Your Sedona wedding photos – 5 great tips from our favorite Sedona wedding photographers
Throughout our years as Sedona wedding officiants, we have had the absolute joy of working with many talented Sedona wedding photographers (more on why you want to choose a photographer experienced in Sedona weddings coming up in a separate blog). While each has their own style, most agree that knowing the following 5 things not only makes their job easier, it allows them to create the most beautiful images for you.
1) Stand facing one another for your ceremony.
While your natural tendency during your ceremony may be to stand facing your officiant, your wedding photographer is most likely to want to you to stand squarely facing one another. This allows your photographer to take in the whole scene without showing only the backs of your heads.
Your photographer will likely walk around you to some extend during the ceremony to get more direct pictures of your faces, and may come closer or move away farther for a variety of images. If you have a bouquet, you may want to hold your wedding flowers for a few pictures, and them set them aside for the rest of the ceremony so that you can hold hands.
2) Notice the direction of the wind; choose your best side.
While there are traditional sides for couples to stand during the ceremony, your wedding officiant or photographer may ask you stand on a certain side if it is a windy day and you have long hair or a veil that will blow across your face, or if your hair is styled in such a way that it blocks one side of your face.
Also, your Sedona wedding officiant may ask you if you have a side preference. If you do wind up standing on the non-traditional side, not to worry – you will be every bit as married!
3) Cloudy Sedona days are your friends.
While Sedona is known for having over 300 sunny days a year, and the deep blue sky certainly looks lovely, don’t be distressed if you have clouds on your wedding day. As wedding officiants, we were initially surprised that wedding photographers LOVE cloudy days.
The clouds soften the lighting, eliminate shadows, and lessen the likelihood that you will be squinting. And you only need to look through our website to see the incredible atmosphere your photos will have with that moody lighting!
4) Slow down.
One of our happiest goals as your Sedona wedding officiant is to help you become present during your ceremony, so that you can enjoy every moment and create conscious memories. It turns out that this also results in the best photos - one of the nicest compliments we get from wedding photographers is that they have love working with us because they have time to get the best images. Because we have you pause at important moments like your ring exchange, your photographer has time to get lovely candid photos of the important moments of your ceremony (for more about how your ceremony unfolds, see our blog, Sedona Weddings 101. Likewise, slowing down your first kiss not only helps you to savor the moment, it allows for multiple photos.
5) Don’t be afraid to cry.
One of the sweetest things to happen during a wedding ceremony is for tears to flow. Both the couple and their guests may feel the emotion of the moment to such an extent that they weep. Couples who are concerned about how this will look in their photos will often try to squelch their tears.
Interestingly, wedding photographers know that trying NOT to cry is actually LESS attractive! Instead, just let your emotions flow through you. As experienced wedding officiants, we are happy to pause your ceremony so that you can feel and express your emotions, and then resume when you feel more composed. Never feel the need to rush!
Our favorite Sedona wedding photographers
We are so grateful to our Sedona wedding photographers – they help make memories that our couples treasure for a lifetime. You can find links to our favorite wedding photographers on our Vendors page.
