The Wedding Experience a Bridal Guide for All South Street Brides and Grooms Lauren
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South Street Photography The Wedding Experience A Bridal Guide for all South Street Brides and Grooms Lauren John US! W E L C O M E Hello Bride-to-be and Welcome! This is such an exciting time for you! I’m sure your mind is racing with all that needs to be planned. It’s all very exciting but it can also be somewhat overwhelming. You’re planning the day that you’ve been anticipating your whole life and yet you only get one shot at it! By the time you get the hang of it, the planning is over! Our goal as a wedding photographer is to make this one aspect of the planning process simple. Photography is more than just images; it’s a real part of your day. Not only do you de- serve beautiful images, you also deserve an amazing photographic experience. The goal of this guide is to help you plan your wedding day in a way that will allow us to provide you with the BEST experience possible. Once we’re officially your photog- raphers, the next step is to plan your engagement session and then start chatting about wedding day details as we get closer to your date! We're beyond excited to be working with you!! Lauren and I cannot wait to get to know you two during your engagement session. Meet The Team Lauren and I have been working together for nearly, well... a long time (no, she is not my wife.) I want to make sure I introduced you to both of us because you’ll most def- initely be interacting with us throughout your experience with South Street. John Lauren Us Lauren has been with me for a As a team we have been togeth- I started South Street many long time. We work well to- er, quite a while. We work well years ago because I wanted to gether and have a lot of fun together. Bounce ideas off each do something with what I love, with our wedding couples. other to create you wedding photography. Lauren has a background in art. photos. Our styles have blended This all started as a hobby as a One of her duties is to keep me together over the years to create child. It's grown from that be- grounded. Occasionally I get a a unique look at our weddings. ginning to something that is not little over excited about our We know you'll love working only how I earn a living but still weddings. with us as we know we'll love something I love to do in my You probably met Lauren at a work with you. spare t ime. bridal show. You'll see her We love what we do and it I'm an instructor at a nationally again at your engagement ses- shows. known photography school. It's sion and of course, your big my way of giving back to this day. industry I love. Lauren is my right hand, my I also do a lot of charity work sounding board, a friend and I for several non-profit organiza- don't know what I would do tions. without her. Y O U R E NG A G EM E N T S E S S I O N Now that you have picked a date, a pho- Your engagement session can be scheduled tographer and a venue, you can celebrate! any time before your wedding day. We nor- Those are some of the toughest decisions mally suggest booking it at least 3-6 months in wedding planning now you can cross in advance to avoid stress. them off your list! Now on to the fun Since our weekends are filled with weddings, stuff like your engagement session we can shoot engagements on weekday. De- We include your engagement sessions in pending on the light and the time of the year, our package because we believe they are a we'll work around our and your schedules. VITAL part of the entire process. During As you start to plan for your session, you will your engagement session, you’ll have the need to brainstorming about location ideas. chance to get to know us, experience how We LOVE it when couples pick a location we work and handle posing and lighting. that is special or sentimental to them in This session will make a HUGE impact some way! If you can’t think of anywhere on how the wedding day flows. We'll ar- specific that you would like to shoot, we can rive on your wedding day already knowing help you decide on a location. As long as the how you two interact, what your best light is great, we can make ANY location poses are and how to photograph you in a look awesome. We work at farms, campuses, genuine way! What we'll learn about you down-town alleys and about anywhere else! during your engagement session is invalu- We're serious. Do not shy away from crazy able! You will feel like such a pro on your ideas! The more creative, the better! Be sure big day because of the great practice you to keep reading to find out more about outfit had during your engagement session. ideas and inspiration. That’s how it should be! E N G A G E M E N T P R E P It’s always a little intimidating to have your picture taken even if it’s just a photo on an Iphone that is taken by a friend, we still want to look nice, make sure nothing is in our teeth and that our hair is behaving! We realize that pre-paring for your engagement session can be a little over- whelming. Here are some tips for outfits and accessories that will make the e-shoot preparation a little more manageable! Don’t try to MATCH...try to pick outfits and ac- We recommend beginning with the dressy out- cessories that coordinate instead. If everyone fit first. wore the same exact color at their e-shoot, how boring would those images be? Make sure you’re comfortable in what you’re wearing. And ladies, if the top is super low Don’t be afraid to be BOLD! Accessorize and cut, that will limit the amount of angles we can make your outfits your own! Scarves, bold shoot from. necklaces and fun shoes are always welcomed! BEONTIME! The sun is only out for so long! MOST PATTERNS are actually ok.... however; The later you arrive, the less time we have to graphics are not favorable for portraits. If you’re shoot! And nobody wants that. wearing a pattern, make sure it’s not overwhelm- ing and distracting. Clean the ring! We love to shoot a few rings shots while you change outfits! The cleaner the Empty your pockets! Literally. You don’t want to better. have key chains or phones showing through your pockets. (This is for the guys especially!) Relax! You don’t have to be a pro at this! We’re going to help you along the way and it’s Most often, couples like to have one casual, eve- going to be a blast! Enjoy this time together ryday outfit and then one outfit that is dressier. and make a date out of it! Plan dinner after- This will give your shoot two different “looks”. wards and celebrate. OUTF I T I N S P I R A T I O N L O G I S T I C S We try to photograph engagement sessions on weekdays because our weekends are dedicated to photographing weddings. We love gorgeous locations. We can recommend loca- tions for engagements. A general rule of thumb is the more locations and outfits, the more variety you’ll have. We can do sunrise sessions if necessary! We require sun- rise shoots for those who want to take portraits in a very crowded locations along the Jersey shore. P R E P A R I N G Y O U R G R O O M If you’re a bride that is a little anxious about how First of all, we highly recommend sitting down your groom is going to react to this whole “picture” with your guy and showing him 2-3 of your fa- thing, you’re not alone. We receive so many emails vorite engagement photo ideas either that we from brides who are worried that their groom won’t have photographed or on Pinterest. Spend some be into it and I have great news for you.... you both time together scrolling through a few blog posts, are more photogenic than you think! this will allow him to gauge what his expecta- tions should be. We also recommend you allow We are constantly surprising couples by discovering for plenty of time to get to your session. Arrived their hidden modeling skills and our most common relaxed and in a good frame of mind for your response from our grooms is “That wasn’t as bad as photos. The more relaxed you feel the better I thought! It was actually fun.”. Boom! Mission ac- your photos will be. complished! When the groom says that taking pic- You'll enjoy your session and our time together tures was FUN, we have done our job well! during your session. Your engagement session is supposed to be fun and relaxed and not forced or awkward. As you prepare for your session, there are a few things that you can do to help your groom know what expect.