I think Clint is going to make me laugh more than I can stand at the wedding. He kept me on my toes with all of his self-assigned poses and Jill and I were in hysterics over a few of them!

Stay tuned for their upcoming wedding which is taking place at the swoon-worthy Boojum Tree in Phoenix. Oh and I can’t wait to see what Jill’s dress looks like, I have a feeling it’s going to be fashion-tastic.

I just got an email from Jill…

“WE LOOOOOOOOVE THEM!! THANKS SO MUCH, SEE YOU AT THE WEDD!!!!!!!!
JILL AND CLINT”

I’m so glad they love them as much as I do! Darby

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There are so many wonderful guides online to help you plan and map out your wedding day timeline.

This timeline from Liene Stevens over at Blue Orchid is a great guide to help you remember to include key events into your timeline that you might otherwise neglect. Also here’s a fabulous mock up timeline from WeddingBee that show’s how a wedding timeline might look for brides to have a starting point in planning their day.

I thought it might be fun to add my thoughts as a photographer to these great minds on things to consider when drafting your wedding timeline.  And since I’m a photographer, most of my suggestions tend to be about the photography heavy portions of the day!

Family Photos: If you have very small families you can get away with 15-20 minutes for this sections of the day. I usually suggest having 30-45 minutes set aside just for family photos. We usually don’t get all of this time due to outside factors such as a family member being late or MIA at the time of photos. Also it’s common to add extra group photos as we are shooting. I love adding extra groups as I come from a huge family and always want to have the shot of me and my cousins of my mom and her sisters, but it does add extra time so buffering your time-line to allow for these kinds of situations is a great idea.

I also love to shoot the family photos before the wedding when the bride and groom are seeing each other prior to the wedding ceremony. One great advantage to taking all of the family photos prior to the wedding ceremony is that everyone can enjoy and mingle during the cocktail hour!

Bridal Party Photos: I love bridal party photo time because it’s just the bride and groom with their best friends! My biggest suggestion for the bridal party photos is to have an extra person on hand to be the drink runner or errand person should someone be missing.  One of the hardest parts of shooting a large group of fun young people is that someone is always running off to do something.  By having an extra hand it will help keep things moving along at a swift pace. Bridal party photos are one of the liveliest and fun times of the entire day.  I usually like having around 20-30 minutes just with my bridal party, though I’ll always take more time when I can get it!

Bride and Groom Photos: Well your photographer is not going to complain if you give them tons of time to shoot photos of the two of you. I love to have at least thirty minutes set aside just for the couple at a minimum.  While that might sound like plenty of time we usually don’t get all of that time to ourselves.  On your wedding day everyone wants to give you a hug and a kiss and tell you how good looking you are, which is so much fun but takes a few moments here and there.  Buffering your time together will allow you and your guest to mingle as your photographer takes you around the venue while allowing your photographer to get all of the shots that you fell in love with and hired them to get! If you have the ability try to set aside 60 minutes for your couple photoshoot so that you have some of that buffer time built in.

Also if you are seeing each other prior to the wedding it is a little easier to maximize that couple photoshoot time.  When shooting the couple photoshoot after the ceremony during cocktail hour plan on spending 15-20 minutes signing the wedding license and being congratulated!

End of the Wedding: One area of the wedding that is kind of unclear is how long to have your photographer stay at your wedding.  While this varies for your event needs and ceremony time my general suggestion is 10 or 10:30 and here’s why.  By 10 or 10:30 the bar has usually been open for 4-5 hours and your guests are probably becoming a little adverse to bright flashes and just want to relax with their cake and coffee.  This suggestion is exactly that, a suggestion, but I’ve found it to be pretty true for most weddings.

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Brandie and Paul hosted a fabulous wedding last saturday at Villa Siena in Gilbert, Arizona.  If you are in the process of picking your wedding venue you should really check it out.  One thing I have always really liked about Villa Siena is that the entire venue is self contained.  This means that no one but the wedding guests are on the property!  No hotel guests or little kids you don’t know wandering around.  It’s also styled after classic Italian architecture which is not only beautiful but makes a fantastic backdrop for photos (which I always like)! Paul even told me that one reason they chose Villa was because of his Italian heritage!

These two were so easy to photograph and they made it even a little easier by deciding to see each other before the ceremony.  While I know this isn’t for everyone, I do love it when couples decide to break the ice early and spend time together before the big moment.  Paul and Brandie were so relaxed together and by the time the ceremony came along they were calm and collected!

When Brandie arrived we spent a few minutes with her and her bridesmaids as they snacked on chicken mcnuggets from the golden arches and giggled over champagne.  Then they helped Brandie zip up and do a few touch ups. Paul, who was already dressed and ready waited patiently for his first look at his bride in her wedding gown.

We escorted Brandie to where he was waiting and let them have a few moments together to take it all in before diving into photos.

One look that is always hard to pull off for brides is the no-smile, it sometimes turns into a grouchy face, but not for Brandie. She’s a natural at this and in fact prefers not to smile with teeth so all the better!

The styling and inspiration for their couple photo shoot was “Vogue Magazine” covers/celebrity wedding.  I love how they turned out and if you didn’t know better you could see one of these photos on the cover of Vogue or People magazine!

When shooting a wedding ceremony, one of my main goals and desires is to show the emotion and relationships.  I love when a couple will laugh together, or a mother will cry and just let those emotions loose.

I also love when something unexpected happens. Like here where the adorable ring bearer grew weary of the activities and decided to poke birds in the tree with his stick.

Family photoshoot/bridal party photoshoot time is another favorite for me. It might be because it’s so fast and there is so much happening. Or it might be because I get to spend a few minutes with the key members of the wedding, I’m not sure. Either way I love getting a good laugh out of the people the bride and groom adore so much.

This picture is a new favorite of mine. It’s Paul’s parents and they are just cracking up and here’s why. Often times when we are doing the family photos people become very focused and have a hard time relaxing and so I’ll put them in a photo where they are standing next to a spouse or child and they look like they’ve never met the person before. I mean they will stand like a foot away from the person – which in a photo looks like 5 feet – and not touch the person at all. So usually I have to remind them to stand close and touch the person they love and then people get all snuggly and I love it.  Well, Paul’s parents, who won the anniversary dance contest for being married for a long while, snuggled right in for this photo.  As I looked through the lens I made a remark to snuggle in when I realized they already were very cozy! Well they laughed and laughed at that and I snapped this cut picture of them!

The reception at this wedding was off the hook. I’ve never seen lighting and activities quite like this before! SKM was rocking the dj’s booth and made the hall at Villa Siena feel like a swanky night club.

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I love how Brandie is looking at Paul here. They had such a fluid and fun dynamic together, I could have taken photos of them all day long!

There were these giftbox favors on each table for the guests and I just loved how the red corner of the lid looked with their wedding rings.

I’m always a wedding cake fan, seeing as how wedding cake is historically very yummy at nine or ten at night! This cake was also classically beautiful.

In honor of Paul’s Italian heritage they served gelato after dinner!

The head table all set up at Villa Siena in Gilbert, Arizona where they were married and had the reception!

Kristen at Blume Events did an outstanding job on the floral arrangements!

Another dreamy shot of the tablescape. I love how romantic the candles look!

A fun shot of the menu card and if you look closely you can see the gold charger the plate sat on!

The whole plate set up and the wedding favor!

The bridesmaids dresses were so fun and flirty while still being sophisticated. It was quite the feat and these girls pulled it off. I really liked the gray, I don’t see many gray dresses on bridesmaids and I thought it looks fantastic!

Another shot of the bouquets, which were all red roses, even Brandies was.

A back shot during the ceremony to show the flowers in the fountain.

Brandie and her dad about to walk down the aisle, I wish you could see her dad’s cowboy hat, but this is a details post!

And the wedding programs, ahh dreamy.

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I’m in love with your photos. I’m uploading them to the computer right now and am just in awe.  You and Paul look amazing and Villa Siena was a stunning choice for the backdrop. The photos from Blume Events were amazing, all of that red was one word, wow! And I even snuck a peak at the reception photos to see how all of the effects SKM put on looked and you are going to flip out, it’s just so great!

Ok enough enough, here’s a little tiny sneak peak, more to come tomorrow!

Darby Elizabeth

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He’s finally hit the big 9 month marker and so in honor we snapped a few photos!

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Not only was Lisa and Ryan’s Scottsdale wedding a blast but it was also an amazing backdrop for fantastic photos.  One of my favorite aspects of my job is creating the wedding album and seeing all of the little snapshots into the day come together in a cohesive and complete wedding story.

These are a  few of the wonderful things that we did with Lisa and Ryan’s wedding.

We took a shot with each of them and each bridal attendant. This is always one of my favorite times as I get to really meet and see the personalities of each friend. Another thing I love is having enough time with just the bride and groom for photos.  Lisa and Ryan were fabulous in that they were just fine using as much time as we needed taking photos of the two of them and even came out during the reception to take some more!  I could not have asked for more!

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Ahh! I’m all done with Lisa and Ryan’s amazing wedding edit. They were married in a beautiful Catholic ceremony and followed that with a very fun reception at the Gainey Ranch Hyatt Resort. I loved that Lisa and Ryan carried their color theme through the entire wedding from the men’s socks to the wedding favors. Lisa looked absolutely stunning and they were both a treat to work with.

I think my favorite part may have been when we took a spin on the Gondola for a few minutes before heading over to the grand introduction. In classic Arizona fashion, the sunset was to die for and the weather was cool and lovely as well!

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