Scouting out the wedding location

This is the third in a series of articles all about how we prepare for your wedding photography. To read more of this series, please go to the index on Preparing for Your Wedding Photography.

For every wedding we shoot, we scout out the location beforehand. Even if you are getting married somewhere we have shot before, we may still go again just to remind ourselves of some of the great opportunities for photographs.

Our scouting starts from the moment you tell us where you are getting married. There’s the obligatory satellite and street views on Google, followed by a general image search to start getting some inspiration from others that may have held weddings or other events there.

Ultimately we strive to get something new, something no one else has photographed yet, but by seeing other people’s photographs, it can usually help us develop a better idea of why you picked the location in the first place, and we certainly won’t shy away from an existing great idea if we see one. If it’s a venue we have photographed at before, we will review our own photos too.

Dasha and I also physically visit the location wherever possible, in order to establish good, great or even unexpected angles for possible photography. It’s not always the case that the wedding coordinator is there, but when they are, we take the time to introduce ourselves to them. Often the venue’s coordinator will have a lot of knowledge of good spots for photos.

Dasha inevitably sees something that she wants a photo of when it comes to the big day, and so we will also take a few test shots, which work as a reminder for us before the big day. Looking at those shots also highlights potential obstacles, such as “no… the bride is not going to be able to dangle out of that window, Jakob!”

Of course the weather, and with it the lighting conditions, is ever-changing, so we don’t rely solely on our scouting to tell us what will look good at your wedding – that’s something you can only ever know at the time, at that very moment, as it all depends on the light. Which brings us neatly on to the next post.