This is a topic I am way tooooo passionate about. I LOVE working with you to create a timeline for your wedding day. In fact, it is one of my favorite parts of my client experience–from booking to delivery of their wedding photos. Helping a soon-to-be bride and groom is my favorite! A timeline for their wedding day is a tangible way to give the couple the gift of calm and confidence for their busy day ahead. I love the feeling when I hop off of a call with my clients, knowing that they now feel confident and excited for their big day. The nerves are gone and they feel more prepared than ever. I want my clients to walk into their wedding day feeling secure, happy, excited, and confident. Here are four happy benefits when you create a timeline before your wedding day:
1. The more your plan ahead of time, the more flexible your wedding day is.
I say this every time I am on the phone with a client. I believe in it SO SO MUCH. I’ve lived it. And I’ve seen it. The planning really pays off!
If you don’t have any sort of plan, photo list, etc, you will spend at least half of your day thinking about what you should do next, while a bunch of people tell you what they think you should do next. Before you know it, you are caught up in a tornado of completely random photo arrangements, worried about the upcoming ceremony. That stress feels awful and it shows up in your photos. You end up with a fake, stressed smile in a million photos you may not even like. Yikes.
I know that sounds harsh, but after shooting over a hundred weddings, I am passionate about this topic for a reason. You! I want you to enjoy your special day. And I’ve seen what a pre-planned timeline can do for a bride and groom. Relaxed and truly happy smiles all around!
Plus, if you plan your day in depth, there is actually time for life to happen. You don’t have to look at what is next. You’re present for every single moment. You don’t have to think about where you want photos taken. All the details are already taken care of. So instead of having aunts and uncles circling around you asking for specific photos, you mentally and physically have time to go snag a quick bite at Runza with your spouse, jam out with your bridal party, sit back and just be happy, and have relaxing moments with your most special people.
2. You do not have to be the one in charge on your big day.
When you have a timeline created and shared with your family and bridal party, you can save SO much time, energy, and emotions. You don’t have to constantly tell someone where to be or when or how often they’ll be needed.
Your family knows all the photos on the list so they are content knowing exactly the photo they want to hang on their wall. Your bridal party shows up on time and no stressful phone calls have to be made.
I promise you, you want to live your day by enjoying it, not directing it. Leave the directing to your awesome wedding vendors. They are all there for a specific task–to serve you. You just sip your mimosa, jam out, chill out, and enjoy the special day you worked so hard to plan.
3. Your photographer will know how to serve you best on your wedding day.
I’ve been doing this for a lot of years, but I still want to know the plan for the day. I can even say I need to know it in order to serve you best. That is why I work so hard at creating timelines with my clients; I want to serve them the absolute best I can.
If a photographer walks into a day and doesn’t realize that large extended family photos are going to happen, you want different locations for portraits, how many people are in your bridal party, etc. etc. there is a strong, STRONG chance that you are not going to get all the photos you want, when you want, or where you want.
I love knowing the plan so that I can move things along to have all the photos you desire–and more–completed before the ceremony, to keep you comfortable and relaxed in the process.
If you have yet to touch base with your photographer about the timeline, I strongly encourage you to do so. I promise they will love being included in the process and knowing they are valued. It will set them up to serve you best and you up to enjoy your day to the fullest.
4. You will feel confident on your wedding day.
Planning a wedding is exciting, but it can also be intimidating. That’s understandable. It’s not like you’re meeting a friend for coffee, you’re inviting people to, probably, the largest event you’ll ever plan.
I know a lot of brides tend to get nervous as the wedding day gets closer. They’re afraid of forgetting something, someone, or somewhere that will leave them feeling regretful after the wedding. But I LOVE eliminating that concern as we chat!
I cannot stress enough how much I love taking all these fears away for my clients. By creating a professional photographer timeline, I can almost guarantee that you will very much feel prepared for your big day. And you will look forward to the hustle and bustle because it’s planned out and purposeful, not chaotic.
We will discuss all of the fears, the people involved in your special day, moments you’ve dreamed of, even some insights about family dynamics and some laughs about who may try to run from the camera. Once the photo list is made, you can see the flexibility in the schedule. And take a deep breath. You really will feel way more prepared, confident, relaxed…all the things you want to feel going into your big day because you have a timeline. I promise you that.
I hope these four tips get you excited to start creating that timeline today. Not because I want you to have another thing on your wedding planning “to do list”, but because I truly care so much about you and your experience that I want you to have the best day ever. And I believe having a timeline is one of the most effective ways to do that.