Our Wedding Process: Beginning to End
in case you’re curious about what it’s like to work with us start to finish this is the blog post for you!
Transparency is important to us and if you’re anything like Stef & Hannah (read: a little anxious, type A, need to be physically, emotionally, and mentally prepared as much as possible lol) then here’s our process so you too can have a better understanding of how we work both behind the scenes and with you directly.
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01. Stay a while and take a look through our site
It’s important to us that you can see yourselves in our photos; whether you’re planning your wedding somewhere we’ve already shot at, if the small and intimate, no fuss, wedding we recently blogged is what you hope for your wedding too, or even if the big, rowdy, family is similar to yours, we want our photos to speak to you in some capacity!
02. send us an email
If something about our work resonates with you, head on over to our contact page and drop us a line. We understand if you’re frequenting other photographers and have already sent off 10 emails, so talking about yourself at this point is probably daunting, but it really does make a difference to us and we’d appreciate a personal touch in your inquiry. We want to know what your wedding will be about, what your plans are so far, even who you are as a couple! Most importantly basic information like location(s), size of your wedding, etc. Our response to your email will contain our pricing guide, as well as any relevant information to your wedding / plans.
03. let’s e-meet
If our style and pricing lines up with you, let’s set a meeting! If you’re in the Downtown Toronto area we’d love to meet up in person for your drink of choice otherwise we’d love to connect with your virtually (Zoom, Google Chat, FaceTime— whatever works best for you). If you have any questions we’d be happy to answer them on our call. What’s important to us at our e-meet is getting to you know and making sure that we’re a good fit for each other.
04. so you want to work together, yay!
When you’re ready we’ll send you our contract and invoice. Everything is online and once the contract is signed and the retainer is paid we will be officially booked in together!
05. Engagement session
We could talk about how much we love engagement sessions and think you should do it until we’re blue in the face but we’ll save that for this blog post. We’d love to help you plan things— location, date, inspiration photos to get excited, the whole shebang! We recommend shooting your session no later than 2 months before your wedding so you have enough time to receive your photos, share them, and make prints / a book / poster for signing, etc. if you’d like.
06. let’s keep in touch
The time between officially booking in with us and your wedding can be silent limbo. There isn't anything we need to be actively doing during this time so don’t fret if you don’t hear from us for a while (especially if you’ve booked 1 year+ in advance). Don’t be a stranger, feel free to send us a message anytime you have questions or as you continue planning your day and are curious about how we can best fit in.
07. wedding questionnaire
About 4-6 weeks before your wedding we’ll check in with you to see how things are going and to get updated on all of your final details for your day. We’ll send you a big questionnaire to collect all of this information. There’s no need to submit it right away if you don’t have things completely nailed down, we ask that you send it back to us no later than 1 week before your wedding so we have some time to look it through and ask questions should we have any.
If you have a wedding planner / venue coordinator we’d love to connect with them at this point to introduce ourselves and to make sure that we’re all on the same page for the day.
Your second payment instalment will be due at this time too (4 weeks before your wedding); this will be 50% of your package total. No need to memorize payment dates, especially when you have so much going on, you’ll receive an automated reminder leading up to it and you’ll be able to access your invoice / payment through your own private link.
08. it’s finally here! your wedding day!
It’s happening!!! We’ll cheer you on, find your wandering family members for group photos, and make sure that your dress and bouquet are safe and clean. The day flies by so quickly so don’t forget to take a moment to take it all in, even if it’s just stepping back and admiring it all!
09. photo preview
Usually as we’re backing up (which always happens on the night of, no matter how late it is) we’ll take a quick look through everything and swoon! After getting some rest and really sitting down to take it all in (typically within a few days) we’ll send you have small preview of photos to haul you over for the next few weeks.
10. finally, your photos are ready!
4 weeks following your wedding your photo gallery will be ready, brace yourself! We always recommend making a thing out of it, whether it’s not looking until you’re together after work, getting your drink of choice (tea, wine, champagne to celebrate!), and/or putting on some music to set the scene. There’s a ‘slideshow’ option in you gallery and on your first look through it we suggest hitting the play button so you can sit back and take in every photo.
The wonderful thing about an online gallery is that you can simply send the link and download PIN to your family and friends so they can view and download photos on their own time, and not bother you about it ;)
At this point your final payment instalment will also be due— this will be whatever your remaining balance is and any additional A La Carte items if they were added in (extra time on the night of, prints, photo book, etc.) Again, no need to remember this exact date, you’ll receive an automated reminder email leading up to it.
11. thank you
If you enjoyed your experience with us the best way you can thank us is by spreading the word! Google reviews are really important for us (it’s more than likely how you found us in the first place) but so is word of mouth; telling your friends and family, sending them a link to our work, and giving them your own testimonial of our time together. If you share photos online (FB, IG, etc.) we kindly ask the you tag us in the caption and/or photo, and to not add any additional filters and edits. We would be eternally grateful for any of this!
And that’s it! If you have questions about our process don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or send us an email, we can’t wait to hear from you!