Information :: Best Time to Book the Wedding Photographer(s)

March 7, 2022 Emily McDonald

Wedding vendors typically are booked as follows:

Jeweller
Venue
Photographer/Videographer

The other vendors - celebrant, cake, dress, suit, flowers, and so on - are usually booked after the first three are locked in. Having said that, some venues will provide you with a shortlist of dates to take to your photographer and increase the chance of everyone being available.

5 hours or more of coverage

Weddings

We recommend booking in your photographer(s) as soon as you have a date/it is up to 18 months from your wedding date. In fact, we recommend booking in any vendor you have your heart set on as soon as possible! Some months are busier than others and should be booked in… well, yesterday (for example, the spring & autumn months). More specifically, some dates are more popular than others (Saturdays in September will always be busier than Mondays in January, for example). We shoot only one wedding/day. On average, couples tend to book between 9-12 months before the date. There is no point spending hours narrowing down your research to your favourite photographer and then postponing reaching out to them. Furthermore, photographer(s) are usually really well connected and can give you direction with other vendors, too, and potentially save you time. We were recently asked to provide recommendations for a celebrant, catering, dj, dress, & florist; we were happy to pass on details.

Elopements/less than 5 hours of coverage

Elopements

We recommend booking in approximately 3-6 months before your date. (We have booked with weeks to spare previously so it does not hurt to ask; your date just might be available. In an ideal world, we like enough time to fit in an in-person chat to meet you and so that you have a chance to meet us! We can also learn about your priorities so that we have all the information we need before capturing your day.)

Say Hi!

Brisbane Elopements & Micro Weddings

February 7, 2022 Emily McDonald

Are you planning an elopement or micro wedding in 2022 or 2023?

Due to the current pandemic, in association with increasing interest in/demand for elopement and micro wedding packages, we are offering the following (all include one photographer only and up to 20 guests):

1 hour of coverage // $550

2 hours of coverage // $950

3 hours of coverage // $1350

4 hours of coverage // $1600

All weddings requiring 5 hours or more of coverage remain at $550 per hour and include 2 photographers (from $2750).

During these crazy times, it only seemed fair to meet our couples where they are at: feeling stressed out making big decisions and wanting to keep celebrations small for now. The big occasions can wait for better, brighter days when we can all be reunited again. Sending support to everyone going through the anxiety that is planning a wedding during a pandemic. Here to make life as easy as possible for you! We are fully vaccinated.

Brisbane Elopements & Micro Weddings

Wedding: B+K <3 (Lake Moogerah)

December 13, 2021 Emily McDonald

Lovely Katelyn and Benjamin <3

What a delightful couple! We met up with Katelyn and Benjamin for a Grill’d lunch date. We had a great chat and time flew. We left looking forward to working with these two.

B&K chose Lake Moogerah for their wedding. It was the perfect location and suited them and their story perfectly. Some things to note:

We have included 190+ of our favourites from across the day
Benjamin doesn’t like being in front of the camera; we tried not to be obtrusive with him - as we do with everyone! - but, for what it is worth, we think that he killed it
Golden hour portraits were important to B&K; they allowed plenty of time for this to take place and, from the resulting images, it was <in our unbiased opinion ;)> time very well spent
Benjamin and Katelyn worked closely with Ann from Ceremona Weddings and came up with an excellent timeline that was seamless on the day; Ann is one of these people who has great intuition with photography (from time of day to removing things from the background) and so works really well with whoever you choose to capture your day (B&K mentioned how much they personally recommend Ann)
We highly recommend inviting/incorporating little ones into your day but don’t be surprised if they take some of the attention away - the little ones at B&K’s wedding were adorable and hilarious… as you will see below
Katelyn was very impressed with Ellen Munro Makeup & Hair - here is a shoutout for lovely Ellen
The vehicle is super important to Benjamin. We covered this point during their initial consultation. We made sure to capture it in plenty of shots and pushed ourselves creatively, too

Enjoy!

Vaccination Status & Wedding Invitations

November 15, 2021 Emily McDonald

Who would have guessed that we would be living in the world that we are today? Planning a wedding is stressful and can be alienating depending on individual circumstances. However, there is a new curveball: asking family/friends/wedding guests for their vaccination status - or what has been dubbed navigating the world of ‘vaccine etiquette’. It is a tricky, sensitive position to be in. As always, kindness and respect will go a long way. Communication will, too. Like most things in life, you cannot control what other people do (or do not do) but you can control how you behave/respond. We have done some research and found different ways of approaching this situation. Hope one of these ideas resonates with/works for you and your loved ones:

Short-and-sweet-approach. Some couples are simply including an RSVP card that has two options: “Vaccinated & Attending” and “Not Attending”. No room for confusion. Another option: “Here for the party” & “No jab - no party” (if you are feeling witty). Another approach again is to have a banner across your RSVP card: “This is a vaccinated-only event”.
An understanding-approach. Something along the lines of: “If you are not fully vaccinated, unfortunately you will not be able to attend. We love and will miss you. We will look forward to catching up on a different date”. Another way to approach it with understanding is along these lines: “We understand that not everyone can attend due to vaccination status. If this includes you, you will be missed and loved regardless. How about we make it a date in the near future!” (You can start out by softly acknowledging how difficult it is to ask for sensitive medical information but that the decision is out of your hands and beyond your personal control, too.)
A fun-checklist-approach. We have seen an example where the invitees checked a few options (such as “heck yeah”, “excited”, “wouldn’t miss it for the world”, and so on); down the list, it included “fully vaccinated”. At the end, it stated that all of the above options had to be ticked for the guest to be able to attend. It sandwiched the vaccination situation in amongst the fun options so that the tone was still peppy but the couple were also able to make their point.
The no-stone-unturned-approach. This can take the form of an additional health and safety information card in your invitation suite. For this, the couple spell out exactly where they stand and what is expected of guests attending their wedding.
An example of wording can be seen at Ivory Tribe:
“We are so excited to see you on our big day! In order to keep everyone safe, we’re required by the venue to follow these health and safety rules:
Thank you for making our day so special for us, in spite of these unusual circumstances.”
Come up with something funny! We have seen invitations that look like sheets of toilet paper. We have seen plays on wording: “Love is infectious but so is coronavirus…” & references to the two main forms of shots, for example.

We want to wish you all the best with how you go about approaching this situation we are all in. Here is hoping that there is less stress for everyone around the corner. <3

Wedding: J+S <3 (Brookfield)

August 23, 2021 Emily McDonald

Lovely Suzie & John <3

We met up with S&J at South Bank Pirate Park (not sure of the official name for the park but this is how we refer to it; it is currently the Creative Director’s favourite place to hone new gymnastic skills). :)

We locked in the date and they had dreams of going to Italy for their honeymoon.

Covid happened.

S&J decided to postpone till the next year. So we did. No problem.

It was a perfect day. S&J were surrounded by friends and family and packed a lot into a few hours. They had the best attitude about the change of plans and really embraced the season in life.

A family member owns the stunning Hamptons style home and it was the best location for S&J’s intimate nuptials. A lot of collective work had gone into renovating the home during the year of postponement.

In every gallery we send out, we provide more colour images than black & white ones. Suzie & John’s wedding gallery was no different. As I (Em) was putting together the blog post, I found myself more drawn to the b&w images. For me, the b&w allow the details and emotions from the day to shine through with little to no distraction. The day was classic (black and white the theme of the wedding party) and that seems to really shine through with the grayscale set.

Here is the lovely feedback we received from S&J:

"We've been through the photos and we're so incredibly happy. There are so many amazing shots so we'll enjoy looking through them again and again and deciding which we'll have printed to see on our walls every day. Thank you again so much; we're so happy we had the two of you there and how perfectly you captured everything."

Enjoy!