By Tommy Williams / L’Observateur / Febuary 1, 1999

After months of careful and scrupulous planning, our ‘Wedding Day’ was finally here. Everything seemed to be in place for the perfect wedding, but was is reallyproperly planned? All the arrangements were made well in advance. The church,the reception hall, the catering, the flowers, the dresses and tuxedos, the D.J.,and last but not least, the photographer, were all booked in pretty much that order.

We had a blast at our wedding, at least for the last 20 or 30 minutes of the reception. Our carefully planned wedding wasn’t so perfect after all. Manymarried couples will find themselves being held captive by the wedding photographer for much of their wedding ceremony and reception. Don’t let thishappen to you. Believe me, from speaking with other wedding photographers andfrom my own personal experience with shooting weddings, this is not something they want to happen.

The one thing from your wedding day that will remain with you for a very long time will be your wedding photos. Nothing makes a better wedding album thanhaving photographs of happy and relaxed bride and groom. No one can appearhappy and relaxed when they are under too strict a time schedule for taking photos. The two key reasons for this problem are scheduling and organization.When I say scheduling, it pertains to the scheduling times of the ceremony and reception hall. It is important to realize that having the ceremony at a churchand having it in the same location as the reception changes things greatly. If you are getting married in a church, for example, and the church ceremony starts at 6 p.m., schedule the reception hall for 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. This allows for a 30-to 45-minute ceremony and about 45 minutes thereafter for photos at the church. I understand that guests may have to wait a few minutes before enteringthe reception hall, but why have the reception start an hour before you actually get there? For the weddings in which the ceremony takes place in the same location, you must consider on booking the reception hall for a minimum of four hours in order to allow for the time needed to complete the ceremony, photos and reception.

On the other hand, to keep things running smoothly and organized, have someone in charge of your photo agenda. They should have a basic list of what photos andin what order they will be taken. Their job is to make sure the individualsneeded for that particular photo are there and ready. Wasting five minutes hereand 10 minutes there can quickly grow into 1 1/2 hours of photos.

So the moral of the story is, lock in your dates first and finalize the times second – after discussing it with your photographer. Remember, this will be thebiggest and most important party you’ll ever pay for. Proper scheduling and goodorganization will allow you to enjoy it also.

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