Wedding Photography Tips and Insights

Especially for popular dates, it’s smart to book your wedding photographer as early as possible, ideally 12 to 18 months in advance. Summer Saturdays can fill up quickly, even generally during the wedding season from May to October. But sometimes“next week Saturday is still free – it’ s always worth asking!

In our wedding reportages, every successful picture is individually digitally developed by us. We filter out blinkers and unflattering moments for you. In addition, we optimize a collection of the most beautiful photos that best represent the story of your day, also in black and white. For an 8-hour reportage, you will receive at least 1000 digital images of the highest quality and resolution on a USB stick, together with 20 premium prints in a pretty package. We also create a password-protected online gallery for your guests, where you can decide in advance which pictures should be included.

We make wedding reportages that consist largely of situational photos to tell the story of the entire wedding day. On weekdays, we also photograph smaller reportages for the appointment at the registry office.

Our style balances between a modern look and timelessness (browse our portfolio!). We like photos that will still be relevant and beautiful decades from now, without ephemeral effects. In addition to exciting light, we are looking for real emotions. Not only of you, the wedding couple, but also of the entire wedding party. Each photo tells a part of your story and should capture the day in a way that will still touch you years later.

After more than 15 years in wedding photography, friends have sometimes asked us whether weddings don’t get boring for us at some point. And of course – weddings are often similar. But that’s also an advantage, because we can anticipate many moments in advance and are therefore correctly positioned for the photo without having to rush.

However, spontaneous emotions, coincidences and encounters with new people are always new and make wedding reportages super varied. Even after years of “professional experience”, they always give us anticipation and even a bit of stage fright at the beginning of a reportage day.

Weddings have their big moments, which will certainly come to mind in wedding photos. But even more important to us are the fleeting moments: from your crazy dance moves and spontaneous outbursts of emotion to the sweet expression on your grandma’s face.

We prefer to move discreetly through the guests so as not to influence the situation. Before the ceremony, we speak briefly with the deacon or registrar so that they know that we are there, but can relax and concentrate on the essentials without paying attention to us.

We coordinate with your guests as required and have a direct line to your best man. In short: We want to document your big day in all its diversity without becoming an attraction ourselves.

The processing time varies depending on the size of the wedding and the workload within the “wedding season”. As a rule, you will receive your finished photos within 3-6 weeks after the wedding.

In addition to the simple rule that four eyes see more than two, there are a few other good reasons for photography in a well-coordinated team:

Scenes such as the bride’s entrance, the ring exchange or the bouquet toss particularly benefit from two perspectives. It’s also great if two photographers can be with one of the partners during the dressing and styling. In addition, with a second shooter, parallel to the “must-have pictures”, there is also more room for more experimental photo variations: the second photographer can devote himself entirely to photos with unusual perspectives, lighting or special lenses such as a fish-eye or tilt-shift.

For smaller weddings or weddings with a limited budget, we are just as happy to come individually. The choice for one or two photographers is almost exactly the same for our couples.

You will receive full usage rights from us so that you can print them as you wish, share them online and use them for personal purposes. Your guests can also download pictures at no extra cost or order prints in “photographer quality” from our guest gallery.

A wedding reportage typically consists of several key parts:

Getting ready:

This includes capturing the moments before the ceremony as the bride and groom get ready, dress and make final preparations at the venue. It’s a time full of anticipation and excitement, and these spontaneous moments often make for beautiful photos.

Ceremony:

After the arrival of the guests, the ceremony includes pictures of the entrance, the exchange of vows and rings, special rituals or traditions, the first moments as a newly married couple and, of course, reactions from the guests, location…. There are always big differences depending on the religion or civil or free arrangement.

Couple shooting (portrait session):

After the ceremony, there is often a scheduled time for portraits of you and group shots with family and friends.

We often split the couple shoot into two sessions to accommodate your daily schedule and still be able to take photos in a beautiful sundowner atmosphere: Family photos e.g. directly after the ceremony, couple photos shortly before the reception, the second small portrait session after dinner in the golden hour…

Reception:

The reception is the moment when the celebration really begins. It often includes the couple’s entrance, the first dance, toasts or speeches, the dinner and the cutting of the wedding cake. In addition to spontaneous emotions, we also capture many interactions between the guests, simply everything beautiful and important.

Details and decor:

Throughout the day, we capture countless details of the decor and location, which are planned by our couples with attention to detail and lots of personal style. This includes close-ups of the wedding rings, bridal bouquet, table decorations, signage and other personalized elements that reflect the style and mood of your celebration.

Unique moments:

In addition to the planned “program points”, our wedding reportage should above all capture spontaneous emotional moments. Whether it’s a hug from your parents, spontaneous bursts of laughter or cozy conversations among friends away from the hustle and bustle. These spontaneous shots tell the story of your day in an unobtrusive and authentic way.

Overall, a wedding reportage is about capturing a kind of essence of the events and emotions of the day, from the intimate moments between you to the crazy pictures taken while celebrating with family and friends.

Sympathy and trust are the basis for authentic pictures – we probably notice immediately whether the chemistry is right.

During the preliminary talk, we immerse ourselves in your wedding day together, talk about your ideas, go through the schedule and consider how group photos or a couple shoot can be planned without you being away for too long. We make sure that everything fits harmoniously into your schedule. This conversation gives us the opportunity to understand your wishes, program points and important details so that we can fit in unobtrusively on the day itself and know exactly what is important to you.

With over 15 years of experience as wedding photographers, we are also happy to share our perspectives if you have any questions or uncertainties – be it about the process, planning or creative ideas.

We plan about an hour to get to know each other. This gives us enough time to talk to each other and make sure that we are a good match.

After our conversation, we will block the date for you. Before we talk to another couple for the day, we will first contact you to see if you have already made a final decision. As soon as you have made your decision, you will receive a binding order confirmation and we will stay in contact. A deposit is not necessary – we have had the best experiences with mutual trust. You can call us at any time or send us a message if you have any questions about your wedding.

Although we try to be as unobtrusive as possible from the background and not crash the natural moments, posed group photos are a must-have for many couples. With a little planning, they can also be integrated stress-free. On a turbulent wedding day, it can easily happen that you forget the important photo with your favorite grandma for example. That’s why it’s a good idea to think in advance about which constellations are particularly important. It’s best to let us know your wishes in advance and we’ll take care of the rest together with an “insider” – e.g. a maid of honor. Our notes will help us to organize your group shots in a relaxed manner and to have the right locations ready in advance.

There are quite a few wedding couples who tell us about a life with the camera as their natural enemy.

A large part of the solution are reportage-style photos, which are created for you almost incidentally.

This even works for a couple shoot. We can realize the portrait session like the reportage of a relaxed walk. This results in intimate, amorous and sometimes crazy-beautiful pictures “in passing”.

During the portrait session, we will give you subtle tips and assistance, e.g. how to stand in the best light or in which direction you are best turned. The most important thing, however, is that you can move naturally with each other to create authentic images. We also try to capture the little “insiders” between you that flash up when you are not forced into stiff poses.

But even on the rest of the day of your personal photo reportage, you will probably be surprised by the situational impressions that we photograph without you realizing it.

There is no fixed rule. We have already done couple shoots between 3 minutes and 3 hours.

Our couples often don’t want to keep their guests waiting so long and prefer to keep it short – and so beautiful shots are taken within 20-30 minutes in the immediate vicinity of your wedding location. Others may plan a short break for their guests anyway, want to take plenty of time to get into the right mood or drive to another photo location. As a rough guideline, however, we recommend planning around 30 to 60 minutes for the portrait session.

It’s often a good idea to split up the couple photo shoot: So we shoot the “must-haves” in the afternoon, for example, and then go out into the low evening sun for another 10 minutes after dinner.

Since weddings never go exactly as planned, we often adapt the exact time spontaneously to the course of your celebration.

The security of your photos is extremely important to us. There are few things worse than losing your precious memories through carelessness.

We back up photos to multiple storage media and use secure methods to transfer and store the images to ensure they are protected (SSL, checksum verification, etc…)

We come to your wedding with double, redundant professional equipment so that we are always ready to capture spontaneous moments and can simply carry on even if the equipment breaks down.

After the reportage, we store your photos on separate backup servers in the company’s own network until they are safely handed over to you, so that nothing can go wrong during image processing.

Of course, anyone can fall ill – but don’t worry! In the last 14 years, even after hundreds of wedding reportages, we have fortunately never had to cancel due to illness. Since we offer wedding photography as a (loving) couple, we are automatically our mutual replacement with similar style and skills. As an additional safeguard, we have a reliable network of colleagues who would be willing to step in and ensure that your wedding is captured in the best possible way.

We do everything we can to ensure that your wedding day runs smoothly and always have a plan B. We already know from our own wedding experience that this is an unforgettable day where a last-minute cancellation is not an option.

Every successful picture of your wedding is digitally developed by us individually from RAW photos. We sort out any blinkers or unfavorable moments. In addition, we optimize a collection of the most meaningful photos that represent the story of your day in black and white. For an 8-hour reportage, you will receive at least 1000 digital images in full quality and resolution on a USB stick together with 20 premium prints in a pretty package.