Skip to main content

Wedding Planning 1: Dress Fitting, Rings, & Inspiration

Lesson 29 from: Wedding Photography

Jasmine Star

Wedding Planning 1: Dress Fitting, Rings, & Inspiration

Lesson 29 from: Wedding Photography

Jasmine Star

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

29. Wedding Planning 1: Dress Fitting, Rings, & Inspiration

Lesson Info

Wedding Planning 1: Dress Fitting, Rings, & Inspiration

we've got some footage um from from from trying on the dress we've got some footage from from doing I think your rings elections and then I was going to basically let let the three of you guys kind of talk about this crazy adventure were embarking on um jeff you haven't seen any of these videos have you no not at all so I'm excited I'm really really really excited to see what's going to come together so so take what you want you want you can just kick it up I mean you telling telling us to on jasmine a little about what you've been up to in the last week and then we can show some video and then who knows I mean this this will go wherever wherever we and the audience wanted to go so we may end up early we may you know waken decide this as we go along perfect I'll start a little bit about talking about the usual process when you usually planning wedding most people tend to plan a wedding before four weeks time so that usual process is a little bit different brides tend to think about the...

ir gowns first that's often something that they're very excited about you know sometimes I've been thinking about for years before there's ever a man involved um and sometimes thie venue or that style of what they want also dictates the gown but a lot of times that kind of I thought process of thinking about what kind of down they want um happens you know even before the wedding planning starts usually when we have a wedding day you know we start working on a venue and photographer first kind of at the same time is the gown venue and photographer because those things tend to book the quickest so you know a great venue goes really fast especially in a month like august same thing with you know an amazing photographer like jazz when I'm sure can tell you herself right jasmine you book up really really fast especially for those really busy seven months so those are usually things I recommend you know to do first before you do anything else so we're really like here that we already have an amazing photographer so that's one thing we don't have to worry about um we're working on the venue right now and we've been looking at a few different venues and we'll talk about that in a little bit but kind of the first thing we started off with is talking about the gown and in what laurel wanted you know usually with the gown at some of the nice um boutiques in town you have to again either six to nine months in advance because you usually you'll try on a sample down from a designer you'll figure out what you like about it what you don't like about it and then you let that designer no when they make the gown so obviously in a four week time frame we don't have that luxury but we had a fabulous time if I say so myself looking and going to a couple different boutiques and seeing what they already had their that we could get in a four week period you don't get it altered and get it so that we have the wedding now on of her dreams so tell me what that process was like for you really scary just because um you know the gown is something that I have been just waxing and waning over for as long as we've been engaged which has been about seven months it was one of the first things you started looking at and I have such a hard time making decisions anyway having to sort of try things on and be like yes or no yes or no right then and there was really hard really hard but but we walked away with quite a few options that were definitely doable wei have about a six minute little video that kind of just kind of fell through a day I would like to see it maybe you can kind of talk or I'm not sure I'm not sure if it's something to talk over just kind of watch just kind of you can't go on as we go along so jeff we're gonna tuck you away again which I know you're not objecting to it all right so this is I built a little six minute clip that was pulled together based on uh on the dress so how do you feel about going I'm really fighting this is one of the most fun part getting to try all sorts of different styles and make sure you try something that you might not think you like you never know but also be really honest with yourself and the dress fitter but what you're comfortable with and what you're not ready to have some fun way you're like a celebrity come on barry where you get to be comfortable chairs in here so you just get your bags and wait you're bringing in here you don't seem good booth well like your private yeah wow here's a couple of their way so there will be a bad scene house really of the gallons we have them organized by designer so I don't know if there's any particular designer you are interested in these aerofina valente jim home so all of new york designer yes very known for their like duchess stilts you know but everything under person soaking the flight from new york looks like you like tio turnabout will know what you want and then I kind of love that made it on the body so exactly kind of here over here we have a lot of like ravine and christos and simba lean so just some of our more hiring really with wedding out was all about the fabrics like one hundred percent so exposes you know somewhere gonna be like some so poly blend second kind of shows but yeah these are these are the number one like getting to know you know this is ravine either out of toronto yeah yeah exactly so you get the hang of it that's not what I want you to find you a dream again so I mean let's just go through and anything you kind of like exactly what kind of turned it out and we'll take it back with the best line and that would be very yeah I like but this way one of the reasons I brought you here because the bell elaine's that's one of the best scown stores and boutiques here in seattle they have such a great selection as you can see the amazing designers so it's really fun to come here and see they have such a breath of designers and different styles but it's nice to come here in try and like she was saying trying on these different style so you can really get a feel for what you like and then once you've narrowed down what you like really find that dream dress can really tall they have a a wide variety of different things try on and I like how they're separated by the type of dress that it is it makes it really easy toe sort of homing in on what you're looking for wait five or six which is a great place to start second that wants to see them on that's when you really start to zone in on stuff you like great whoa stop yeah fashion show out here dressing room here yeah is there one I shouldn't start with her we just kind of way a little wait I like the color I like the color I need a little tonal separation between my seattle tan and my draft and I like I like definitely longer rather than shorter like no proof sir that kind of thing I'm more like a classic way way that little e thank you wait haven't told yeah that was the whole way this's so this is exactly what I was looking for something with some sort of dropped like bar it just feels more comfortable just have mid part I don't love that don't you that is a lot closer to the mirror way kind of way stream loathe it was like there was no there was no structure to that one and it was just so thin it looks way diving e t stain I love love love love it do you like about the bank it almost looks like he's a bit like its petals falling down it's just waves like that smooth they look horrible on the model on the website others say we just let you take pictures in it looking back on that experience of seeing yourself on film wearing all those gowns what do you think you know I pulled the pig as soon as I got home I pulled all the pictures off of the web sites because they won't let you take pictures of yourself in the grounds and I really did not like that last one that I was talking about how much I loved but seeing myself in it now I remember why I liked myself in it does that make sense now pictures of you in your wedding dress when you're there so it gets doing a live event like this you get moved fantastic thank you preview well and you got to see yourself walking down with hay and the bail you got yeah can you maybe do some screen grabs of those for me with your husband I'm still I'm definitely with you end I have to say one I am like the luckiest photographers to be able to photograph laura because if she wears like any of those dresses or half of that dress and secondly daniella you need your own like teal the show you're like you're just like in your own element I'm like oh my god why is it daniella just do the thing for like and she's taught for me I find if that happened thank you jasmine christy what I want to hear your incoming you owning june bug weddings dot com I mean you have so much visual input in so much information on gowns what would be your two cents with well it was so fun to get to go and actually you know be in the store and watch lord try everything on um it was great also toe watch your sort of progression of seeing you in and how you felt and there's definitely a difference between the the dresses of how you held yourself and how you carried yourself in your energy level when you got out there they were a couple of dresses that you obviously liked a lot better and you just you could just tell you were like in it he loved it and a couple of other once we were like yeah she wanted to turn back around and go right back into the room um I think that says a lot of what what interest could do for you also and keep that in mind like you want to feel so fantastic in it just energy wise you want to feel so beautiful and you know and the comfort factor to get comfortable and it's what you're not shifting and pulling it up all the time and worrying about it there's so many pieces that go into it and then you could just really see what it all comes together you know you just kind of transform into a bride and see yourself in a different way so that was fun to see you kind of get to that place with a couple of different dresses especially I felt like it happened with that last one a lot more um I also love the way that as soon as you were trying out a wedding dress when you add in the veil and then you grab okay and all those little extras really help to figure out and to see yourself as the full bride when you're just wearing the dress it's it's just one piece of it but when those little extras come together suddenly it's like a whole different situation so I think that helped see what bail in huge shoes it's just also transforms you into your wearing again which is already a big deal you wearing this white gown but some have a bail just finishes it off for me I also I always tell my right and if you're gonna go try on gowns bring shoes if you can if you already had your shoes or at least bring shoes of the same height that you have do you hear and makeup you were great you looked amazing you know you were already for it sometimes brides don't think about that and so they show up for their down fitting and their makeup is not done and their hair is all messy and then there's trying to imagine themselves what they going to look like it just makes it a little more difficult so you do everything you can you even undergarments whatever you have to prove yourself and you just make that process a lot more easy absolutely I have a question for christy yeah um I kind of belief or somewhat I think it's admitted just to work backwards teo the actual start of creation so from your perspective because you guys are always putting out like editorial style shoots in addition to like real weddings that all looks so beautiful so now that we have like the end in sight so the end is theoretically the wedding so how can what would you suggest for prospective brides are brides watching how can you work from backwards to the start and offering what's happened advice they should be considering as the kind of wedding clearly working with somebody like daniella is a good thing but what are some things that brides can keep keep in the forefront of their mind as they planned for the wedding with the end result of hoping getting featured like june bug or publication or submissions or anything like that sure well I think that regardless of what you want that product to be whether you do wanna you know have it published out there somewhere or whether you want to just have it for your own keepsake for the rest of your life that really the most important thing in my mind is that you find the things that you connect with that your wedding and your marriage mean to you what it's all about that it has to be based on something that's really meaningful if it's just uh you choose a color because you think it's pretty because your friends think that that's you know the way it ought to be or something that's kind of artificial r o r you know outside of you it doesn't have that strong of a connection and then it doesn't translate all the way through to the end um I think even if you know I've seen weddings that are absolutely gorgeous but if there's no personal connection to the bride and groom and why they chose that and what it really means to them personally it just it's have aged they feel stage itjust kind of lacks something and so when you know when you just when you can tell that the couple and their families are really you know this whole event is a representation of your lives and what this marriage means to you it just takes the whole thing to a whole other level and I I feel like that really translates through photos through everything that you can you can see that and uh that it really helps you know if you want to get it published that kind of thing really helps just be totally authentic one of the things I always ask my brides to do if they can or my couples is to give me something that's their point of inspiration and I had I have had brides give me a scarf that was meaningful to them you know they like the colors in the texture but it was meaningful one couple gave me the wrapping paper from the ring box you know it could be anything and usually and even though it sounds funny it's wrapping paper or it's a scarf or a tire I had once had a pair of shoes they were drawn to that object for something whether it was you know with silk you know the texture of fabric or the colors or something to them that was meaningful and sometimes it could be something in their home a piece of art or even a rug in their home and is meaningful to them they're drawn to it for some reason so then that gets into my hands and I can take that piece and I could translate that into their two corps or into what their cakes gonna look like you know but it having it come from actually you and something that's meaningful to you even if you don't know why it's meaningful to you but you're going to it that can make a huge difference and you can weave that into all the different aspects of your leading and make it so much more personal and then like you said christie it translates much more into something warm and personal versus if you just give me a picture out of a magazine like like this why do you like that you know I rather have something from you and then go from there is a jumping off point that answer your question doesn't it totally um and I would say also the other the other great thing just like jasmine said was working with professionals who are experts I know you know it's maybe not in everyone's budget to have every every single thing covered by the very best professional but if you can get that team in there to support you to really cover the things that mean the most to you if you're a photography person and you know I mean well I think what in coordinators in general that's kind of the base I really if anyone could do it I totally recommend working with an event planner wedding coordinator because they just it's like a world of difference for you and your stress level planning your wedding but then after that it's it's finding those right professionals that you we're really excited about that mean the most to you whether it's you know for your photography and your catering or if it's your you know your dress and the music are the thing that you really want to have so much on that day getting those people that our experts that can do it for you um it makes all the difference in the world as well because then you're not having to work on your wedding day or you know asking your friends to do so much that they can actually be there to enjoy the wedding themselves um excellent leading professionals are lifesavers yes and one thing that always had a lot of times I have seen couples say oh well you know what one of my bridesmaids really wants to help you be the plan on the day of the coordinator on the day of they don't want to they want to drink and they want to have a good time anyway to party with you and celebrate you they do not want to be coordinating the one evening they're wanted the wedding planner on that day there there for you and to celebrate you and they don't want to have that role as much as they might think at that point but that's something to think about if you are gonna have someone else a friend you know help with that process that have it someone that's not in the wedding party that's not a family members yep greet him laura so I'm gonna put you on the spot then and asked me to ask you what you think would be a point of inspiration for you what no object or something that you like or something that we could take and kind of as a jumping off point for decorating your wedding designing your wedding in four weeks well I brought this fabulous fab reveries that I found at a yard sale yard sale junkie on and I was planning on just decorating my entire wedding from new york sales but thankfully I don't have to do that now is a fabric drapery fabric that I found um but always scored on and I was sort of going with dive golds and really warm tone colors like brown sugar and gold and copper and things like that I don't know if you can see this very well on film but I know I'm actually watching a slightly delayed feed from the actual like ustream and so I could see the fabrication quite nice it's beautiful it's beautiful had like this beautiful lustre to it uh nice rich colors and I think so when I see this it makes me think that you know we've talked a little bit about what kind of venue you want laura you said you wanted something really rustic with a little bit of a juxtaposition so I can see that many are going to see like there's really almost a rough building with its a bond or something with a branch or something that's just a little bit more rough and then seeing the juxtaposition of chandeliers that you've mentioned that you've been collecting and beautiful really lux fabric like this and I love the idea of taking something that is old and worn and contrast ing it with more of like a modern stripe that still feels like a sort of retro you know I think that's absolutely beautiful and you know it's clear that you were drawn to it when you saw it and I think this this is exactly the thing that helps at least point us in direction and then go from there and have me give you some ideas of well do you like this or do you like that and then have you be able to make a choice from that versus kind of starting from nowhere and just starting from magazine tears or something that's this is a lot more easier to work with and I think it it makes it more personal and the end result will be a lot more personal in one hey laura I have a question for you just so that we have this document it and we're all in the same cage like what are some of the things that you're worried about and just still read a leg let it go what does he think that you're a little worried about as the entrance is this because more than anything I think that all of us from daniella to craig to chase to christy and everybody celestine sir and everybody onboard I think we all want to work really hard teo make sure that all your worries are put at they but let it rip but I want to know what you're scared like we skirt andi I think hoping the next three weeks we could work on line maybe minimizing I think that obviously having daniela is such a huge relief for me so people keep calling me and asking me oh my gosh what do you know what do you stress aboutthe way worried about the wedding at all I'm worried about having to make decisions on like who to cut from the guest list and you know where what am I going to do about my dress because I'm so indecisive and having to actually pull the trigger on that I'm worried about that and I'm worried about um and when am I gonna find time to get my roots done work out and tanned and get my teeth believes stem like way that's what I'm most worried about but the rest I mean the wedding I'm just I'm putting my complete faith and trust in you guys and just hoping that you all for me so I don't have to do it you know I have to say you know like that actually makes you feel really good because they're all really normal bride things to worry about so you're not alone like everybody's worried like wanting the roots done under tio dress yeah that actually makes you feel good because it's like you're still like this is still very much like a wedding thing like for me what I didn't want you worried about was like oh my god like what if jasmine socks or what if the wedding w worried is anything like normal worries that makes people better and but either way we'll all I'm sure worked really hard to make sure you will extraordinarily competent and I'm just not I'm already confident about that so you don't need to worry about that I'm just so relieved that I have this amazing team of people around me toe do it all for me I have to think I famous jazz like I'm glad that you're worried about normal things and not about the whole production cause it could very easily turn in to the fear in this dress about the whole production of it and I think all of us doing the production in a part of it really want to make sure that this is still for you all about the wedding and about the fact that you're getting married and not that it doesn't become overshadowed by what we're doing you know what we're doing should just kind of happen alongside and kind of behind the scenes I have this is sarah um I have some questions from the internet if you'd like to answer some of those um for laura we have a question why did you agree to do this wedding and especially you know having this wedding broadcast for learning photographers this is a very unique option so why did you decide to do that we'll both billy and I we've been engaged for over seven months so we mean I'm a wedding photographer by trade and so we we had kind of like pushed out our wedding date really far in order to make time for planning and to schedule out a block of time during the summer we wanted a summer wedding and we just neither of us really wanted to wait that long but there were all of these other things that were kind of in the equation for us that we had to put off our wedding for and we saw the date on the internet and it was just like the perfect storm we had nothing booked yet we had the weekend open and all of our family was coming into town for a family reunion for labor day weekend so it was like just we were like this could be a really amazing opportunity and all of those other things that we were worried about holding off for just didn't quite compared to the opportunity of having a free wedding with andi actually for those who don't know your photographer yourself right yes wedding photographer specifically I shoot weddings I also produce photo shoots for stock photographers and I do styling and kind of were a lot of hats but yeah um and this question is for daniella how many hours do you think you're going to put into planning this wedding well boy you will definitely be very concentrated hours you know it's hard teo say um you know we've got a great team here and I think the more people jump in and say hey like this you know I put a block post up about what we're doing and I instantly had this great gal email me and say hey you know I custom design jewelry I would love to do something for laura when ish and she come in and and let me design something for her so yes we'll definitely be in touch you and you know that kind of thing really helps because then that's one less thing that I have to jump on and try to find and so forth so the cool thing about doing something like this and sometimes things come out of the woodwork and people present themselves that we're interested in being you know doing something fun like this so things like needing your team please you know you know that but obviously I already have a lot of connections here in seattle on there's people that I love to work with but other people that want to be involved fabulous I think that that all helps but definitely you know we I've planned a wedding in ten days for a wish upon a wedding so this isn't the shortest wedding I've ever planned but definitely my lead times usually six months to twelve months to eighteen months for the really big ones so four weeks is a little bit of a challenge but they will be definitely a lot of late late nights involved for all of us yes yes s o this question is for jasmine how much of the wedding process do you usually get involved in when you're preparing to photograph a wedding I liked ideally I like to request a soft timeline about three to four weeks in advance if the bride and or the wedding coordinator or designer has it I'm late already yeah yeah clearly I like daniella I need a timeline you know I'm on it no for me it's after I have a consultation with a client and then I shoot her engagement session and pretty hands off up until about three to four weeks out from her wedding because a lot of times photographers have frustrations about approaching in a what approaching a wedding and feeling like they don't have enough time in a timeline but if they're not asking for the timeline until two days or three days before the wedding there's no there's no room for communication there's not they're not going to change the timeline two days before the event but if you're talking to the coordinator and oh are the designer and you have four weeks in advance just to at least have a conversation and explain this is how much time I'll need for a first look for this how much time I'll need to shoot the details before the guests come into the room having those test of conversations should likely occur three to four weeks out of the weddings that we could make small changes to the timeline impossible but other than that it's the designers job to do her job and it's the coordinator's job or the coroner's job to do her job so I'm not going to step in I just need to come explain where I'm coming from and explain ok I need fifteen to twenty minutes here and I need fifteen twenty minutes there and jasmine just so you know since you and I haven't had a chance to talk about this either usually I have a big checklist to that I used that I sent out to my photographers usually but six to four weeks out kind of ask you know what when how far in advance before the ceremony do you like to shoot the first look and how much time do you need for that are we doing family photos after that are are we doing it maybe during the cocktail hour you know when would you like to get your room shots and I make sure I talked to the service staff and everyone at the venue so that there's no one in the rooms you know putting down water anything so you can get that beautiful room shot so those are all things that I'll ask you what you need time for then that all gets built into the timeline so before timeline never goes out those things have already been talked about and put into it so to make sure that we're all on the same page laura do you want teo are you considering doing your family pictures before the ceremony yes oh this's why I love shooting photographers weddings because they like get it like it's a party and you don't want to miss so much of the first thank you julie if we theoretically we'll say hypothetically start the ceremony I don't know for maps steak at five o'clock well I would want laura tucked away by four thirty I would want to do family pictures from four to four thirty bridal party from three thirty two four and then a first look from two forty five two three thirty and that would be pretty much like an ideal situation so if I started if I started the first look at two forty five I would want laura addressed it to thirty and I would probably ideally like to be in the room by one thirty perfect you know how much we owe so yeah craig maybe we'll just move in here and we'll just have these sessions you know a couple times a day and we'll get the wedding planning a week pricking handle all the estrogen so I have another question from paula in ohio for jasmine um do you photograph everything leading up to the winning winning such a cz showers bachelorette party meeting with the cake flowers etcetera to put into an album no what what parts of the short answer is it's sort of short and there is no if somebody wants it plant what what want me to shoot let's just say that the rehearsal dinner I will charge a pretty hefty hourly rate because it's so much time and effort teo get t that particular location but at the same time off if it's advantageous for if I'm coming in from out of town and it's advantageous if the client is having like a rehearsal dinner two days out from the actual wedding if it's advantageous for the bride and groom and more cost effective for them to bring in like a different photographer that's fine because most of the time I've never had clients or I've never had clients put in the reversal dinner pictures into a wedding album because I feel like somewhat it disturbs like the flow of it because basically a wedding album is to document the wedding itself and most of the time for my experiences it starts the day of preparation and ins usually like it was dancing or an exit picture all right um uh yes oh I'm hearing my own voice okay so another question for jasmine how does the design theme of the wedding influence your photography style and for example when you saw laura's gold fabric what kinds of ideas started going through your head oh uh I'm actually I don't really photograph things differently according to the team that's actually going on I tried to just walk in and shoot it the way that the designer would want it in one really important thing to bear in mind is to always think about it from like an editorial perspective at least I do I try to shoot details in a manner that it tried one so I think on the wedding day of a wedding photographer has to think in as three or four different photographers I am a wedding photographer but then at some point in the daytime a photo journalistic photographer and other points daytime a lifestyle photographer and other points the date I'm a commercial photographer and other points of data on architectural photographer and it sounds absolutely crazy but it's kind of the nature of what we do so for as I'm shooting the detail photos I'm thinking like a commercial photographer so even if that means me having to re arrange foreign elements on the table itself because for instance I don't like salt and pepper shakers I don't like sugar packets I don't like butter I don't want bread there is nothing worse in those pink sugar packets right yeah this sugar packets all christy I'm sure we'll agree like when you get detailed photos and there's like salt and pepper shakers our ranch dressing your a little distracting yeah it just do it so I'm at that point to answer the russian short would be I'm thinking like a commercial photographer so I don't approach a situation saying this wedding is styled vintage so I'm going to shoot it like a memento photographer it's just I just shoot it like jasmine but I tried tio make sure that there's uniformity in how the end result will be achieved online and that makes such a huge difference because once in a while when you do have a client let's say that's on a bit of a budget we might have this beautiful floral arrangement but you know if you know because they're on a budget we might make a beautiful three ways around and the piece that's behind the back that no one sees is mostly greenery it doesn't have the expensive peonies and thirty dollars a stem orchids it's filled him with greenery well I've seen many a photographer go oh this would be a cool shot they go behind the floor management they shoot out and then gets published somewhere and you know they're just pictures of all these leaves it's not what the client wanted that's not what anybody wanted to see but photographers who don't know any better might do that so it's great jasmine that you know that and you know shoot with that artistic eye the editorial I and everything that ends up going being out there is something that you know the client wanted something that the designer wanted something that everyone can be proud is out there absolutely okay so if anybody else out there in the chat room has any questions feel free to to go ahead and ask them at the moment I'm running a little bit low so you do not have anything else to talk about there well I was gonna ask laura I haven't had a chance to talk with you since you got we went tio edy robin's the other day to look up brings met billy there which was really fun and I didn't haven't had a chance to ask you how that when if you guys made any decisions we have a call in to find out if wondering that I like khun b size but we are probably going teo order billy's ring and so he'll be wearing a fake ring the wedding but they're doing their best teo help us get them on time yes and speaking of which we have some video of your of your trip is well it's not as long it's not you'll appreciate that I think so no pictures of you and ice skating poses is yeah that was great so you're the rings ready to find a way wait wait said that booth no way we're gonna get that way style is way less metal foot more diamonds I love that thing wait wait wait it's great right to wear right good right tio no wait is there a way to get a close up of her engagement ring yeah good inspiration yeah it's very it's just beautiful have a vintage feel to it and so that's one of the things when we're looking at rings you're trying to find something that matched with it that didn't cut us a couple of overpowered it almost a little bit yeah so he went back to being a little bit simpler but something that had that vintage feel in the same coloration I love this ring it reminds me of what we're talking about that luxurious almost vintage feel and you know something building that's a little bit more rustic perhaps so this's the ranking often be a little bit of an inspiration as well like you said because I'll see brides with something really unique and modern then I'll see someone like this but something really vintage so that can say a lot about what you like even if you have a hard time voicing and I get a lot of rights that that like things but they don't know why they like come on have a hard time putting a voice to what they like and they'll pull you know fifty pictures from a magazine and don't know why they like those so it's great to look through and see things like this that help clarify that you have another question way question from um jasmine how do you get your couples to trust your ideas and to play along with you oh I think that a lot of it is established if you can believe it it sounds crazy but I think a lot of that is a lot of the trust is established online it's done not in person so I tried teo kind of sharing it syrian ce or two either on my website or on my vlog and all try always to showcase images that will solicit trust in the future from not my president clients but from future clients so I know that it probably sounds crazy is not a definitive answer but I think that the more the more I put myself out online and out on the web people will somehow connect with it and so when I ask them when I asked a ride to lay on the floor she will and she trusts that I want the best photo and I will always take care of her dress too so well yeah I guess putting you're putting yourself out there on the web makes the bride feel like they know something about you if you have absolutely story out there already absolutely um so now that we've heard your ideal timing for the wedding day when the schedule is tighter how do you how do you work with that how do you cut things down uh like so yesterday's I shot a wedding on saturday so we had a first look scheduled at two forty five and they were just finishing up make up to forty five so all of a sudden you kind of goingto like oh my god we're going to a different type of reconnaissance mode and so it's just just shoot everything so trying tio approached the makeup artist in the hair designer like I went up to them away from the bride I didn't want to have the conversation in front of the bride to let her know that I was stressed so I just wanted to know what it was like hey you know we're supposed to be starting pictures right about now is there any way that we can expedite this just to ensure that the timeline is saved and that we get the possible best pictures for your portfolio as well because I know that the makeup designer wants good pictures and hair designer wants good pictures so if I we have to work as a team so if I can explain to them that it's in their best interest tio hurry as much as possible then we can and we were running a little bit late but then you just work faster I know that it sounds ridiculous but you know I don't have any other way to explain it you just gotta get done yeah I mean like you were bad you know from a planning perspective to one of the things I try to do is you know I'll ask the hairdresser and the last to make a person how much time they need and then a buffer and more you know you are like we were talking about earlier about walk working backwards so I'll always add another fifteen twenty minutes to each of those things and fifteen to twenty minutes in between even if they're in the same spot and if they're not in the same spot that now at least forty five minutes and you're allowed to get from one place to their because something always runs late and so throughout that time line I always you know I had fifteen minutes here half an hour buffer here so one that when things do go behind schedule that you know there's a way to kind of make up for last time and to just to make the whole day relax for the bride and the bridal party she doesn't wanna rush from one things to the next she wants to be ableto just sit there and relax and have the whole process to be really fun for her and feel good about it versus feeling like there's a constant time pressure well there's also the other question jasmine what if the bride and groom don't want to see each other before the wedding ceremony how do you work with that in terms of timing um well I just again it goes back to having a conversation in open communication the wedding that I shot before last weekend's wedding they didn't want to have a first look and so I explained to her in advance that the time that we would have to photograph her and her husband would be abbreviated and it's not the ideal working situation but because she really wanted to have that moment as she walked down the aisle I just explained to her that I would need more than just sixty minutes on like during a traditional cocktail hour it's sixty minutes but you have sixty minutes for bridal party pictures for family pictures with the media and extended writing room photos toxin our photos and then also have like reception detailed photos I had called her what in coordinator and I just explained I said I need to get at least fifteen or twenty minutes extra in the cocktail hour if you want to get the wedding details and because of righted but so much time and effort into the details she said fine we'll extend the cocktail hour for twenty minutes and that's it I'm kind of how I approach a situation and again it just goes back to work and fast and having open communication and explaining to the bride that family pictures cannot go beyond you know twenty five minutes and everybody who was there for the family pictures has to be there for the family pictures and if they're not there for the family pictures then we'll just do that at some point during the reception so we'll set up if a family member mr family shot I don't mind shooting another family shot later on throughout the reception it just won't be where the family formals all originally took place but again it's just picking up and running because you have such a short amount of time yeah and considering speaking of the short amount of time that we have question is for laura from audrey what might you there's probably gonna be the compromises on the on the way to this because of the short timeline so there audrey is curious as to what is it that you feel like you not going to compromise on what one of the most important things to you to get right well um yeah to say the least there's gonna be some compromises um and there are quite a few things we're not really willing to compromise on uh we're still going to do a wedding invitation it's gonna be more like an announcement because we don't know where the wedding is going to be so where it worked kind of thing you our we're kind of we're kind of like celebrities were telling a fake locate shin and then we're gonna call on the night before me like just kidding it's going to be here just to avoid all the paparazzi waiting to get away from the public so um I don't know I guess we're not really having to make too many compromises as faras like the types of things that we want for our wedding but uh we're having to sacrifice a lot of people being there that's pretty big because it is such short notice but um I guess I hope that answers the question believe that does cover that one I have another question from from milky in the tack room for jasmine um how would you encourage wedding photographers who are just starting out to find their own style will be definitely addressing this during the during the life of course in a couple weeks so I would love to answer that then as well because I don't want to take too much attention away from this planning meeting and laura's like big day but as like a little appetizer as a teaser finding a style really depends not on your photography it's going to depend a lot more on you as a person in your personality so we'll talk a little bit a little bit more about that as we approach the day but that's kind of just like a little a little morsel to what your pellet and another question from life camera action um what does your standard wedding package usually include um are there isn't an album and prince or is what can we look forward to seeing from this well for for laura we are going to do like a slightly different thing and I'm pretty open and laura have your cause it to I explained to laura that it would be more advantageous for her because she is an industry she doesn't need to use me as a middle man I'm going to shoot her wedding and on process her images through light room and she will be getting a disc of high res images and she'll be able to put together a novel on her own and getting enlargements and prince as she sees that well that sounds good hey yeah um so do we have any other questions we would like to ask our guests well I don't want to be like totally rude and act diva but I do have a conference call like in the next few minutes so I don't know if that's gonna affect it I'm so sorry oh no that's fine we're just about red ready to wrap up here anyway but I'm thinking like your phone over and just talk about the style of the wedding itself but I will be happy to fill you in I don't know well can you wait give me a morsel or happy to give you more so I know craig if you have the pictures ready one of the things that I talked about with laura is color palette and it was before I saw this beautiful feet piece of fabric but in terms of color palette she was she knew already that she was really drawn toe warmth and two metallics and um and wanted a bolt of color with that and so I basically worked at five different inspiration boards just based on playing around with metallics and adding in a bolt of color and we kind of talked about you know what colors would be good what colors would not be good she didn't want orange or billy didn't want orange I'm sorry I didn't work with orange but we played around with short truce yellow coral and so we can take a look at these really quickly if that's something that you could do craig take control daniela you're just so here's yellow we paired it with a pewter just because I thought that would look you know there's a constant bit of contrast rose so that kind of pewter platinum color with the yellow you know has a little bit of that juxtaposition again with the the rough and the lux that we were talking about so some different elements and the idea of maybe like a barn that has really rough wood and then having beautiful chandelier hanging beautifully set table in just some different and this is basically just to see what are those college look back together when you look at this you know what does that make you feel like laura does that seem like it's warm does it make you feel inviting isn't like oh that's to much how do you feel when you see those colors I love it I love I love everything about it I love the setting of the pewter with the with the yellow on top of it great all right well let's move to the next one and feel free laura if you don't like something say so like that that's that helps in in general when you see things when you're looking through designers you know portfolio say what you don't like us much is what you like because we're not gonna take it personally and if we do we'll let you know but you know it helps to figure out what what it is that you want this one was a short truce and so we make structures with copper because again I like that kind of the cool warm tone of the short truce against that really rich brown sugar copper color on so those are the two colors we use in this one so what what kind of thoughts slips do you have when you see the short truce in the copper it feels really modern to me and maybe that's just because of the tone of the green but I think adding in that copper color makes it more um rich rich yeah definitely well on to the next one this one was supposed to be mostly fuchsia with some metallic somehow some purple snuck in there on dino purple we talked about this after we looked at this is that purple isn't one of your favorite colors and it's not really favorite of mine but you know we could kind of imagine it without the dark tower block doesn't feel very feminine to me yes it is very feminine and frilly yes which billy probably wouldn't appreciate e I have done weddings where I'm hitting pink flowers on the guys like that all right so that's my next month's also we've already eliminated him which is fabulous so this is coral call and goals coral is one of those college you have to be really careful with it can be really beautiful it's a great summer color if imagine just melons and different coral tones it can go really icky sweet really quick it can get too peachy or two salmon e so you have to be really careful I like if you look in the left hand upper corner the gold's mixed with the coral can be really rich really beautiful when you look at the picture of the they could dress the gown like that to me is going a bit too much but you could've from you know the basic idea like the favors you know the gold's on the coppers in that coral tone I like the idea of that what do you think when you see this I think of um think of summer when I see this and I really I agree with you I think the upper left hand corner is definitely feels more luxurious and less um like pinky so yeah and then the last one we have is cobalt blue when other reasons I picked this color as you know just to kind of show you as an accent colors because you could talk to me about these fabulous shoes that you might get that air these yeah it's beautiful cobalt blue color so um you know this would be again the copper and the cobalt blue is a really pretty combination you know you could add in some gold as well to make it even more rich cobalt blues and this particular color palette is you have to be a little bit careful with it when you stalk about flowers because there's definitely only so many blue flowers and I'm never ever going to die a flower so don't ask but what do you think when you see this I really love this combination it feels more evening more luxurious but I agree with you I would definitely stay away from blue flowers and they go with like a white or a creative something yeah so I could see these really rich beautiful satin cobalt blue linens with beautiful napkins really beautiful textured cream flowers and in some sort of copper container and then copper accents and maybe bringing in some of that goal and just making it really sumptuous and sexy and beautiful and evening and lush especially again against that combination of something more raw and rustic in the background absolutely fabulous I feel like we have a couple of good ideas and hopefully in the next day we can narrow it down to one and go from there wonderful does that help jasmine totally I think it's funny because just from knowing laura I after looking at the designs like it's definitely the first in the last just look a lot more like her so and they're so beautiful like so see your inspiration boards are seriously beautiful and I can't thank you enough from the bottom of my heart for all the hard work that you're putting into you are such a team player and I know that laura is in such good hands so you know it's a joy for me as well so I'm excited to finally get the chance to work with you so okay good so much love alright ladies well thank you again craig thank you I appreciate it and I wish you guys the best it's cale all right they're all your designs and now I want to be honest these definitely aren't mine designed like I definitely just you know because we have such a short time frame I just pulled pictures off online so sometimes some of my designs will be in his but definitely these these aren't all my work's definitely since we're broadcasting this on the internet and I'm always very honest when I do mood boards like this that it's really just here's some work that's out there I just want to get your gut reaction to it see how you feel about these colors and these textures and so forth and then you know once we have narrowed down a color palette then we start putting our own work into it so I don't want to say this is my work or you know all we did is basically put textures and colors and pictures together and there's definitely some amazing work that's being done out there that we get to uh play around with so christy do you have any input on like when people do mood boards and inspiration boards is not something that you guys usually feature on june bug but sometimes sometimes that you know the end result definitely shows up from someone who's started with that process I think that there are really really handy way to start to get your idea of what style and you know the colors the look the general atmosphere the feel of the whole day that you want to communicate I think that keep in mind when you're using them that you it's not too literal you know if someone if you if you build one for yourself then you get too attached to it and then it's not exactly the same it could be really disappointing or you know kind of stop you in your tracks but to use them as a great tool just to give you a great jumping off point to then make it your own I think is the tool um where is the key to using them really well we definitely build them on june by we post them on our block uh fairly often we love teo you know both showcased the work of all the wedding professionals we work with and then at the same time the most fun for me is when brides write in and say hey I'm having this wedding here's my my ideas but I I'm not a visual person I don't know howto do this could you give me a little guidance so for me it's a fun project teo get to put them together and you know just give a little hopefully give a little inspiration to them since I do spend most of my days looking at it so many beautiful images but actually daniel I was gonna ask you when you are using these the difference between the yellow the first one with the yellows and the goals and the last one with a cobalt blue because they're such different the couple who is so much darker richer and then the yellow could be so light when you're approaching a wedding and designed to you think of it or what air your dipshit general rules how you approach a very light color palette versus a very rich and dark color palette do you need mohr of one like the cobalt blue do you just need less of that color to make to communicate it or or is it does not matter it definitely matters one of the things you look for for example you could do this like the yellow color palette in the evening but you would have to play up the metallics more if you have a very light colors knew something yellow can be more casual and more daytime and so if we're having a really luxurious evening you know event then we would really want to play up the richness the metallics the goals you know and so forth with the cobalt blue it's already feeling like a really evenings in kind of a sumptuous color and we don't have to have that much of it to get that feeling across and all of the colors in that color palette metallics and the cobalt are very rich and so they're gonna lend themselves more to an evening event one of the things that's always really critical especially for photography and geography is lighting if you're going tohave an event that has you know deep blues and gold and those kinds of colors you need to have really good lighting and bringing in a professional lighting person that can showcase all that you know if you have a room that's you know really darkly lit because you want the romantic candlelight so you have these dark centerpieces in these dark linens but you don't like them properly you're never gonna see that you're gonna walk in a room and see a bunch of dark blobs and so lighting them probably they're having pin spots from the ceiling or even from you know high up on a wall and highlighting those tables makes all the difference in the world so when you're seeing you know inspiration boards or you're seeing things and magazines and you had to see these beautiful centerpieces that pop off the table is because they've been lit properly and so lighting is one of those things that's often overlooked when you're designing event because not a lot of people know it put professional lighting and all the things that go into making event look as amazing as that but it takes the amazing photography the great eye the lighting the flowers themselves and so forth and I'd add in photography especially considering that considered your lighting when you're thinking about your wedding photography if you're really interested in getting your wedding published and you're you know so that means you probably have to have a lot of details photographed of the you know the table settings and the favours and all the extras if you don't have it lit well or if you don't give the photographer time where there's no one in there maybe they can adjust the lighting a little bit bring it up a little bit from where it would be during the rest of the event then they're gonna have a really hard time capturing those details as they're meant to be seen in that beautiful way that a magazine would be able to print them or website would be able to show them you know with really good consistency in the photos so that lighting is a hugely important thing t just think about it consider and determine how important it is to you and your goals for your day that goes back to getting that planning process of working backwards a little bit so when you know that will set a good you know twenty minutes for that photographer tohave room shots as I call him to completely empty you're out the room I know the server wants to put the butter down in the water glasses down but they you know we build that into the schedule they know ahead of time this is the photographer's time and we will we'll bring up the lights a little bit you know might not look is romantic but when it's translated to film you know we need that light to create that picture you know to actually get the details of all the things that will look good magazine and that you'll have in your album you know so even if you're not worried about wanting to be you know editorial you want those images of what the day was like and we working together as a team know how to make that happen so I just wanted to bring up there's a question in the chat room regarding if we've looked narrowed down any of the location options yet and I know that we have a back up plan but um I don't know that it's our ideal thought do we have any thoughts about that well the war hasn't seen it um I just saw our backup spot this morning I love it I'm always up for a challenge and there's nothing I like more than having a blank space and getting to take the bride and groom's ideas and creating that in a space that has nothing in it so the space that we looked at this morning is just this empty brick building with big huge windows and the frosted windows so it's not really really bright and I just that kind of thing just get me excited because I really like I could imagine her chandeliers and this beautiful fabric hanging and I mean I could do anything with that so as a designer like for me to have a blank space versus fighting with the carpet and the things in the ball room like that that makes my heart saying so but you know we're looking at a couple different ideas you know we're looking at a hotel we're looking at doing a couple different photo studios so we've got a couple options out there that were still playing with a no jasmine for her was really important to her is really a lot of natural light and so we're keeping that on consideration it be nice to have a venue that's all set up you know what with the catering is in house and everything is really easy considering there's gonna be so many different things to consider but I think we've narrowed it down to maybe four five spots were still hoping that something else maybe drops in her lab and in the next three days or so we're gonna narrow that's my goal and I think craig would sleep better at night as well I would definitely sleep better at night if I had made the decision but actually this is since we've got the internet on the line let's let's describe what we're looking for in case in the next three days we have our we have our backup great idea we have a back up this is a four week wedding and I'll tell you we had three backups originally until wait go lower the bride that had too many friends so all of our backup plans went out the window so we literally were scrambling for locations we've now got a blood back up plan in case we don't find another venue but let's pull out to the world that we're looking for a venue in seattle that can hold about two hundred people that's got a lot of one fifth what kind of pared it down a little bit so we're hoping more for like one twenty five to one fifty so one hundred twenty five one hundred fifty guests plus a camera crew plus the camera crews camera crew in the seattle area um do you have to have good internet or being an area that we can pipe in good internet I mean that's something we can take care of it if it's order a bowl in your area on we need to have a lot of natural light for jasmine to be able to do our thing this is the opportunity if someone has a space out there it could be a space that is not designed for what has never been used for winning this could be our opportunity to find something to do with that space um this could be a space that is for lisa's communal commercial spaces really cool that you never even thought about until someone online started mentioning it it could be an old restaurant that for some reason you know is is he is out of business right now you know there's been a lot of change over and businesses could be a barn out somewhere that's got internet that's the tricky part so we have basically basically three or four days that we're going to open ourselves up for that kind of amazing that winston serendipitous moments that might come up so if anyone online has a place in seattle you would love to see a jasmine star photo shoot about the amazing photos you're going to get I mean if you want some great media here it isthe absolutely and we've got to get with it oh and it needs to be that and our producers actually reminding me to mention the days that need to be available which is basically august twenty six and twenty seventh ideally august twenty fifth through the twenty seventh of the days that we need to be available so we're going to be putting out this video later so we'll just kind of remind people that you know if someone has a space in seattle and wants to be part of a really cool online wedding and photo shoot speak up very quickly so I think we're ready to wrap up today's show and we'll be back by the way same time next week and we'll discuss more about what's going on with the wedding and how it's progressing fabulous

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

This is an amazing event to be involved in - and I feel as if I was involved all the way in Switzerland! Jasmine Star is so natural and genuine in front of the camera that she makes you feel as if you are her best friend. Seeing her shoot, watching the way that she uses the natural light and being walked through the problems you might encounter is invaluable. Even if you are not interested in photography or weddings, her business advice is spot on. Creative Live and Jasmine did an amazing job and I am so glad I bought the course. To be able to go back to a video and see how something was done, again and again is well worth the price. I'm also exciting to be contributing to new workshops for 2011 - can't wait to see what you guys come up with! It's true that some of the footage has yet to come through (would love to see the bridal prep stuff!) but it was so exciting to see the new footage of Laura and Billy outside, I think it will be worth the wait. Buy this course and be truly inspired! Emma Godfrey

a Creativelive Student
 

I watched this live back in August 2010 and since the first day it was on my list to buy. Finally bought it as part of the end of year pack in December 2010 and only just got around to watching the full five days. I'm not a wedding photographer, nor do I have plans to become one any time soon. I was interested in this course because of the business sessions on marketing, branding and so on. If you're interested in becoming a wedding photographer this is a must buy no question. If, like me, you're only interested in the business sections this is a valuable course, but there is a better option available from CreativeLIVE. The new 'Building your Wedding Photography Business' course by Jasmine consolidates all this business information from this course into a two day course. Another good addition to your to buy list should be Children's Portrait Photography with Tamara Lackey. This has by far the best business section of any of the CreativeLIVE courses. Combined these two courses and you will be set up and profitable in no time. Back to this wedding course. As others have said there are audio issues here and there but they are at worst annoying and don't really effect the overall experience. I think you can see from the course content if you are an aspiring wedding photographer this is the course for you. Five days of content from an award winning wedding photographer. As I'm not a wedding photographer I can't really add much more. I just wanted to say it's a great course. Fun to watch. Invaluable information. I really appreciate CreativeLIVE being here to offer these courses. Thanks guys!

a Creativelive Student
 

Jasmine is an amazing educator, who really gave it her all in this stellar course! Love how detailed her instructions were - down to such nuances as the bride's shoulder position! Big thanks to Jasmine and creativeLIVE for bringing this wealth of information to the community. Totally worth the buy! I can appreciate how grassroots and "live taping" the filming approach is, but I think I wouldn't mind giving most of that flavor up in favor of a more edited version :) You know - cut out the bits where the camera is just recording black and the pieces missing audio. And where is this missing footage promised from the guy you can see taping Jasmine from across the street?? Anyway, amazing course, and hopefully you guys can figure out the video/audio/mic stuff so that it doesn't get in the way of absorbing all this amazing content.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES