When it comes to your wedding photos, you are probably picturing the beautiful portraits you’ll have or that image of your first kiss, but detail wedding photography is also an important part of telling the story of your wedding day.
As a seasoned wedding photographer, I absolutely love capturing detail photos at weddings. It not only highlights the smaller aspects of the wedding that may not seem as big but are still a major part of the day, but it also allows for a bit of creativity when it comes to the photos.
So, to help you as you are getting ready and planning out your wedding day, let’s dive into detail wedding photography, what it is, and how you can prepare to have everything your photographer needs!
What are Detail Photos?
First things first, let’s talk about what detail photos are. These are the photos that are necessarily focused on you, your partner, and your guests, but instead are highlighting the smaller or background aspects of your wedding.
Detail photos can include things like your accessories, clothes, the wedding venue, the reception venue, etc. These photos often help highlight smaller things that you add into your wedding that others may not notice, but that are important to you.
What to Give Your Photographer
When it comes to your detail photos, a big question you may have is what you need to actually give your wedding photographer? Is there anything you need to prep or are they going to handle everything?
Well, in order to get the best wedding detail photography without missing anything or feeling rushed, there are a few things that you can get together and put to the side for your photographer to use for detail photos.
This will help them so that as soon as they arrive at the venue, they can grab these and take these photos. So, let’s go over some of the most common detail items that you can have ready for your photographer:
Invitations and Save the Dates: One that almost every photographer will ask for (that can maybe be easy to forget as well) is your save the dates and invitations. These are so great to add to any flat lay photos and help to show the full story of your wedding, from the very first announcement!
Any Jewelry or Accessories: You’ll also want to set aside any jewelry or accessories that you and your partner are going to be wearing during your wedding. This also includes both your wedding bands and engagement rings.
Shoes: While this may seem like an odd thing to take photos of, you definitely want to have your shoes set aside for these detail photos. Your photographer will be able to use these to create a beautiful scene with other items like your jewelry and invitations.
Flower Clippings (if you can get them): If you can get some of the clippings of your flowers from your florist, do it! These are an amazing addition to detail photos and can really help make them feel connected to your wedding and even more beautiful.
Veil: If you and/or your partner are going to be wearing a veil during the ceremony, make sure that is set aside with the rest of these items. Your photographer will be able to use this to lay over/around other items to create a beautiful scene.
Outfits: This is definitely something you won’t forget to bring to your wedding, but if you can plan on having your outfits set aside for your photographer, they can get some amazing photos of them and any small details within them.
A lot of photographers will also travel with plain white, wooden hangers, but if you can put your outfits on these hangers beforehand, that is perfect! After all, you definitely don’t want that bright blue hanger that you grabbed from the back of your closet showing up in your wedding photos!
Anything special to you and your partner: Finally, if there are any other things that are special to you and your partner, be sure to have those ready as well. This can be your something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue or any other items that are significant to you and your partner that you are including in your wedding!
Important Things to Communicate With Your Photographer
In addition to having these things prepped for your photographer so they are ready for them when they get to your venue, there are also a few things that are important to communicate with your photographer before your wedding day.
When and where you are going to start getting ready
The most basic information that you will want to make sure they know is when and where you are going to start getting ready. This is important for a couple of reasons.
First, if you are going to be getting ready in a location that is different from your wedding ceremony venue, you’ll want to make sure that they know that in advance and can plan for that in their schedule.
Because detail photos normally include images of both what you and your partner are going to be wearing/using during your wedding and the venues themselves, you will want to make sure your photographer knows whether or not they need to travel to capture all of these images.
You’ll also want to make sure they know when you are going to start getting ready so that they know when to arrive at the venue and when to start taking the detail photos before you actually kick off all of the wedding festivities.
When your venue is going to be set up
Like I mentioned earlier, one of the other parts of detail photos is capturing the details and set up for your wedding venue. This includes the ceremony location and reception location that you are going to be using.
It’s important to keep your photographer in the loop of when all of these are going to be set up. Depending on your vendors, you may be getting your flowers or cake delivered on the day of your wedding or even putting last minute touches on the venue that morning.
If you have a wedding planner or coordinator, they may be able to help keep everyone in the loop, but it is important that your photographer knows when everything will be set up so they can go in and capture all of the beauty of your wedding venue before everyone arrives!
If you want pre- or post-wedding detail photos (or both)
Finally, you’ll want to talk about if you do want pre- or post-wedding detail photos. Taking detail photos at the end of the night during the reception has become more popular recently so, just like anything with your wedding photos, you’ll want to make sure you talk with your photographer and figure out what is going to work best for you and your partner.
Keep in mind that this may also mean doing a mix of both. You may opt to have some of your detail images taken before the wedding actually begins and then choose a handful of these photos to take during the reception!
Final Thoughts on Detail Wedding Photography
Hopefully this helps as you start to plan what your photographer needs and how to capture the perfect detail wedding photography. At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that all of these photos are for you.
When it comes to what the detail photos are actually taken of, it can be anything and everything that is important to you and your partner. This is just another way to share the full story of your relationship and of your wedding so feel free to include anything that feels important for you to capture.
And, if you are still looking for the perfect photographer to capture these small details and all of the details of this amazing day for you and your partner, I’d love to connect. Telling your story and documenting this amazing day for you and your partner to look back on for years to come is something very special to me.
You can learn all about my wedding photography services here and you can head over here to get in touch with any questions or to start building out your dream wedding photography package!
Check out these posts next:
