The ceremony – the reason why everyone is there gathered to celebrate your love and happiness.  It truly is a wonderful event that should be treated with complete respect!  I truly believe that the ceremony is the most important moment of the day… and all eyes should be on the beautiful couple.  This is also the reason why some officiants do have a set of rules and guidelines that the photographers and videographers must abide to … and I think it’s a good idea for the bride and groom to be familiar with these rules as well.  Although it’s not vital that she knows these details, it’s always good to know what you should expect as far as the final images are concerned – because sometimes these ceremony guidelines will inevitably have an impact on the images that we can capture.  Not that it’s necessarily something to worry about, but I like my brides to have reasonable expectations. 

This is particularly important for indoor ceremonies… I would say most indoor temples/churches/places of worship have strict rules that we need to follow.  The most typical rules are: only stand in one spot, no moving, and above all, no flash.  I always ask my brides if there are any rules that we should be aware of, but I always check in with the ceremony coordinator to find out more details, of course.  These types of guidelines are important for the photographer to be aware of (and respect, of course), not only because they are in place for a reason but also because if you don’t respect the rules, you run into the possibility that you will upset the officiant – which could be quite embarrassing for all. 

I once had a bride who got married at a Catholic Church… there really weren’t too many restrictions except to try to not disrupt the ceremony.  Simple enough… right?  Well… that day both my assistant and I were in the front of the church – I was on the side of the groom, my assistant near the bride.  I wasn’t really focused on the bride (I remember I was actually trying to capture the parent’s emotions), my assistant was actually taking the bride/groom pictures during this time.  I was really focused on something (I was pointing my camera towards the guests, I think).  Suddenly I noticed it got very quiet and I glanced over at my assistant and she had this look on her face… she was very pale and was making this hand signal (like slashing across her throat)… I had no clue what was going on.  Then I finally heard the priest say: “photographers… please… please, sit down and no more pictures until I pronounce them husband and wife”.  OMG I wanted to crawl under a pew and just die!!!!  Apparently, what happened was that the bride was completely focused on my assistant and her camera… instead of looking at the priest during the ceremony, she kept posing for the camera (not on purpose, it was just an instinct for her)… well, the priest had about enough and decided to shut us down!!!  There were no more pictures after that until the kiss (thank goodness we were allowed to at least take those!!!).  I learned two things that day: first, even though I get focused sometimes, I must try to be aware of what’s going on around me; and second, try to be more discreet!!!!    

So back to these rules and what they mean for your images.  As far as the ‘no moving’ thing, I guess it kind of makes sense… if it’s an indoor location, that means there will be some kind of hard floor, and a lot of echoes if you’re walking up and down all over the place to take pictures (as you can imagine, it can definitely be distracting!).  As I have expressed in a previous post – this is the absolute best reason to have a 2nd photographer – because if you can’t move from one spot, at least you have 2 angles to view from (although, sometimes one of those angles is pretty much useless… but in some cases, it can definitely be a huge plus).  My assistant is usually near the front of the ceremony.  I usually position myself in the center aisle – usually the ceremony coordinator tells me exactly where to stand, or I might have a few feet of space that I can walk around in.  Usually, as long as I’m not distracting (and the bulk of the guests are in front of me) then I can have some liberty in movement – but as you can imagine, it’s still quite limited in terms of what I can capture.  This ‘no moving’ policy makes perfect sense as a way of respecting and honoring the ceremony – of course, the bride and groom have to realize that this means their photographer will probably not be climbing on the chairs to get an awesome angle… but most couples are perfectly fine with that. 

So what about ‘no flash’?… If it’s a historical building, flashes will always be frowned upon (for the sake of the artworks in the building).  Most officiants see flashes as a distraction to other guests and even to themselves.  In outdoor locations this isn’t too much of a distraction, since there is so much light as it is (and I know we prefer the natural light anyways) – but in an indoor (possibly poorly lit) venue, these flashes can be quite obvious.  This rule means that the only light that your photographer can use must come from the natural light… in my dream world, the church would be filled with windows that let tons of beautiful light in and the walls are nice and light!!! Oh… if only that were the case for all churches!!! (I can dream… right?!?!)  Sometimes I do walk into the church and I let out a huge sigh of relief when I see all the gorgeous windows and light!!! Other times I just grasp my camera tightly as I see the few windows coupled with the dark mahogany wood panels that cover the entire building from walls to ceiling!!!).  So … plan B takes place.  This is why I like to get to the ceremony location a little earlier… I like to go in and evaluate my lighting… as you know – these pesky little cameras need at least some light to function! LOL!   So – I meter the available light and adjust accordingly (usually a tripod will be necessary, and since I probably won’t be allowed to move at all… that works out great).  So what does this mean for your images?  Using available LOW light, will mean your images will have a sense of ‘moodiness’ to them – but that is something we assume the bride expected, since she picked that location probably for that same reason – for the drama and moodiness it portrays. 

Most outdoor ceremonies really don’t have too many rules… the officiants tend to be very laid back and truly understand that the bride and groom want the best possible shots – so they let us do as we please.  But, even then – I still, personally really don’t want guests to remember me at all… they might notice me (come on… I’m walking around with a huge camera at hand and I’m the one standing up while everyone else is sitting down, of course they’ll notice me momentarily) – but my goal is for them to really not remember me during the ceremony.  We still try to be discreet – no running or climbing on chairs (well… unless the shot would be too hard to pass up!!! LOL).

So why did I just do this long post about rules that the bride doesn’t really need to focus on?  Just so you keep them in mind, just in case you have a location that is super strict… make sure your expectations match what can actually be achieved.  Oh… one more little example… I have a wedding next year at an indoor location in Malibu… the paper that the bride showed me had all the rules to follow – literally it said: Absolutely NO images during the ceremony!!!!! Nothing!!!!  Their coordinator told them that the photographer might be allowed to take pictures from the back of the ceremony hall (it’s a long hall!!!) BEHIND a glass panel!!! So as you can imagine, I had to make sure the couple understood what that meant to them! 

OK… I’ll get off my soap box now… next post will be about the first kiss…but this time it’s something that will be helpful to the couple (I promise) 

beautiful indoor ceremony location