Hi! Just curious if you during your weddings if you also shoot traditional portraits of the bride w/families (bride with mom, dad, siblings, whole fam, etc). I am constantly asked to shoot these for clients, often inside dark churches. Although I don’t mind them, they often seem extremely outdated. So. Do you shoot these? If so, any tips on modernizing them? Thanks!!

Oh definitely! I shoot them at EVERY single wedding! I just don’t blog them because they’re boring! Haha
But I do love making them a little more relaxed.  Instead of having the “sister” shot very formal, why not make them hug really tight and laugh for the camera. There are ways to make these more relaxed!! This will have to be a blog post later!

I’m getting married in 6 months (ah! excited!) and I wanted to ask about how to divide out tasks for your wedding day. For example, my venue has a STRICT timeline (have to be in and out in 4 hours) while our reception site is close, we need to make sure the venue is cleared and cleaned. What do you suggest? Should we ask groomsmen or would they need to be heading to reception? And where does photography fit it!? (Ok, that was a lot of questions…. :)

 Whew! That is a lot of questions!:) My advice would be to talk to your photographer asap and start working out a schedule.  They should be eager to help you plan since they need to have a say in the timeline in order to have a good amount of portrait time! I would also suggest delegating CLEAN UP to someone else. You shouldn’t have to worry about that at all! Another option is to hire a coordinator that takes care of all of that for you!

I’m definitely one of those extremely detail-oriented brides but I still want to make sure everything flows well on the day-of. What is your best advice for creating the day-of timeline? (our ceremony is around 6:00pm next June)

This is such a common question!
My best advice is to start the ceremony and work backwards when you’re writing it out! Consider travel times and add an additional 5 minutes to everything just in case. Simply having to use the bathroom can throw your timeline off by 15 minutes… especially if you have a big dress! Haha
All my couples get a sample timeline with my Wedding Experience Guide after they book.

My roomie is planning her wedding and I’ve been a bridesmaid 5 times. I’ve seen the range of wedding types and budgets (and spent my own mini fortune to participate) Should my day ever come, I’m concerned that the out-of-control wedding industry inflation will make even a simple, elegant wedding for my huge family cost prohibitive. Any thoughts to calm the anxiety and see the light in the tunnel? In the sea of possibilities, what sort of details have you seen to be worth the effort? 

Hi Erica! As far and the dress goes, it’s just a matter of style. You can make your dream dress happen but you might have to search a little longer, I love recommending my preferred designers who can definitely create something custom just for you. There are tons of beautiful lace designs with cap sleeves and open backs! Love those! Now for the budget… the average spent on a wedding in Canada is around $30,000.  It’s a lot. The cost comes in with the food, the rentals, and the vendors. You can cut corners and save some but the best way to cut costs is to cut the guest list! It’s tough... but it is possible to have a cheaper wedding. It just takes some DIY projects and some savvy shopping!

When you shoot a destination wedding, who pays for your plane tickets and travel expenses!?

The couple who hires me pays for my expenses. If I had to spend $2,000 of my own money to shoot their wedding, that’s a horrible business decision.  Some photographers charge for travel expenses AND add additional costs to their wedding packages just because they are going to be gone for double the amount of time and time is money.  I don’t do that but I may have to one day.

Love this! What do you recommend for a bride to prepare for possible rain? What kinds of places can you still shoot outside, how do you work with doing things inside, etc? Getting married in the fall means being worried about rain – and I want outside portraits! :) Thanks Jimena!!

If it rains (please no rain!) we’ll find some cute porches, some old columned buildings and some covered alleys! When it rains on wedding days I just have to be super creative! There's a whole chapter about rain and weather on my bridal guide, I got you covered! 
See what I did there? ;)

Okay, I’ve got a tricky one. When trying to come up/work with a budget I keep fighting myself on “this is our ONE wedding day we have to do it RIGHT” with “this is the start of our new life together and I don’t want to be swimming in debt!” Have you seen a huge difference in the weddings where it seems the couple went all out versus worked within a budget? By differences I mean the overall happiness and smoothness of the day, things like that. Thanks Jimena! :)

This is definitely a hard one! My advice is to have priorities. My opinion is “Pay for what will last the longest!”.  That means photography should be the most important thing! It’s all you have left!  For example, some brides don’t care about a DJ… they would rather have a BAND! Some couples HAVE to have alcohol at their wedding. It’s just a process of give and take. So make priorities for yourself and that may make it easier!

Whew! It’ll be a while before I do another one of these posts! It’s a ton of work!! But I hope it’s helpful!!

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