Picture Perfect

Story by Rita Arens. Photo by Paul Versluis Photography.

Here’s how to ensure you get wedding photos you’ll treasure forever.

Of all the planned elements that go into a wedding day, the photography is one of the most important. After the last bite of cake is eaten, the last dance is danced and the last present is unwrapped, the day’s photographs will live on. Someday future generations will see how great the bride looked in her dress—from the photographs. Enough pressure already? So yes, photography is important. Capturing all of the details the couple worked so painstakingly to secure is crucial. But with so many choices for photography and such a huge range of prices from which to choose, how does one begin?

Start Early

If great photography is high on your list of priorities, start early. Most in-demand photographers book a year out. Once the wedding date is secured, hiring the photographer should come soon after—particularly if the date is in one of the high-demand months. “October and September have become the new June. If you are a June, September or October bride, go six months to a year in advance,” says Paul McMillian of Van Deusen Photography and Gallery in Kansas City.

Look at Their Photographs

After choosing two or three potential photographers who are available on the big day, go to their studios and ask to see examples of their work. Remember, photography is more of an art than a science. Part of getting the best shots is skillful camerawork, but part of it is knowing how to elicit the right poses and emotions from people without appearing too obvious.

"You don’t want to see just the best of someone’s work, but a whole wedding, from start to finish,” says Jill DiMartino of DiMartino Photography in Lenexa. “Ask to see someone’s full album so you can see a wedding from top to bottom. When you’ve been doing this for years, you can always come up with a collection of one or two fabulous pictures from each wedding. Looking at someone’s entire wedding album really shows a photographer’s true work."

Certainly, there are different styles of photography, from quite posed and traditional to photojournalistic and artistic. Before selecting a photographer, couples should consider if they want one specific style to capture their wedding or a combination of the two. Always tell the photographer what you want stylistically, and again, look at albums representing the photographer’s work to find out if he or she is a good match for your wedding.

How Much Will It Cost?

Photography is expensive, period. Good photography is even more so. What do you get for your money when you hire a pricier photographer? According to DiMartino, you get the company standing behind the photographer. "Obviously, you get quality. You also get two experienced photographers [with DiMartino Photography]. But most of all, you get a company that’s not going to hire out the job. The owners have a vested interest, and they are the people who actually show up the day of your wedding," DiMartino says.

You may also get album design, as is the case with Van Deusen. In addition to two photographers—one who is responsible for the "traditional" shots of the couple and their families, and one who is more of a photojournalist—you also get graphic-design experience when it comes to the album. "The album is included in the price. We offer about five different styles of design for the album. Most studios don’t do that," McMillian says.

Photography costs anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $10,000. Packages that include an album start at around $2,500 in Kansas City.

One benefit that comes with pricier packages is unlimited photographer time. “You want to figure out when and how long your photographer will be there,” DiMartino says. “If it’s within your budget to get unlimited hours, then you don’t have to think about when you have to do the cake-cutting or other events that you want photographed. It’s one more thing that’s taken off your shoulders.” Whether it’s unlimited photographer hours or a soup-to-nuts album package, pricier photographers do offer packages that don’t require a lot of thought on the day of the wedding. Of course, that’ll cost you.

Timing, Timing, Timing

Many couples still like to wait until the walk down the aisle to see each other for the first time on their wedding day. This tradition can make photography challenging, but most photographers don’t care whether they have to split photography sessions into before and after the ceremony.

If the bride and groom prefer not to see each other before the wedding, the photographer can snap each side of the family, the respective halves of the wedding party and the guests before the wedding, then finish up with the whole-family shots after the ceremony has taken place.

There is one surprising benefit to pre-wedding photography, though: romance.

"A groom standing at the end of the aisle is torn between looking at the bride coming down the aisle and all those people who are looking at him," McMillian says. "It’s hard to have romantic bliss at first sight because the guests steal the moment away from the bride and groom. It’s a moment that could be theirs, but each person’s attention gets diverted during the walk down the aisle."

If the couple is not averse to seeing each other before the ceremony, it’s fine to plan a private moment right before the wedding begins to admire each other’s finery. It may be the only moment the couple gets together for the rest of the day, believe it or not.

"Wedding photography should look like what it feels to be in love,” says Michael Heim of Quality Photographic Imaging in Shawnee. “I encourage couples to create pockets of romance. Most wedding days are hectic and chaotic events that don’t lend themselves well to quiet times—but quiet times are exactly what you want to capture in the pictures."

Showing Off the Goods

Traditional albums, while still popular, have been overtaken in the past few years by albums printed on regular paper and bound like coffee-table books.

"Coffee-table books have pretty much replaced traditional albums," DiMartino says. "As far as formal albums are concerned, flush-mount or large coffee-table books have pretty much become standard, although we still have traditional albums." Flush-mount albums are composed of pages designed so that different colors or background texts are behind them, much like a magazine page.

Preserving Your Memories

Don’t forget that even if you receive the negatives of your photographs or a CD or DVD with digital images, technology will change over time. Each time a new form of technology comes out, you’ll need to transfer images on a CD or DVD to the new technology, or they may be lost forever in the way of the eight-track tape.

Despite the possibility of technology changing, however, don’t shy away from digital. "Digital photography has far surpassed the capabilities of what film could ever accomplish," Heim says. "Digital is a creative tool that allows the photographer to change directions and adapt posing and lighting halfway through if something is just not working." Photographs kept under glass should not be located in direct sunlight, and high-quality archival paper is a must for prints. “The ink itself is usually guaranteed to last up to 100 years without fading,” says DiMartino. "Make sure you have quality prints if you get them from someone other than your photographer."

After all, your wedding day moments should last forever, shouldn’t they?