Relationships Talk

A lot of planning — and cash — goes into making your wedding day perfect.

If you’re like most couples, your photographer takes up a good chunk of your budget. If you want to get the most out of that money, here are a few tips from local photographers on how to make most of your time with them on your big day.

Tiffany Holmes, Tiffany Holmes Photography

Delegate, delegate, delegate

“Put the responsibility on someone else. I had one bride who didn’t even have her cell phone the day she got married and her maid of honor took care of everything, and she was able to just enjoy it. So that definitely would be something I would say is important: Always make sure you have someone who’s willing to step up and take that responsibility so that you don’t have to and you can enjoy your day.”

Holmes is based in Gainesville and has been in the wedding photography business for almost two years.

Carrie Brookshire, Carrie Jean Photography

Over-communication is OK

“Keeping the photographer in the loop on the timeline of the day. I actually have my clients fill out a timeline of what their day is supposed to look like so I know exactly where they’re going to be at what time and where I should be so I don’t miss anything … keeping photographers in the loop on when things are going to happen throughout the day is key.”

Brookshire is based in Gainesville and has been in the wedding photography business for about 10 years.

Haley Henderson, Haley Henderson Photography

Focus on yourself

“I feel like what couples have been doing, especially recently, is focusing on their guests more than themselves. I feel like they put the emphasis so much on what everybody else thinks and making sure everybody else is happy, and especially when you go to plan your pictures. A lot of people are doing first looks and things like that, and they’re telling me it’s because they don’t want their guests to wait, they want to make sure everybody’s happy the entire time. I feel like it shouldn’t be as important to make sure your guests are happy, because they’re there to see you happy.”

Henderson is based in Cleveland and has been in the wedding photography business for about three years.

Lisa Wilson, Lisa Michele Photography

Lists make everyone’s life easier

“Have a checklist so that you don’t miss something you want and wish later you would have gotten. Always bring that to their attention, like if someone is coming from out of state, have that list ready so they don’t get overlooked on the day of because it’s chaos.”

Wilson is based in Winder and has been in the wedding photography business for about three years.

Regina Patterson, Regina Patterson Photography

Photographers know best

“Listen to their plan for your day … Normally, I like to have everyone ready to be photographed three hours before, because guests, despite anything you do, will start arriving an hour before the wedding. So that really only gives you two hours, because you need to have everyone out of sight before your guests arrive. And a lot of people, it’s hard for them to understand why you need that much time, but you do. You need every minute of it. So I would suggest really listening to what your photographer says. Because they’re the professional, they’ve done it countless times … we’ve gone through every scenario, so we’ve kind of worked out the bugs, and it’s just better to listen sometimes.”

Patterson is based in Gainesville and has been in the wedding photography business for almost nine years.

You can find these photographers at the Gainesville Bridal Expo on Sunday, Jan. 27.