Amelia and Dan, Wedding Photography

Five tips to plan a perfect wedding

#1 It’s not just your wedding day, it’s a marriage

You are making a commitment to be on a team together for life with your best friend.  it is an awesome experience, and a very important promise. Don’t lose sight of the marriage while planning the wedding, then remember to laugh and enjoy every single second on the big day, which leads us to #2 … 

#2 Enjoy every moment

Make a conscious effort throughout the day to stop and just take a breath and look around you. Your Family, your friends, the people you love most in the world all gathered together in one big celebration of love. Take it all in and don’t miss a thing. Which leads us to # 3…

#3 Hire the right people 

 You need to invest in the people and services that will help you stop and just breathe. Your big day will go by in what seems like a heartbeat, a great wedding planner will take care of all the details so you don’t have to think about them, and the right band will turn your reception into an epic dance party. Bonus tip: once you find one vendor that you’re really happy with ask them for recommendations about the others, good people tend to gravitate toward each other! Find some ideas for great venues, (planners and caterers too!) on our Pinterest board of favorite venues (https://www.pinterest.com/ameliaanddan/charleston-south-carolina-wedding-venues-our-top-1/) and don’t forget that you will want to be able to relive all those magical memories over again so don’t skimp on your photographer. Which leads us to #4 … 

#4 Hire two lead photographers! What does this mean? Lots of photographers work alone or with a “second shooter,” someone that they may hire from a rotating pool. when you hire us, you get two lead journalists covering your entire wedding. we are a team, not just two photographers thrown together for an afternoon. We’ve been a couple for 13 years and married for 10, so we know exactly how the other person is thinking during a wedding, where they will be standing, and what they will be shooting. Hire us and you get two artists who are free to play to their strengths – and won’t miss any of those important moments (and let’s face it, they’re ALL important!), so you can get back to focusing on the first two tips! You want to be sure you can re-savor all those moments in a great set of images from your wedding, so choosing the photographer is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. For more help, see our blog posts on the questions you need to ask before hiring one or see them all in one place on Pinterest. Which leads us to #5

#5 Budget for prints and a wedding album.

Sure you can scroll through your wedding images on your phone or laptop, but nothing compares to some framed prints and (especially) a well designed and beautifully printed wedding album. You presumably hired the best two wedding photographers you could to document one of the most important days of your life, so choose your favorite images and preserve them properly for generations in a high quality album. We offer some great options here.

We’ve been photographing happy couples on their big day for more than 10 years and we think these are the most important tips to help you get started planning your wedding. Need more inspo? See our Pinterest boards or follow us on Instagram!