While weddings are such a beautiful celebration, I know how stressful it can be and how easily those worries can take over! What can you do to ensure success on your wedding day? As a seasoned wedding photographer of 9 years photographing all over California I can offer some insight.

If at all possible, seriously consider hiring a wedding planner. Even if it’s just for the day of. No matter how low key you think your wedding will be, it’s never fun to have to be the go-to person (or a family member) for all the other vendors when you’re trying to enjoy your wedding day. Hire someone to take that burden off of you and your family that day. It also ensures your day goes according to plan, as I’ve seen first hand the weddings that have a planner versus don’t.

Some of the first things you’ll want to look into when getting engaged is a venue, as their availability may determine your date, depending how badly you want that place. Join some local engaged facebook groups to get details on different venues and research them out. Once you have a date and venue selected, that’s the recommended time to hire your photography team, video, florals, catering etc. Depending how involved you want your planner you can hire them before venue selecting or after. Some venues have select vendors they work with so make sure to ask any venues you look at.

Schedule your engagement photo session! When booking your photographer you can also book your engagement session. Some have them included in their wedding packages and others are an add on. Engagement sessions are the perfect way to get to know your photographer so that by the wedding day you’ll feel completely comfortable with them and have much less stress about it. Your photographer and video team will be with you most of that whole day so it’s important that you like them and what work they create too! During the planning process, they should be attentive and responsive to any concerns or questions you have regarding photo/video.

As photographer in Orange County, California I know each wedding can be so different and unique, so do what makes you most happy and make your wedding true to you and your soon to be spouse. I know there’s so many more aspects to cover that I’ll touch base on in future posts, comment below what you’d like to read more about. These tips will help guide you to have a less stressful, fun filled day. Congratulations!