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How To Choose Portrait Location

HOW TO CHOOSE WEDDING PORTRAIT LOCATION

Planning out the logistics of your wedding day may require a lot of work to make sure everything goes smoothly. We definitely recommend working with a wedding planner to plan everything. To help you out, we’ve created some key tips on how to choose your portrait location for your wedding day.


HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PORTRAIT LOCATION FOR YOUR WEDDING DAY – DO’S

  • Do: Choose a location that is logistically not far from the ceremony/reception. Transportation is a major time killer when it comes time to take your portraits. We recommend that you stick to something in the vicinity of where most of the wedding activities will be. As much as we would love to teleport from one place to another within minutes, it usually doesn’t work this way on the weekends. Traffic is a major factor to consider. Your photographer should be able to make your photos look good anywhere you decide to go. Make sure you love your photographers style and trust their vision 100%.
  • Do: Include your wedding party in the portrait locations. Typically, we make sure to get all of the photos with the wedding party out of the way first. That way, the wedding party can go back to partying while we focus on the bride and groom. Ask the maid of honor and best man to stay behind to help carry the flowers and assist with whatever you may need!
  • Do: Allow enough time for the photographer to capture the portraits you had envisioned. We ask our couples to block at least 90 minutes for the portrait location time. This is just enough time for the photographer to get both the safe shots and also the creative images you probably fell in love with in the first place. Do not expect your photographer to capture everything in under 30 minutes. It takes time to pose the wedding party and then get the perfect elements for the portraits of the bride and groom alone.


HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR PORTRAIT LOCATION FOR YOUR WEDDING DAY – DONT’S

  • Don’t: Choose more than 3 locations. Remember, these photos are about you and your significant other. It’s not so much about the location. It’s your photographers job to make you look good anywhere you decide to go. Save time and stick with one to two locations that you love for your portrait photographs.
  • Don’t: Make this the time for family photographs. This time should be allocated for you and your wedding party. The family photograph’s should be planned either before or after your portrait location photographs. Family photograph’s can take up a lot of time and can leave minimal time for any artistic photos. Just something to keep in mind.
  • Don’t: Pick a location that is going to be crowded. Avoid choosing locations that will be super crowded. Do the research and make sure there are no roadblocks for special events on the day of your wedding. If you want to have your portraits taken at a location that get’s crowded, try to go there for your engagement photos or schedule a post wedding session during the week day.

San Diego California Photographer Urban Wedding Portrait

Hopefully this is a good starting point for how to choose your portrait location for your wedding day. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to us here.