Hello all!

I wanted to share with you all something that wedding photographers sometimes have a hard time talking about. Since I'm NOT a wedding photographer, but I understand their plight, I figured that I am a good person to educate you about this touchy subject.

When you think about your wedding day, you want gorgeous portraits of you and your love. You want memories that you can look back on for generations to come. You want to be able to SEE those moments from your big day because in all of the excitement and nerves, people sometimes are able to only smile and move forward without being able to truly appreciate the beauty of their day. You want to feel the beauty of those magical moments all over again when you look back at your wedding portraits. And you SHOULD be able to do all of those things. Hopefully, you have chosen a wedding photographer who has a style that you love and will be able to capture those moments.

* Above image shot during a wedding with the amazing Jacqie Q Photography!

Side note: I tell every single bride that there are two things to not skimp on for your wedding: refreshments (food/drinks) and the photographer. The refreshments make the guests happy, and your portraits should make you happy. I've had a friend talk to me in tears about how her wedding photographs actually make her SAD because the images aren't great and it is hard to look at them because she regrets not doing more research on her photographer. But I digress.....

If there is one thing that wedding photographers would really like for you to include in your big day, it's to ask that guests do NOT break out their cameras, iPhones, iPads, etc. to take pictures during your big day. Why? Because in their excitement to capture your love, they're blocking the photographers ability to do their job. There are countless articles about photographers who have gone to take portraits of a bride walking down the aisle, only for the shot to be blocked by iPhones sticking out of every aisle (sometimes *gasp* on a selfie stick!) 

Occasionally, like in the image above (also shot with the amazing Jacqie Q Photography), I shot the phone intentionally for perspective because I think it's an interesting photograph. However, I was a second shooter at this wedding, so I had some flexibility in terms of what I wanted to shoot. But just because I am able to go with the flow for a more documentary style shot, doesn't mean that these images should be commonplace. Having an unplugged wedding will make it so that you don't have to worry about shots of you walking down the aisle being blocked by cousin Bob's arm holding out his iPhone on a selfie stick. 

So, while you are planning your wedding, please think of your photographer(s). You are spending thousands of dollars to have them capture the moments that you want to remember from your wedding day. Having those images be photobombed by people's screens is NOT what you want to see.