Honest Wedding tips, from me to you – Honest Hue Austin Wedding Photographer.

Your wedding day is here! You have bought your dress, your rings, and your shoes, and in your head everything is perfect and all you wanted it to be. You and your bridesmaids get together to start getting ready and reality hits you. Family everywhere wanting to chat with you ALL THE TIME, you have 30 min for your ceremony, and all you see is clothes all over the floor, makeup and hair products spread out in every little nook and cranny and you start breathing faster, you can’t find your necklace, no not that one, that one just broke, the other necklace! And you ask your  to bring you the shoes but they are not there. They were in the bag inside of the bag. Who has the rings? Your cousin comes in asking a ton of questions about the cake and catering who are late. Your mom comes in with rollers in her head 15 min before the ceremony, no make up and the lights go off right in the middle of your hair do.

STOP! 

It is like something out of a horror story and unfortunately it all happened to me. I so wish I could have known what to do and when to do it to have a relaxed wedding day. Shoot I wish I could have enjoyed it a lot more than I did.

This is why I have decided to start a blog series about the most awesome wedding tips who no one tells you but you secretly wish someone did.

Determine your wedding budget.  

– This is boring yes but it will give you an idea of how much you want/can spend on your wedding day.

Book your Venue.

-Make sure you do not choose a wedding date that has some huge event going on. Like SXSW. We got married in March and it was chaos finding hotels for our out of town guests and even a suite for our wedding night!

Find your dress.

-Have fun, visit several shops to find the “one”.

-Make sure your dress gets tailored and complete well before your wedding date at least 3 months before.

Find your Wedding Photographer

-This one can be pretty overwhelming. We suggest asking yourself and your photographer the following questions to help narrow down your search.  This one is the most extensive and helpful wedding tips I can give you.

-How many hours of coverage do I really need?

• Beware of the “all day coverage” photographer.
• I knew that a human being will not be giving its best for 8+ hours at a time.
• Because Wedding photography is a highly artistic medium in which you need to give it your all. I know my limits, and I know that in order to provide an amazing experience and amazing photographs I can only do that for so many hours a day.
• A good photographer knows the time they will be able to give you all they got therefore beware of the all day or 8+ hour coverage photographer, you might have someone who is tired and no longer caring of the most important day of your life.

-Am I having a day or night wedding?

– If you are having a night wedding make sure your photographer is not a “natural light” photographer. They will have a harder time photographing well into the night.

-Do I want photographs that look timeless or do I want to follow the current fad?

-Be weary of current fads, (remember the hair and makeup of the 80’s? Yea no one likes to show those pics anymore do they? Same goes to your photographer’s style, make sure that in a couple of years you will still be proud and showing off your timeless, authentic photography.

         -Is it important for me to meet my vendors in person prior to the wedding?

                           -Lots of vendors want to meet with you prior to the wedding specially if they will be shadowing you during the course of your wedding day. We want to make sure that we are the right fit. So keep your eyes open if a vendor refuses to meet with you prior to booking.

– Do I want my photographer/Vendors to be insured?

                           – The short answer should always be Yes. There are a ton of Fauxtographers out there these days, make sure that your photographer is a legit business owner who is also insured. Lots of photographers advertised in craigslist may not fill these simple requirements.

–How important is my wedding photography for me?

                           -Lots of couples never ask this question. For others the answer is pretty simple. It is the single most important thing of their wedding. After all their wedding day is only well, one day. But pictures and memories will last a lifetime.

-This single question will also let you put a monetary value to your photography.

-If your budget is low, you don’t have to compromise for bad photography. Lots of good photographers can offer payment plans customized for your unique situation.

-Do I want/need 2 photographers on my wedding day?

                  – You may need only one photographer if you are eloping or if you have less than 30 guests. Having 2 there would be overkill.

-However if you are having a traditional wedding with more than 30 guests it is a must to have 2 photographers on your wedding day. You will capture two different sets of perspectives that only one photographer won’t physically be able to do so.

 

-Do I trust my chosen photographer?

         – The day you meet with your photographer, make sure he/she answers all your questions, and even some that you didn’t even think you had. If you still have questions remaining and you are not getting answers, it might be time to look another direction.

-Please make sure you like and trust your wedding photographer.

Day of Coordinator

It poured the day before my wedding and my wedding day. I had dreaded that so much. There was so much water that the inside of my venue was getting soaked. Not only that but it was so cold and there was no AC. I had 200 uncomfortable guests and no food (that story is in another paragraph below) My family consists of 7 people in total, who at the moment were not able to move the table I had assigned next to the door. Needless to say it was chaos!

My family left my wedding because there was no room to move their table, and there was no one to help us out move their table. This is another reason why I wanted to give you my honest wedding tips.

If and only if I had a good wedding day of coordinator I would have had a happy family they day of my wedding. NO ONE would be asking a ton of things I did not know the answer to and I would have ENJOYED my day. 😉

Make sure you hire a day of coordinator!

• • It is no longer a luxury, having a DC will help you have a stress free and drama free day!
    • Make sure you check referrals and their reviews before hiring.
    • Always trust your gut!
  • If you are in a budget check craigslist they always have wedding coordinators who are starting out but have had previous experience working with them. (Nope your mom cannot act as one. She will miss out on all lof the important details of your wedding)
    • Again check reviews, and that they are a legit business
    • Trust your gut here too!

A MONTH BEFORE YOUR WEDDING: 

• Delegate.
  • Delegate tasks to someone in your bridal party, your friends, or family WHO YOU TRUST to get the job done.
  • Tell them who your photographer is, what their name is.
    • Give your photographer a list of people to contact for the day of the wedding so when it comes to the day of your wedding, your photographer can reach anyone and everyone BUT you!

Delegate the following items to your bridesmaids to make sure everything is perfect on your day:

• Bridesmaid #1:
  • Make sure the dress is out of its bag and hanged
• Bridesmaid #2 gathers the following for the photographer:
  • -Stationary (Invitations, save the dates anything paper wise related to your wedding)
  • -Your shoes
  • -Your jewelry (earrings, necklaces, bracelets)
  • -Anything of sentimental value
  • -The grooms letter (if any)
  • -The Garter (if any)
  • -Your flower bouquet.
  • -Your engagement ring.
• Bridesmaid #3 
  • Your putting your dress on and getting ready images should be shot by the prettiest light, meaning right by the window if (day wedding) make sure your bridesmaid clears up the area surrounding the window, and that it is free of clutter.

Make a list of everything you will be wearing on  your day.

Create a checklist of all you will be wearing. The last thing you want was to have spent 3 hours deciding on which necklace to wear 10 min before the ceremony! List these things down.

Dress
Veil
Rings
Shoes
Bouquet
Necklace
Earrings
Bracelet(s)
Hair Accessories
Invitations
Etc.

Who do you want with you as you put on the most important dress of your life?

Your mom, your grandma, your aunt? If you have your VIP in mind, make sure a bridesmaid gets her or him for you before you put your dress on.

Make up Artist

Make sure your makeup artist is aside from awesome respectful and mind full of your time. One way of testing this is having a bridal session and seeing how much time you actually need for getting ready. Bridal sessions are awesome because you get to see exactly what kind of Jewelry, shoes, hair, make up you want to strut down the aisle with.

Usually it is a good idea to tell your make up artist that you have to be done 30 min before you actually need to be done so if your Ceremony starts at 5PM and you have set 30 min to put your dress on, and 30 min for pics before the ceremony that means that you HMUA should be done by 4PM. Which means that you should tell your HMUA you need to be done by 3:30PM. She/he will suggest a starting time based on your timeline.

Why? Because having 30 min extra is much better than running 30 min late right?

*We have worked with many ahhmazing HMUA and we can give you referrals. We will list them on our welcome magazine as well, for all of our booking clients.

If you are looking for a RAD Austin wedding photographer look no more! Send us a message at katy@honesthue.com to schedule a free wedding consultation! We are booking 2017 and we still have select 2016 dates available. Message us now! 🙂

<3 Katy

katy@honesthue.com

We are an Austin wedding photographer company. Austin TX.