Category Archives: Wedding Tips

Why Detail Wedding Photographs are essential

Detail wedding photography is essential so many reasons.

Your wedding day is almost here and your wedding photographer just sent you a message asking for you have your rings, perfume bottles, flowers, invitations and so many more things ready for them when they arrive at your venue. You might think, why is this important? I would rather them take pictures of me hanging with my bridesmaids?

First, there will be plenty of pictures of you and your friends hanging out. Second, your wedding photographer has allotted specific time for the detail shots. As for why your detail photos are important, here are 5 reasons:

1. You’ve worked so hard planning a theme and a color pallet for your wedding. You’ve scoured antique shops, malls and Etsy and spent a minor fortune on all of the details to make your wedding day perfect.  Why wouldn’t you want to capture all of that hard work on film (or data as it were)?

2. Detail photos will help to tell a complete story of your wedding day.

3. Detail wedding photography tends to be an artistic representation of your vision. You’ve visualized it and now your wedding photographer has turned your vision into something solid that you can print and hang on your walls or gift to friends and family.

4. The details are what drew you in to the wedding photographer in the first place. Sure you thought their portrait photography was amazing, but someone eases face was in those images. When you look at detail photos from a wedding, you aren’t seeing a stranger’s wedding. You’re envisioning your own wedding and what it might look like when your wedding photographer is done.

5. Lastly, detail photos will help future brides and grooms to plan their own wedding. I know it doesn’t have anything to do with you and your day, but doesn’t it make you feel good that you can inspire so many other people with your vision? You could inspire a whole generation.

Top 10 Wedding Blogs for Weird-O’s

Where my weird-O’s at?!

[raising the roof]…[being told not to raise the roof]

I wanted to share some of my all-time favorite blogs for the geeky, nerdy and all around unique wedding couples.

*Note: the wedding blogs aren’t in any particular order. They are ordered as they came to me in my head (or on the internet).

Top 10 Wedding Blogs to follow

This is one of my favorite wedding blogs out there. They are so unique and cater to such a wide variety of people that you’re bound to find wedding inspiration here. I love perusing this site for wedding photography inspiration myself.
“We’re not worthy!” I feel like I’m not cool enough for this blog. It’s filled with all sorts of unique and confident brides and grooms. People with Mohawks, tattoos and uniquely colored hair.
This blog celebrates the unusual, the quirky, the interesting and above all, the unique aspects of weddings, events and festivals. They appear to be a UK based publication.
Inked as in “Make their mark on their day.” A blog for outside of the box for nuptials for creative and free-spirited couples.
If you have more of an artistic soul, this blog is for you. It caters to the artist in its readers. I feel like it could be a bit OCD as well… so if you have OCD tendencies, this might be the perfect blog for you. Let’s face it, artist are generally obsessed with perfection.
You know I had to include a southern blog. I Do Y’all is one of my favorite southern inspired wedding blogs. Of coarse they even have football inspired wedding blog posts (because that’s defiantly a southern thing.) lol
A UK based wedding blog, WWW caters to creative and joy filled real weddings. Styled photography shoots are great, but they are unrealistic when looking for inspiration for your own wedding. I love that they feature real weddings.
The Junebug blog has a specific site for Houston blogs, which is pretty cool. This is a sweeter, softer blog from some of the others on this list. What I really like is their color inspiration board. You can pick a color and find some great wedding inspiration.
They showcase beautiful inspiration, personalized and creative details, distinctive style and most importantly, love … lots of love. There’s fab photography, DIY projects, tips and trends, expert advice and fave finds.
For the modern day couple who follows the play of their own rulebook, for the couple who met online, the couple who loves the convenience of Uber Eats and for the couple who waits for one another to watch the next episode of ‘their show’ together.  So This Is Love is a wedding blog dedicated to showcasing your love story!

 

What do you think? Did I miss anyone? Let me know if the comments below.

Planning your Engagement Photo – Part 4 – What to Bring

You’ve got the ring (Congratulations!) and you’ve settled on an engagement photographer for your engagement portraits (*wink wink*) and now you’re wondering what to do next.

There’s a few things to do to prepare yourself for your engagement portraits.

  1. Determine the best location for your engagement portraits.
  2. Determine the best day & time for your engagement portraits.
  3. Determine what to wear for your engagement portraits.
  4. Determine what to bring with you for your engagement portraits.

Today’s blog is the final post (part 4 of 4) in an engagement photography portrait to do list.

You’ve already read my post about choosing a location and the day and time and figuring out what to wear. If not, STOP! click the links above.

Great, now that we are all refreshed let’s get started.

You know where, when and what you will be wearing at your engagement photography session. Now what else should you bring with you?

 

Attitude

This is one of the most important things to bring with you! Come well rested and in happy spirits. If you are aggravated or unhappy, it probably will show in your photos, despite the funny faces and jokes your engagement photographer tells. You will look back at your pictures and only remember what was making you so angry/sad/unhappy that day. Remember, you are brave, beautiful and kind! So, clear your mind and expect to have fun with your engagement photographer. We are here to make you smile and get amazing photos of you that you can cherish the rest of your lives.

 

Props

Some couples want to bring props to their engagement portrait session (other than themselves). Fantastic! Things you might want to bring:

  • Defiantly bring your engagement ring. That’s a no-brainer. The photographer is going to want at least one photo of it.
  • Bring something with your wedding date on it. This is great for save the dates.
    • If you are into baseball, bring baseballs with your wedding date (could be multiple, or just one)
    • If you love picnics, bring picnic like stuff to take a picnic portrait.
    • Chalkboards are always great options as well. You can write whatever you want on it.

Be creative and always be yourself. If you are a band nerd, bring band-appropriate things. If you are really into concerts, maybe bring a concert ticket that can be Photoshoped to have your wedding date on.

 

Pets

Do you have a furbaby you are in love with and want to share all of your big life moments with? Bring your pets to your engagement portrait session. Maybe bring someone else along with you to help with your furbaby when you’re taking photos without them… though your engagement photographer might be able to help as well. I know I’ve helped hang on to leashes while taking their photos.

 

Did this help? Did you enjoy all 4 sections? I hope so.

Planning your Engagement Photo – Part 3 – What to wear

You’ve got the ring (Congratulations!) and you’ve settled on an engagement photographer for your engagement portraits (*wink wink*) and now you’re wondering what to do next.

There’s a few things to do to prepare yourself for your engagement portraits.

  1. Determine the best location for your engagement portraits.
  2. Determine the best day & time for your engagement portraits.
  3. Determine what to wear for your engagement portraits.
  4. Determine what to bring with you for your engagement portraits.

Today’s blog is part 3 of 4 in an engagement portrait photography to do list.

You’ve already read my post about choosing a location and the day and time. If not, STOP! click the links above.

Great, now that we are all refreshed let’s get started.

You know where and when you will be doing your engagement photography session. Now what to wear, what to wear? Let’s start with the basics, color.

 

Color

First and foremost, DO NOT under any circumstances wear the exact same thing. Gone are the days of matching white button up shirts and jeans. The key word is coordinate, not duplicate.

Consider your location and the color of the location during your portrait session. Choose to wear complementary colors (which will stand out the most with your surroundings), or you can choose the color before or after on the color wheel.

for example, If you are taking your engagement photos outside in a forest like area in the middle of summer, expect everything to be green and brown. Don’t wear green or brown. You could wear pinks or purples which are complementary colors to green (using the color wheel below, find the green and move directly across, that is your complementary color). You could even get away with a color that is 2 colors away on the wheel, like a blue or yellow.

Dress for the temperature

Consider the time of year you are taking your portraits. Will the weather be cold or hot? Dress appropriately for your Engagement portraits. We, as engagement photographers, don’t want anyone collapsing from heat exhaustion or shivering in all of your photos because you didn’t put enough layers on. You need to feel comfortable. If you feel comfortable, you will look it… unless you are a professional model.

Patterns

I defiantly suggest one person in your party wear a pattern of some kind while the other wear a solid color or a very feint pattern. If both people are wearing patterns, it confuses your eye and makes looking at the image hard. If both people are wearing solid colors, it dulls the image. The only time you can get away with both wearing solid colors is if one person is wearing multiple colors (ie a mustard scarf with a blue top and brown boots). In this case, I would suggest the other person pick a color from the same pallet, like a black top and blue pants.

Rent the outfit

If you have something specific in mind, but don’t have the actual outfit, or the money to buy it, you can check out websites like Rent the Runway. There you can find the perfect outfit, or two to borrow. Once you’ve taken your engagement photos, you can return the outfit. Make sure to let the photographer know your outfit is rented. Be mindful of sitting in the grass and climbing in trees. You don’t want to have to buy the outfit if you ruin it.

 

Did this help? I hope so. Stay tuned for the next installment of the Engagement portrait session list.

How to Unplug your Wedding

Let’s face it, technology and social media have taken over our lives entirely. Everyone want’s to be the one to capture and post the first photo of the bride walking down the aisle or the first kiss. It’s no wonder couples are requesting an unplugged wedding.

 

Why would you want an unplugged wedding?

Unplugged weddings allow for your guests to be present with you. Sure they’re physically present, but are they watching your wedding with their own two eyes or through an electronic device?

You also pay a lot of money to hire a wedding photographer and/or videographer. A trusted professional who knows where to be and when for the perfect photo, in the ideal lighting with Photoshop or other editing programs to back up the quality. Guests can, unknowingly, get in the way of that perfect shot.

Image by: Kiralee Jones

It can also be very distracting. I was a guest at a baptism once and was astound by the number of people who were videoing or photographing the ceremony. I was very distracted by the huge iPads guests were using to record or photograph, and missed several things. I knew my friend probably asked someone to capture the moments for her. She didn’t need 12 different angles of the same thing. She wanted her friends and family to be present.

 

How can you achieve an unplugged wedding?

One of the things I remember from my days studying advertising is that it takes 7 repetitions for someone to truly remember what you’re trying to tell them. That’s a lot! I’ve photographed weddings where there was a sign when you walk to your seat and someone announced it before the ceremony started. That’s only 2 times, and that’s banking on if your guest read your sign.

So lets work with this magic number:

1. In your invitation (probably somewhere at the bottom) announce that you are having an unplugged wedding.

2. If you are sending some sort of instruction page with your invitation like directions, make sure to include you are having an unplugged wedding with the instructions.

3. Announce on Facebook to all of your friends and family that you are having an unplugged wedding.

4. Ask your parents to remind your family that you will be having an unplugged wedding. There will be a photographer at your wedding and they can have copies of any of the photos you are given.

5. Put up a sign on the entrance to the venue. Somewhere you know most of your guests will be coming through. For example, if you are getting married at a church, put a sign on the outside doors of the building.

6. Have a cute sign at the entrance to the ceremony location reminding guests.

7. Have someone make one final announcement before the ceremony starts.

[Phiew] That’s seven times. At this point, you should have gotten your guests attention and relayed how important an unplugged wedding truly is for you and your fiance. If you feel like this just isn’t enough and you need to take drastic measures, do what teachers are having to do. Have a phone collection system.

 

How to *polity* collect your guests phones.

You can make a wooden cubby or a basket with a sign asking guests to be present. You could even set up some sort of charging station, which would benefit your guests. Someone mentioned to me they are considering a drawing for cash. Have guests put their phone in a basket and the bride and groom pull a phone from the basket. The lucky winner gets cash or some other sort of prize.

www.moritzfineblogdesigns.com

If it is important to you that you have an unplugged wedding, just make sure to relay that to your guests. They’re there because they love you and if they understand your reasoning, they will respect them.

 

Planning your Engagement Photo – Part 2 – Day & Time

You’ve got the ring (Congratulations!) and you’ve settled on an engagement photographer for your engagement portraits (*wink wink*) and now you’re wondering what to do next.

There’s a few things to do to prepare yourself for your engagement portraits.

  1. Determine the best location for your engagement portraits.
  2. Determine the best day & time for your engagement portraits.
  3. Determine what to wear for your engagement portraits.
  4. Determine what to bring with you for your engagement portraits.

Today’s blog is part 2 of 4 in an engagement portrait session to do list.

You’ve already read my post about choosing a location. If not, STOP! click the link here to read it first or review the post.

Great, now that we are all refreshed let’s get started.

You’ve chosen a location for your engagement portrait session. Now you need to determine the best day and time to take your engagement photos. You really can’t determine the best time without nailing down a day or at least an approximate day.

 

DAY

Choose a day where you know you will not be stressed out (because of stuff you have going on or time relative to your wedding). It is preferred to get your engagement portraits done at least 3 months before your wedding. Think about your location. Are you going to take your portraits on the beach? Choose a warmer time of year to take your photos. Will there be tons of people at the park during the summer months, probably. Pick a day and time where there will be less people at your location. Do you like the look of long-selves and boots and jeans? Maybe choose a time in the fall or winter.

Find out when your wedding photographer is available to take your portraits. Sometimes, those days are week days because of the photographers wedding schedule. Be aware that we wedding photographers do not have any control over the weather (though we wish we did). Sometimes, things get rained out. We will work with you as best as we can to come up with a better day and time.

 

TIME

As a wedding photographer, the perfect times are generally early morning right after dawn or late in the afternoon right before dusk. If you are planing a winter engagement, you might consider later in the morning or earlier in the afternoon just because of lighting during winter.

If you are planing an in-door engagement portrait shoot at a special location, like the movie theater you had your first date or the science museum because you’re super nerds!! get with your photographer and a representative from the location to determine the best time. Sometimes, those locations have special times they allow for photos to be taken.

Find out when your Engagement photographer is taking portraits. In the summer months, I only take out-door portraits in the late afternoon because of the heat and humidity in the mornings. I’ve learned that morning shoots are still HOT and even more humid because everything is evaporating from the previous evening. SCIENCE!

 

Did this help? I hope so. Stay tuned for the next installment of the Engagement portrait session list.

Planning your Engagement Photo – Part 1 – Location

You’ve got the ring (Congratulations!) and you’ve settled on a photographer for your engagement portraits (*wink wink*) and now you’re wondering what to do next.

There’s a few things to do to prepare yourself for your engagement portraits.

  1. Determine the best location for your engagement portraits.
  2. Determine the best day & time for your engagement portraits.
  3. Determine what to wear for your engagement portraits.
  4. Determine what to bring with you for your engagement portraits.

Today’s blog is part 1 of 4 in an engagement portrait session to do list. Let’s dive right in.

Location is probably the most important part of your engagement session. It’s what sparks the flame of creativity and personalty. The location of your engagement portrait session is the backbone to all of your photos.

First, ask yourself, ‘what is our personality as a couple?’

-What do you like to do together?

-Where did you meet? When did you meet?

-Where are you getting married?

-When are you getting married?

-What is your wedding style? is it rustic, elegant, edgie, nautical, Disney themed…?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you and your wedding photographer (wink 😉) will be able to choose a location that best suits your style and personalty.

 

Some examples

You’re planing a rustic wedding: You might be interested in taking engagement photos at a location with wide open fields, old oak trees, farm animals…

You’re a couple who enjoys the city night life: You might be interested in a more urban (haha see what I did there?) setting. I might suggest an engagement portrait session inside the Downtown Houston area with bricks, graffiti, cityscapes and crosswalks.

You’re getting married in the Bahamas (jealous!): You might be interested in taking your engagement portraits on the beach.

 

Was this helpful?Leave a love ❤️❤️ note below. Tell me some information about you and your wedding and I can respond with a suggested location.

 

How to Perfect the Sparkler Exit

One of my all time favorite wedding photography shot at a wedding is the sparkler grand exit. They are fun, elegant and at times, unpredictable. The warm glow you get from a sparkler image really mimics the glow of the newlyweds. Generally, sparklers are pretty uniform but I love it when I can capture a sparkler that has sputtered and shot a line of fire down the image. Sparkler exits can be tricky to the untrained, though.

 

Tips to getting the PERFECT wedding sparkler exit photo

  1. Get a good number of friends and family to participate
  2. Have the wedding couple slowly walk halfway through the crowd
  3. Have everyone in front of the couple hold their sparklers down low (except for 1 or 2 people right next to the photographer). As the couple passes guests, have them lift their sparkler high (like a sparkler wave) and fill in the space behind the couple.
  4. Have the newlyweds stop in the middle of the crowd and kiss or dip or do something cute for the wedding photographer to grab. Hold for a minute or two then continue walking. Have them stop once more just past all of the sparklers and repeat the kiss, or look over their shoulder at their friends.
  5. Do it again!
    1. It’s fun for everyone and it gives the wedding photographer a chance to get all of the shots and make any adjustments they need.

Some wedding photographers like to

bring in a flash to help brighten the couple. I don’t do this. The color of the flash (a more blue tone) is way different from a sparkler. I could have a flash with a warm filter, but I prefer to use my wide open lenses and just use the available light. It gives the image a more romantic look. Like a candlelit image.

You can buy sparklers online (I think) but it is much easier and cheaper to just plan ahead and buy them during the 4th of

July celebrations or New-year celebrations. Tomorrow is July 4th, there will be plenty of firework stalls open. Go out and get a bunch of boxes and put them in a safe, dry place. $20 will get you A LOT of sparklers.

Did you have a sparkler exit at your wedding?

The Best Wedding Schedule Template EVER!

Every wedding is different, but after several years as a wedding photographer, I’ve developed a surefire schedule that works every time for all types of weddings.

Check out #8,  it’s our favorite.

1. Make sure to schedule time before your wedding for group photos. Photos of bridesmaids with bride, grooms men with the groom. I know they love you, but once the bar opens, you might have lost them for the evening. If you want to do a first look (which I LOVE!) or even a first touch (holding hands around a wall or door so you can’t see each other), make sure to put aside 20-30 minutes.

2. Know how many people you’re taking family photos with after your wedding. Family photos can take up A LOT of time. It takes time to get people to cooperate. Your cousin Jeff just wants to tell jokes by the bar and the 12 great grand kids are running around like banshees screaming for cake. Sometimes, it’s necessary to take photos of only the immediate family. You can always grab the photographer throughout the night to snap a shot with you and your great uncle Lloyd.

3. Something I’ve seen before and LOVE is the grand entrance sweeping into your first dance. I absolutely love how natural it feels to just go right into a dance as soon as you are announced to your friends and family.

4. One of the biggest things I always suggest is to do the cake cutting somewhere immediately after you start feeding your guests to right after your toasts. I do this because the sooner you start serving cake, the more cake will be consumed by the end of the night, and the less you have to take home. Cake is awesome, but not 4 days in a row.

5. While someone is cutting and serving cake, now’s the time for dances with mothers and fathers and anyone else important to you and your spouse. This also kicks off the dance floor for hopefully more dancing!

6. If you haven’t already, SPEECH, SPEECH, SPEECH!

7. Take a short break, eat, mingle, dance, EAT. Don’t take too big of a break though. I would say spend 30-45 minutes mingling then do the bouquet/garter/boutonniere toss. You want to make sure to do this before a large portion of your guests leave.

8. Now it’s almost time to fully relax. Mingle, make sure you have eaten (seriously, EAT!). Change if you are going to, but keep in mind the grand exit photos.

— Note: you can do a staged grand exit photo with a few (or all) of your wedding guests before the end of the night. This way, the photographer can leave after this and you don’t have to pay them for 3 more hours of drunken karaoke on the dance floor… though it looks AMAZING! You can also change into something a little more comfortable and not have to worry about the rest of your photos.

I find it very important to do all of the festivities as early as possible. I’ve seen weddings where things got off track and only 3 girls were there for the bouquet toss, or the MOB was packing up more than half the wedding cake because it didn’t get cut early enough. Timing is everything. If you don’t have a wedding coordinator, your wedding photographer or your DJ can help keep you on track

Feel free to pin or save the sample schedule below. Have you already tied the knot? Let us know how you did it. Everyone loves hearing about real weddings.

A Southwest Houston wedding photographer
Richmond, TX
kelly@kellyurbanphotography.com
Kelly Urban Photography

A Southwest Houston wedding photographer
Richmond, TX

A Southwest Houston wedding photographer
Richmond, TX
kelly@kellyurbanphotography.com
Kelly Urban Photography

A Houston wedding photographer