How to Have the Absolute Best Wedding Photos

In this episode of the Colorado Wedding Podcast, hosts Josh and Brian take center stage as they delve into the world of wedding photography. Join them for an insightful conversation where Brian, a seasoned professional wedding photographer, shares his wealth of knowledge and expertise to help couples plan their dream wedding photoshoot.

Discover the significance of building a personal connection with your chosen photographer and how it can elevate your wedding day experience. Brian offers invaluable advice on effective communication with your photographer, from expressing your vision to creating a streamlined timeline that ensures you capture the moments that matter most. Gain insights into why trust in your photographer is essential for achieving breathtaking and unforgettable wedding photos.

Whether you're planning a traditional ceremony or an adventurous cliffside wedding, this episode equips you with the guidance you need to transform your wedding photography dreams into reality. Tune in for expert tips on striking the perfect balance between savoring your special day and achieving those picture-perfect shots.

Whether your wedding is set in Colorado or anywhere else, this episode provides essential information to help you maximize the magic of your wedding day. Don't miss out on these pro tips for capturing the perfect wedding photos!

Josh: Most like a five shot. I mean, obviously, having shot every single venue in Colorado, I shot a vast majority of them. And if I have another shot, one that's very similar. And so we have that experience to say, like, okay, let's go over here. Let's find this right lighting. And so definitely make suggestions like, hey, we love to get a shot in front of this tree. That looks really cool. Great. Let us know. But trust your photographer, though, they'll definitely guide you. Like I said, at least we personally, I don't know if all photographers do this. I think a lot do. But we're very close on the timeline. I've had many planners say, Oh, we love working with you because you're keeping them on the timeline. I almost don't have to trust us. We're going to do a good job and we care about your wedding like we want you to get the best photos and we want your way in a while. It's not one or the other. We want both.

Brian: Welcome to the Colorado Wedding podcast. The ultimate place to plan your Colorado wedding. From luxury weddings to intimate allotments will guide you through planning your wedding in the beautiful state of Colorado where your host, Josh and Brian.

Josh: Hey there, guys. This is the Colorado Wedding podcast. We are also in place to go to plan your Colorado wedding. We are your hosts, Josh and Brian. We own various media companies here in northern Colorado. I own a scented media and Brian Owens book, Brand Photography. We're Wedding Media Gurus here in northern Colorado, and we are talking today about just a couple of tips to ensure you get the best photos for your wedding. Brian here has shot so many weddings here in Colorado with all over Colorado.

Brian: Yeah, and he is just an expert on photography here. So we're just going to unpack a couple of tips of just his best his best tips he's gathered over the years to produce the best photos at the end of the day. So we're going to jump right on in. And, Brian, our first point is just really finding the right photographer. Walk us through what that looks like. There's a bunch of different facets there. But what do you think?

Josh: Absolutely. I mean, there are so many good photographers and we want you to find the right one. I mean, obviously, we want to work with you, but every photographer is different and every bride and groom is different. Every couple is different. And so we want you to find the right photographer. So one of the best ways to do that is just to check out their stuff. Number one, that may be obvious, but, you know, make sure that they have the style that you want. There are different photography styles. Some people do more candid, some people do awesome poses. They do like Vogue poses, and some people have different colors, somewhere brighter, some are darker, all this sort of stuff. And if you don't know what a photographer style is, reach out to them what to say. Okay, like what? What would you say your style is? And if they don't know, that's probably not a great sign. So, you know, like for me, it's like I do an editorial style, which means I'm capturing a lot of candids and I'm so going to help a little bit with posing and kind of meet you where you're at. And you know, you can see the visual style. We're trying to be consistent with our editing style too. So and the other thing about is finding the right photographer is like, check your packages what you want included, you know, So maybe you want them for 8 hours, 6 hours, you want full day coverage. We always do full day coverage. Some people do hourly packages. So just look at those and see what they include. If they include two photographers, if they include printing rights, if they include everything that you want, maybe you don't know what you want yet, but just talk to the photographers and look at their packages. They should have them on their website. And again, if they don't, probably not a great sign. So make sure that they look at that information and contact them. And then the other thing is just make sure they're available. That's kind of a weird little thing, but like you could love a photographer and be following them. Like this is going to be our photographer and just have that in your head. Check way ahead of time. Most of us are getting booked a year, 18 months ahead of time. And so just check the availability. That's usually one of the first things that. So you're not wasting your time. You know, that's true for video too. Pretty much all your vendors, but really, you know, pretty, pretty straightforward. And then the last thing I would I would say, I know there's a lot for choosing a photographer, but personality match and I think this is true for every single one of your vendors is go with your gut and just if you want your wedding your way, you want the people that are going to make you shine. So if you're on a call to, you know, on a console call or whatever, and they're just giving you bad vibes, like, oh, there's some kind of dismissive or, you know, I'm like really, really high energy. They're low energy or I'm really chill and they're super type A, they want a bunch or organization stuff. Keep looking around. There is there's so many photographers that you're going to find the one that is going to fit for you totally. That's great stuff. Also bring on our point, too. And Brian, I know you totally include this in all your packages.

Brian: Yes. But including an engagement shoots with kind of your full package. Yes. Yes. And if you've already had an engagement, shoot, I don't care about saying that in a in a nice way. I want to meet you before your wedding day. And if you live halfway across the country and you're doing it alone, then it'll probably be more video calls or, you know, or if I'm in your area, neck of the woods cause I do travel, then I'll try to I sometimes I'll even try to schedule a coffee with you. But we want to take you out for engagement. We always come a day in the life, shoot. I think that's, you know, I love the Beatles. A Day in the Life is an amazing Beatles song, Little Inside Tip, but we always call the Shoot a Day in the Life Shoot because we want to capture you when you're engaged. Because, see, you know, after you get married, things change, right? So you can buy a new house and move, or you could move out of state, out of the country or to a different city or, you know, you could have a dog now and you're going to have kids later or whatever that may be. Your life is is probably going to change a little bit in some way or a lot. After you married. And so capturing that time is important. But again, going back to the personality thing, we want to make sure you know how we interact and we want to see your personality together with with your partner so that you we know on the wedding day, like, okay, like they're super chill. They don't want a bunch of, you know, action thrown at them or they don't want a bunch of crazy people, you know, they want to craziness around them or vice versa. Like we they love a party that they want high energy that's good for us and also that we meet you and that we are kind of disappear into the background or your wedding day and we know your personality. So we don't want to be strangers. We always say that you show up and have someone go, Who are you again? That sucks for us. That sucks for you. You have a stranger following you around, and so you should at least know one person on the video and photo team that you have met before who's who's on the inside of you knows what's going on with your relationship. Totally. Yeah. Well, in addition to that, I mean, we've talked about this in past episodes, but just planning the timeline and have this just all set through before the wedding day, everybody knows what they're doing.

Josh: Yeah, absolutely. And yes, we have covered this and we'll continue to cover it because I would say it's the one question we get is, you know, how how should we structure our timeline? And we always work with the wedding planners and the venues to make sure that we're not messing up any of their stuff. So really just providing input, but we need to make sure we have enough time to do family photos. We need to make sure that we have enough time for getting ready. If you have a first look, making sure that's in there, you know what time Sunset is. So we get the right lighting. So always communicate with your photographer about your timeline is going to help you get better photos. That's going to help reduce stress, which we're in a half a million times. And you guys can go to our website at Colorado wedding guides dot com. We do have you can just put your email in and we'll send you a timeline sheet. We have all different kinds of timelines, right It's like a Loehmann's and traditional and first look. So that's a great place to get started. So check that out. And most photographers will have a sample time lines that they can give you to work with, but you can find a million online too. But definitely go to our website and check that out. And that could be a great way to start. But yeah, we will communicate with a bunch of other vendors outside of you, so we're not adding stuff on to you to make sure we know what's going on and not messing up your stuff.

Brian: And Josh correct me, if I'm wrong, but like we're constantly looking at that timeline throughout the day to make sure that you're on time, Right. I mean, I'm sure you're doing that, too, right? Yeah, totally. And if things are going off timeline, it's going to mess up some shots later in the day. We definitely yeah, about that. And we're yeah, we're pushing to keep things as they were planned. And one thing I always tell my brides is you're the bride. They're not going to do anything without you. So if you know, if stuff is a little bit behind, they're not going to start ceremony without you. But our speeches without you, they're not going to do anything without you. So that timeline is definitely a guide. And you can go back to our timeline episode and hear more about that. But yeah, definitely discuss that with your photographer. So also another tip to getting the best photos is communicating with your photographer on things like a shot list. Which family members that you want especially highlighted. Can you walk us through a little bit more of that communication? Yeah. With your photographer. Yeah. So we let people ask us like, hey, do you want me to give you a shot list? Personally, I would say, No, I don't want a shot list. Some photographers might be that way. If they want a checklist, they want to go down the list. But I've shot hundreds of weddings, and I know for the most part what needs to be photographed that day, what details need to be photographed, what people need to be photographed, what moments need to be photographed. And obviously all the in between the candidates. That's something that we're really big on. So we will have a flow and we're not going to miss any of the main things. What is good to know is the things that are like special to you. Again, every episode that we talk about, we're going to say do your wedding and the unique that's unique to you. Do the wedding that's unique to you. So do you if you want to, you know, jump off a cliff deal, go and cliff diving on your wedding day in your in your dress. Be careful. But yes, totally. Let's do it. Those are the things we want to know about so that we're prepared if we need to bring something that's going skydiving. Yeah. Waters And every year he's got an implement. Sign me up. I'm ready for that. So let me know. I've never done that. But, you know, if we need need to know that there's going to be an action shot or a surprise, you know, we've had people do fireworks as a surprise or something like that. We need to know about that. So we're set up for lighting before the day or if there's an important person, you know, hey, this is my second aunt. And so maybe it wouldn't be someone who's on our radar all the time. But she actually raised me. I need that. We need to know that. Or, you know, my great grandma gave me this necklace and she passed away. You know, a couple of years ago. So, you know, I think we need to know about those kind of details. So the other thing to do is just bring those details with you. So I would recommend bringing more than you need. So talking like obviously you're gonna wear your jewelry and your dress and your shoes and your suit, all that stuff you're going to bring, but bring like your invitations bring, you know, save the dates, all the paperwork, any designs of flowers, because those are things that we're going to use in our life that you put so much time into those details and we want to capture that. So anything that's laid out, we're going to get, but definitely bring those details and let us know when we get there. And then the last thing I think you mentioned, the family photos. That's something that we personally on our team we say super, super organized on because we always tell them, you know, every family photo can take 1 to 2 minutes. So if you give us a list, if you don't give us a list, number one, it's going to be chaos. Yeah, do that. We were going to have some brides and grooms. We kind of just forgot about it. And even if I reminded them and that makes that part of the day so long and stressful. So that can be the most stressful part of the day. And so just communicating that family, listen, we can send you samples of those, but making sure that list is, I would say, usually 10 to 15 groups of photos. So of each, you know, 10 to 15 of all of them site includes both sides of the family. If you had one or 2 minutes for even $15 can take 30 minutes. If you have 34 hours, that could take an hour of you guys just standing there. So definitely keep that list short because we're going to be there all night. And if you have your ideal picture with your neighbor that you grew up with, we can grab you from the dance floor and do that at any point in time. So keep that family photo as short, sweet to the point and organized. Awesome, great thoughts. And one more topic here. So, you know, once your wedding day arrives, you have not a lot of control over anything else. My last point is we trust in your photographer. Yeah. Yeah, definitely trust your photographer. That's why that finding that personality that we mentioned before is so important because you want to be able to see a photographer. Like if your photographer is someone that you don't get along with is going to make this part tough. But hopefully your photographer has shot many, many, many weddings at this point. And if they have a little bit of experience, if you're paying a little less, that's probably fine too. But definitely most like a five shot. I mean, obviously, having shot every single venue in Colorado, I've shot a vast majority of them. And if I have another shot, one that's very similar. And so we have that experience. I say like, okay, like, let's go over here. Let's find this right lighting. And so definitely make suggestions like, Hey, we'd love to get a shot in front of this tree. That looks really cool. Great. Let us know. But trust your photographer, though. They'll definitely guide you. Like I said, at least we personally, I don't know if all photographers do this. I think a lot do, but we're very close on the timeline. I've had many planners say, Oh, we love working with you because you're keeping them on the timeline. I almost don't have to trust us. We're going to do a good job and we care about your wedding. Like we want you to get the best photos and we want your way in a while. It's not one or the other. We want both. So like, we don't want you to have a super stressful day just to get good photos. And we don't want to have a really good day and a crappy photos. Yeah, like we want you to have both. And we're going to make sure you have both. And if we have to bend over backwards to do that. Awesome. Like my energy spikes on a wedding day and I'm like, Let's do this thing. Yeah, And we've seen enough and we know how to get get the right photos. So you can if you've got an experienced photo team. Yeah, I guess we're ready. Videographers too. But like we know where to be and if we don't, we'll ask like where I'm talking to the wedding planner and or who's ever running the venue. I talk to them all day. I'm schmoozing with them. I love people and joking around, keeping the daylight, making sure that we know what Mormons are serious, what moments in a little more energy. I'm constantly paying attention to that. It's almost second nature and sorry, I'm not trying to self brag here. It's just like that. I love it and my energy is made for wedding days, so I think most photographers do it for that reason. So again, pay attention to their personality at the beginning and they're like, Oh yeah, like we always do it this way. We always do it this way. Yeah, like, I know you want to do it this way, but I think I'd rather do it this way. Don't hire that photographer. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but like, be careful with that, because you're right. It is about you. It's not about what the photographer is going to use on Instagram. And I just think like, just be careful with that. Yeah. So tired, I think like that's that's the most important part of awesome. Well, thank you guys for joining us today on the podcast. We are Josh and Brian and we are the hosts here in the Colorado Wedding podcast and we love being a part of your weddings here in Colorado. We've really seen it all here and photo and video. And so if you're planning that wedding, head on over to Colorado. Wedding guides dot com and we've got a ton of resources. We're interviewing people throughout the wedding industry here in Colorado, and we're just trying to create the ultimate place to help you plan just the best wedding. So thanks so much for joining us and we will see you next time. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Colorado Wedding podcast. We hope you found our tips insightful for planning your Colorado wedding. For all the free wedding planning tools, checklists and guides, go to Colorado wedding guides, dotcom. Don't forget to rate us on Apple and Spotify and be sure to follow us on Instagram at SEO Wedding Podcast. We appreciate you and hope you have the best wedding possible. See you next time you.