Read Part 1 here:

Anatomy of a Wedding Photography Job | Part 1

In the 5-days leading up to your wedding, I run through a checklist to make sure I am totally prepared to photograph your wedding. The checklist includes many things, but the big ticket items are:

Wedding planning is ready

I talked about this in my previous post, so I won’t go in depth here. Basically I ensure I have the final agreed upon wedding photography planning run sheet. I then print two copies of this, along with two copies of the family formal photo groupings.

Though I photograph weddings with digital cameras, having paper - or analogue - copies of these documents, means I am not relying on a device like my phone throughout the day.

Photography Equipment

Before every wedding photography job, I make sure:

• my camera equipment (DSLR bodies, lenses, flash units etc..) are all clean and in good working order

• all batteries are charged up, including the spares

• all memory cards are cleared and have been reformatted

• both my DSLR bodies have the exact same date and time on them (this ensures the photos download in the correct Capture Time order after the wedding)

• my lighting kit is packed and ready to go. I often use this for the family formals, if it is raining and I need to light the groups inside a building like a church or a similar space

The mental game

I’ll be totally honest - I was terrified photographing my very first wedding.

The responsibility of photographing a once in a lifetime event, weighed heavily on me and I knew there was the potential to make a lot of mistakes on the day.

Having photographed weddings since 2007, from elopements to four-day Indian weddings, to everything in between, I have the mileage under my belt to feel confident and relaxed on a client’s wedding day.

Having said that, I make sure I’m mentally prepared by running through these items:

• I am well rested. This isn’t so important on really short wedding jobs, but it is critical on longer weddings, where I typically spend 9-12 hours photographing the wedding day

• I have sketched some ideas for the bride and groom photos

• I have reviewed the planning run sheet notes and checked all my equipment

• I have budgeted enough time in the day, to ensure I get to the wedding even if something unexpected happens like a road detour, difficulties parking or I get a flat tyre

As you can probably tell, quite a bit goes into photographing a wedding. I can’t speak for other wedding photographers’, but I know taking these steps help me arrive at a client’s wedding feeling calm and ready to capture their wedding day.

Up Next: Anatomy of a Wedding Photography Job | Part 3 - The Wedding Day