Choosing a photographer is one of many important decisions couples have to make when planning their wedding.
Deciding on the person to be responsible for capturing your day is not a choice to take lightly. You'll have to spend time looking through many galleries and talking with multiple professionals to find the right fit for you.
A photographer is tasked with the important role of capturing the love you and your partner share through photos. On top of that, they are responsible for capturing other moments from the day, such as the guests in attendance and even the smaller details of the wedding, like vow books and florals.
When it comes to wedding photographers, one question many brides and grooms have is whether they should create a shot list for the photographer to work off of. With so many things to plan for the day, is creating a shot list something that couples should make a priority? Kristin Piteo, a global wedding photographer, provides her insight on shot lists and unique photos she takes for couples that provide them with memories that last a lifetime.
"As far as shot list goes, particularly, in my opinion, unless it's something for family photos where you have to put together different aspects of families, I don't particularly work off shot lists, because it kind of takes me away from being in the moment on the wedding day," Piteo told Fox News Digital.
"Unless there's something very particular, like, ‘Oh, I'm wearing my grandmother's ring, I want to make sure that I get a photo of me wearing my grandmother's ring,’ something like that I want to be brought to my attention," Piteo continued. "Other than that, you chose your photographer because you trust them, and you like their work, and you've invested in them . . . . You don't really need a shot list, because they're going to capture all the things that you want and more."
This is just one reason why hiring a professional wedding photographer that you trust is so important. If you hire someone whose work you love, creating a shot list is one fewer thing you have to worry about in the wedding planning process, because they will take care of capturing all the moments, big and small, of your big day.
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There are many classic, very obvious moments a photographer should capture on your wedding day. These includes the first kiss, the wedding party all together and the bride walking down the aisle.
Other parts of the day that are less traditional to photograph make for unique wedding prints of beautiful moments.
"I think that one of the main types of ways I photograph is those in-between moments," Piteo explained. "So maybe it's him walking with his hand on her lower back or just those in-between moments that you don't really have to give too much direction on."
Piteo also expressed that not every couple’s pictures are going to look the same.
"I really want to make sure that when they look back on these photos, that they see their personalities, and it's not just a cookie cutter gallery from couple to couple to couple," Piteo said.
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Piteo noted that she also captures reactional moments throughout the day for more unique and memorable wedding photos.
"I think some really important photos that maybe don't seem as apparent to people that aren't photographers are reactional photos. So, photos that you wouldn't think of normally taking," said Piteo.
"Obviously, when you see wedding photos, you see the couple's photos, you see the family photos, you see all these things that are in a row, but capturing the images that maybe people don't think about as much on a wedding day, like the bride fixing something on her dress in the middle of the reception or things like that, that are little candid moments that might mean a lot," Piteo explained.
A moment that seems so small in the grand scheme of the day, like a bride reaching down to put on her shoe, putting on a piece of jewelry or even fixing her makeup, can turn out to be artistic, gorgeous prints.
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"The intimate times that the couple spends together that the outside world isn't seeing is what I'm seeing. So I'm trying to capture him fixing a piece of hair that's in her face that I have not guided. So anything that just feels authentic and not placed there on purpose is something that I view to be very artistic and memorable," the global wedding photographer said.
Beyond the people present at the wedding, there are a lot of other aspects that couples will want to remember. These smaller details include things like the chairs at their ceremony, their rings, the vow books they read from and even the atmosphere of the event. There’s really no detail too small.
"When capturing the details of the day, I think making sure that you capture the scenes is so important. So when they are able to look back at these photos 5, 10, 15, 30 years from now, they can be brought back to the whole environment of the day," Piteo said.
"So whether that be the chairs, the wedding tent, the candlelit ambiance, I try to encapsulate the whole entire being of the wedding day, so they can really remember what it was like on that actual day," Piteo noted.
"So if there's only candlelit lighting, I want to make sure that I'm capturing that ambient light. If there are really particular wooden chairs, I want to make sure that I capture them in any way that they are displayed to me," Piteo explained.
These details should be captured just the way they are, so the couple can look back at the pictures and see those moments that may have passed them by during their busy wedding day.
"If they have their vow books placed up at the altar, capturing that, because that's obviously something that they put together that was really intentional, and that's just the way I move throughout the day," Piteo said. "I want to make sure that everything is documented for them. So they can always remember these little moments that maybe rush by for them. It's up to me to hold these as keepsakes for them."
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