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5 Ways Wedding Planners Can Help Make Ceremony Photos Amazing

5 Ways Wedding Planners Can Make Your Wedding Ceremony Photos Amazing

June 5, 2017

Ask any wedding photographer, and most will tell you: wedding planners are an incredibly valuable asset to the day. We absolutely love when our couples hire a planner or a day-of coordinator, because we know at the end of the day, our couple isn’t going to be frazzled and they can 110% focus on having the time of their lives. Wedding days shouldn’t be stressful, it should literally be about celebration, love, good food, good people and good times … right!?

We’ve worked with some amazing planners and coordinators who have gone above and beyond for our couples, not only insuring that things run smoothly but also helping us capture the day in the most beautiful way possible. Sometimes it’s really the little things that we’ve noticed our favorite wedding planners doing that make the biggest difference in our photos!

5 Ways Wedding Planners Can Help Make Your Wedding Ceremony Photos Amazing

So today, I wanted to spill some wedding planning secrets that we’ve picked up over the last few years of weddings!!

5 Ways Wedding Planners Can Help Make Your Wedding Ceremony Photos Amazing!

1.) Make sure guests are seated toward the front, and toward the aisle.

This is a little trick of the eye, especially for smaller weddings, and it is a little more aesthetically pleasing in photos. Lots of empty chairs in the aisle just look “off” in wedding photos, so moving guests in and toward the center can make ceremony photos look “fuller.”

beautiful ceremony backdrops

Another thing that often happens is people automatically don’t sit in the first row or two, because its usually reserved for family – which is absolutely the right thing to do! However!!! Sometimes there are more seats than family members, so often those seats are empty. So make sure your wedding planner knows to usher people up front if there’s no family sitting there!

2.) Have the couple practice where exactly to stand under the arch or chuppah.

Call it OCD, call it balance – whatever the case may be … it looks “off” when a couple is standing all the way to left or right under an arch. This is something we’ve seen our favorite wedding planners have couples practice at the rehearsal!

3.) Encourage couples to put SOMETHING in the aisle – flowers, candles, etc.

It just adds a little extra flair to photos, don’t you think?

randy and ashley weddings, east bay wedding, casa real ruby hill winery wedding, lindsay lauren events, candlelit ceremony site, floating candles for ceremonies, Make Your Ceremony Photos Amazing

But just make sure whatever you put down the aisle doesn’t impede the path of the couple! We once had a wedding where they had these beautiful floral pieces and it made the aisle so narrow that the bride and her dad couldn’t easily walk side-by-side.

4.) Move “dark towers” to the outside of the aisles – like from The Wedding Planner with J Lo!

It’s happened to our colleagues before – someone really tall decides to sit RIGHT in front of where a videographer has set up a stationary ceremony camera. Asking very tall guests to not sit in the aisle seats saves us from “dark tower” shots blocking the couple at the altar.

Side note: does anyone else just love this movie? It’s so goofy, but I love it. Probably seen it 100 times! 

5.) Tell the wedding party and couple pause at the entrance to ceremony site AND at the back of the aisle … and to look UP!

This is the biggest tip!! We’ve had some weddings where the wedding party all but ran up to the altar, looking straight down at the ground. Our favorite wedding planners always tell them, “guys: slowwww dowwwn!

We can’t tell you how many photos we have of bridesmaids looking straight down at the ground the entire walk up the aisle (and back down!). Ladies, practice walking in your shoes, keep your eyes and chin up when walking down the aisle!

DO YOU WANT A BONUS TIP!!??!!

When coming back down the aisle for the recessional – ask your couple to kiss, dance and celebrate all the way back down the aisle! 

couple celebrating just getting married

Because these ^^ are seriously our FAVORITE shots from the ceremony!! YASSSS!

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Heyyyy ... I'm Ashley Durham and I'm a luxury wedding photographer in Phoenix, but I travel all over Arizona and the desert southwest to hang out with the most incredible people. I am obsessed with puppies, extra hot coffee, sunrise and firmly believe that love conquers all.

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