As a luxury wedding photographer, I’ve worked with many couples over the years to ensure that their special day runs seamlessly. One key aspect of a successful wedding is the role of your celebrant, who plays a vital part in guiding the ceremony and ensuring that everything runs smoothly for the rest of the day.
Here are 5 essential tasks that you should ask your celebrant to do on the day of your wedding:
1. Step aside for the perfect first kiss
As you exchange your vows, I want to capture that special moment when you share your first kiss as a married couple. To ensure that I get the perfect shot, I ask that you ask your celebrant to step aside for a brief moment to allow me to capture this intimate moment. There’s nothing worse, then me spending hours editing in post to remove your celebrant out of the photo so you two can have your hero moment. When he or she could easily take two seconds to step aside out of frame, so you two can have your hero moment and a beautiful photo to cherish.
2. Make an announcement about confetti
When it’s time to throw confetti, I want to make sure that everyone knows exactly when and how to do it. I ask your celebrant to make an announcement to everyone during the ceremony, instructing them on how to throw (throw up nice and high, not at your faces!) to make for beautiful natural photos that will live on your walls forever. The higher the throw, the more air time your confetti can have. Remember the longer the confetti is in the air = better photos. See examples below.
3. Remember to pause half way down the aisle for a kiss!
This is a reminder not for your guests but for you two. As emotions run high this can be easy to forget. To capture the perfect romantic moment, I ask that your celebrant to remind you both right before you walk (to stop halfway down the aisle) so that we can take a special kiss dip photo. This will give us a beautiful opportunity to capture the love and intimacy between you two. Bonus note: If you’re having confetti cannons, give them to responsible people on either side of the aisle at the end of the aisle and tell them in advance or have your celebrant tell them on the day only to pop them once you two have done the dip. Too often, guests will get confetti happy and it’ll all be thrown by the time you go to have your kiss dip. Which looks amazing in photos but leaves no confetti left for the kiss dip! So by having guests designated to do this at a certain time, in a certain spot, you can ensure you get beautiful confetti photos walking down looking at your guests but ALSO beautiful confetti photos on your kiss dip too!
4. Announce important details for group and family photos
To avoid any delays or confusion during your wedding day, I ask that your celebrant to make a housekeeping announcement on the group photo and family photos before you do your confetti walk about whats happening next, I always recommend doing a group photo first and having immediate family stick around after. This will ensure that everyone knows exactly what’s expected of them, will avoid any misunderstandings, confusion or questions to you both on what they need to do, and also keep everyone there so no one runs off yet. Trying to round people up, having them directed to leave, or find where people are is a huge time waster, and while I’m happy to get on the mic and round everyone up if needed. I’ve done it before and can certainly do it again – we will still loose time in the day (on average 20+ mins can be lost which delays the timeline of the day!) when this can easily be overcome before hand with a simple announcement from your celebrant. This also helps relieves any anxiety guests may feel and helps improve guest experience so they know everything they need to know to ensure the day goes smoothly. A group photo is super quick, I’ll do a nice one and then a silly one and then we can move straight into family photos! While taking the photos is very quick and easy, this can easily be a HUGE time waster if not organised properly in advance. I personally love to allow my couples atleast 10 mins (more if the guest list is huge) to interact and get congratulated. But if the guest list is huge quite often its nice to smash out the group photo before you get congratulated. Group photo, announcement for immediate family to stick around for family portraits, then congrats and hugs, then anyone who wants to go who is not immediate family can have the freedom to go, and then we head straight into family portraits with no delays.
5. Borrow the celebrant’s mic for photo captions
If possible, I’d love to borrow the celebrant’s mic for a few minutes to communicate with your guests for instructions on the group photo, and read out family combinations. These combinations you would’ve completed by no later than 4 weeks prior to your wedding date. This is where I will bring in your pre organised 2 photo captains (one from each side) and give them my printed family photo list with a pen to cross off the combinations as we go through them. As your celebrant has had all of your guests attention, by having your celebrant shift that attention to me through a quick announcement after the group photos for immediate family to stick around for family photos, means I can seamlessly take over and hold their attention as guests don’t like to wait around for too long to know what’s happening next. This way I can take over easily, and I can make process as quick as possible to avoid any delays to the days timeline or a negative guest experience by adding in un-necessary confusion.
By asking your celebrant to complete these 5 essential tasks, you’ll be ensuring a smooth and memorable wedding day that will be cherished for years to come and improving your guests experience on the day too.
Feel free to send this blog post to your celebrant or wedding planner to assist them in anything they may need to know.
And if you’re on the hunt for a wedding photographer, contact me today to book your wedding photography package and let us help you create unforgettable memories that will last a lifetime.
