The reception can be one of the most challenging parts of a wedding to photograph. There are quite a few things happening in a short time and it’s one of the parts of the wedding day with the most rapidly changing circumstances. In a matter of minutes we go from photographing entrances, to the dances, to speeches. Later on in the reception we have to be ready to quickly go from photographing your guests dancing to setting up for your cake cutting. Those are just a few examples and depending on your venue and the setup of your reception, we may run into other challenges that make it difficult to get the look that we’re going for and to capture everything you want in the best way. So these are just a few quick tips that I’ve gathered to help us work together to get the best and the most out of your reception photos.

Entrances

Your bridal party is like your inner circle, your pack you could say. One of the coolest things to capture with the bridal party is their personality. IF your bridal party is the type to do something crazy when they are being presented, we want to capture that. So my quick tip for entrances is to make sure to let your bridal party know to get to the center of the dance floor when they do whatever crazy thing they are gonna do for their entrances because that’s where the best lighting will be and that’s where the most guests as well as your photographers will get the best view to them!

Dances

Your first dance and parent dances are a truly special and intimate moment. I actually have a few tips for this section. First, remember that we’re photographing you, so smile, or hug, or cry, but just feel what’s happening and connect with the special person you’re dancing with. 

Second, if it’s not a choreographed dance, turn. Basically that’s going to give us more options and angles so that your first dance and parent dance images don’t look the same.

Now, if you have a choreographed dance, just do you thing. 

Speeches

With speeches, we want to capture the laughter, maybe tears, and any connection between you the friends or family you’ve chosen to speak at your wedding. Whether the person speaking is in front of you on the center of the dance floor or next to you, we want to make sure we can see both of you. So this tip has less to do with where you sit or stand, and more to do with your decorations. Some of the more elaborate decorations can block not just my view to you but your guests’s view of you and possibly the speaker. If possible, make sure with your decorator that your sweetheart table decor won’t be tall enough to hide you from everyone’s view. As an alternative, you could consider sitting or standing in front of the sweetheart table during the speeches. Just remember that during these moments, the most important thing for us to photograph is your expressions. 

Your Guests

What my coupes love most about my approach to photographing the reception is the candid and real moments that we capture throughout your wedding celebration. It's one of the ways that we show all the enjoyment and celebration of your guests in a way that preserves, not just the moments or pure joy, but their personalities.  Because of this our lights are setup for the dance floor and that’s where we’ll have the best light. So the tip is this. Instead of taking group shots at the tables where the light won’t be as nice, let’s get more pictures of you and your guest having a blast on the dance floor! And that can be a mix of candids as well as some casual group shots.