One of the very first questions I receive in a wedding consultation is
How much time do I need for photos on my wedding day?
Knowing how long and when photos are to take place sets up most of the other vendors for the day and knowing how to put this together can help tremendously and alleviate lots of stress when meeting with other vendors and figuring out how your day might look.
Typically when I get this question, there are a few other questions that I usually have for the couple:
What time is your wedding at?
How long is your ceremony?
Will you be doing a first look, or do you plan on not seeing each other before the ceremony?
How large is your wedding party?
What photos are most important to you?
Do you want to go to an alternate location between the ceremony and reception?
From here, we can start setting up the time line of the day. So to give you an example say you have a 4:00 wedding, the ceremony is 30 minutes long, you are planning on seeing each other beforehand for the first look, want an alternate location and have an average wedding party of 10 attendants and the photos of you and your spouse are of utmost importance.
Knowing all this information, I would advise you on booking a 10 hour day and the time line would look like this:
1:00- Wedding party to arrive at getting ready location, detail shots, finishing touches shots
1:30-First look with bride and groom, photos together
2:00- Wedding Party photos
2:30- Bride’s family photo (add in grandparents and other extended family)
3:00- Groom’s family photo (add in grandparents and other extended family)
3:30- Prep/ hide for ceremony
4:00- Ceremony Begins
4:30- Ceremony ends/ greet guests
5:00- Head to alternate location in transportation
7:00- Announcement of bride and groom
7:15 Dinner served/ Cake cutting/ Sunset photos of Bride and Groom/ Toasts
8:30- Dance begins- Reception candids
11:00 End of contract
Hope that helps in your planning!
Knowing the bride herself, bridesmaids can help the bride feel more relaxed and alive on her wedding day. They are the forerunners that bring the fun and calm to the start of a crazy, fun wedding day.
Bridesmaids also generally know the names of the attendants and can help wrangle everyone (including those runaway flower girls) into one location for photos.
They bring the fun, and the tears, and all the emotions in between, for the photos. I will generally have the bridesmaids all “fake laugh” when they are with the bride and I can’t tell you how many times this brings true, genuine laughter which is exactly what I am looking for in some of these photos!
Bridesmaids can be amazing tools to a wedding day, not only to the bride but to me, the photographer! They are pretty amazing and I love working with them!
1) Use the veil. There are so many times while a bride just wants to take out her veil when the wind is gusting, but my advice to you would be to keep it in (at least for a while!) Use this to your advantage, to wrap up in, let it fly and open it up to create leading lines to a face while helping clients remember what the elements of the day felt like!
2) Walk or face into the wind. Hair will fly backwards and veil will fly upwards or sideways. Use this to capture movement and memories.
3) If you are photographing clients, specifically girls, I LOVE having shots of hair flying all over the place. Oftentimes this brings a carefree look and feel to the photo that I think perfectly captures the age. 
Hope that helps a bit as you prepare to use the elements that the day brings you and helps you see why even a windy day can bring out some of the most beautiful photos.
