Wedding Photographer: The Unofficial Wedding Director
If you think about your wedding like a big-budget feature film production like Avengers: End Game, the wedding photographer is the director.
It’s true. If you haven’t been in a wedding party before you might not know what I mean, so let me fill you in.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a wedding photographer. The weddings I have shot have been as a videographer. In each of those weddings, however, the photographer has called the shots.
The thing about planning a wedding is that you are planning. The best way to stick to a plan is to have someone ensuring that things go according to schedule. Though perhaps not in name, the photographer tends to have a mighty hand in ensuring that.
From first look, to ceremony, to family photos, to reception, the photographer knows your plan for the day and has a list of photos that they are determined to get. Often the photographer works with the bride and groom to make sure that this list includes everything that a family member might ask for. As you can imagine, this can make a photographer’s shot list look like a grocery list for an army.
Your photographer has a strategy to ensure that your day goes smoothly and that they get usable photos for each item on the list. Crying babies who don’t want to look at the camera tend to be the death of those plans, but they do what they can.
Their strategy will move your wedding party quickly through locations and pairings, and it may seem like they are being brusk or brutally honest - really, it’s just that they have to ensure that the wedding party can make their entrances on time before Uncle Al has made too much use of the open bar during cocktail hour.
After you have made your entrances, the photographer will most likely go back to being a fly on the wall, capturing moments as they come. The DJ tends to take control of the wedding flow at this point, a responsibility that the exhausted photographer will graciously hand over. Your wedding day can be like a baton, passed from professionals until it reaches the finish line. And honestly, the less you have to worry about on your wedding day, the happier you’ll be.
So if your photographer starts sounding like a film director, it’s a good thing. Maybe be concerned if you get replaced with the supporting actress, though.