedding photographers really shines.
WEDDING CEREMONY
WHEN IT ALL BECOMES OFFICIAL - THE WEDDING CEREMONY
Often lasting about twenty minutes for a civil ceremony, or an hour for a full church wedding, we photograph ceremonies like the sacred moments that they are...quietly, while shooting mostly from the back with long lenses, thereby avoiding distracting from your special moments.
IMMEDIATELY AFTER CEREMONY
WEDDING SECOND LINE PARADE
The band usually steps off within a few minutes of the recessional and the parade lasts anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. The parade route, permit and staging point are all settled well in advance, so all we need to do is capture the chaos.
Cocktail hour
RECEPTION SPACE, GUESTS, AND MAYBE THE GOLDEN-HOUR PULL-OUT
The wedding reception space gets photographed while it is still perfect. If we can arrange it, ten minutes of the couple stepping outside at last light almost always results in some of the best portraits of the day...it's all about the light.
Reception
THE WEDDING RECEPTION (THE PARTY)
This section is all about the grand entrance, the first dances, the wedding toasts and the wedding cake. After that the coverage is reactive — dance floor, band, street. Coverage usually ends with the send-off if not otherwise scheduled.
Where Timelines Break
- Family formals where one or two family members are missing, or a bridal party member is in the bathroom for way too long (you know who you are, Jeremy).
- Travel between venues is grossly underestimated. In the French Quarter, walking is often faster than driving, and a second line parade is also travel.
- Portraits scheduled after sunset. Once the light is gone, it is gone. We work with studio flash lighting for low-light scenarios, but nothing beats a sunset as your background.
- Hair and makeup running long — the most reliable delay at any wedding. Pad it.
Planning
Timeline Questions
- How far in advance should we book a wedding photographer in New Orleans?
- For spring and autumn Saturdays — the two seasons the city is genuinely pleasant — most couples inquire nine to eighteen months out. Shorter timelines are workable when the date is open; the constraint is availability, desire to shoot your wedding.
- Do you shoot with a second photographer?
- It depends on the day's schedule. Things that might trigger a second wedding photographer are two parties getting ready in different places, a large wedding guest count, a wedding second line and/or a wedding ceremony with restricted photographer positions. A small ceremony and a single-venue reception often do not need two wedding photographers. It is usually decided per wedding rather than automatically included.
- What happens if it rains?
- New Orleans rain is usually short, violent and then gone. Every session gets a rain plan built in advance: an interior portrait location or a covered location option. Umbrellas photograph well, and a courtyard after a storm is actually prettier than a courtyard before one.
- How long until we see the photographs?
- A short wedding photography preview set goes out within a few days of the wedding so there is something to share while it is still recent, followed by the full edited wedding photography gallery. Full wedding gallery usually arrives to you 3-4 weeks after the wedding date.