Hi everyone!


Today's blog post is going to be a major recap on a wedding I shot this summer. This wedding took place at The Backyard in McKinney, TX. The bride was a past client of mine that I shot a grad session for and later came to one of my Christmas mini sessions last year. While I didn't make a habit of taking full sized weddings this year due to my work schedule, I made an exception for returning clients because I'm always loyal to my clientele. The more I've worked with someone, the more comfortable they are with working with me so it makes it that much easier down the line.


So let's talk logistics - this wedding was 6 hours of coverage, shot on both digital and film, it consisted of two consultation calls before the wedding alongside my clients and their wedding coordinator to go over details and the timeline for the day of, no travel fees were included because the drive was within my range. The client was promised a 4 week delivery timeframe as well as a minimum of 300 digital photos delivered in an online gallery, and all the film photos that came out well. The total cost of this wedding was $1.190.75 (based on 2023 pricing which is when my client booked her wedding package), and I allow a maximum of up to 4 separate payments so only a 25% deposit was required to confirm the booking and proceed with the planning of the big day.

The starting time for this wedding day was 2:30pm and I started with the detail shots. My bride put together a box with details such as the veil, the sleeves to her dress, her necklace, the rings, as well as her shoes. It was an extremely hot day but the bridal suite was a tight fit with family and a large bridal party, so I decided to do the detail shots I could take outside. The only thing I left inside was the wedding dress. After I shot all the details, I got some shots of the dress inside. The original plan was to then move on and do the groom and groomsmen getting ready photos, but most of them were not prepared and were running errands for the wedding so I got a couple shots of the boutonniere being pinned to the groom, and ran back to the bridal suite to get the bride's getting ready photos and dress reveal to the bridal party. We then did the bride's photos with her parents, her bridal party, and her solo bridal photos outside to incorporate the colors and style of the venue. I then moved back over to the groom's suite to get the shots of the groom with his father, brother, father of the bride and groomsmen. We finished off the getting ready portion with the groom's solo portraits.

Next up was the ceremony portion of the day which began around 4:00pm. The venue had golf carts to shuttle the wedding party from the bride and groom's suites, so we walked over to the ceremony and reception area of the venue and got the detail shots at the entrance, and some detail shots of the ceremony area and some details inside the reception area. The entire ceremony took place outside and was gorgeous and simple with a wooden arch. The processional walked in, and the processional began. I captured the groom's reaction to the bride walking in, as well as the bride walking in with her parents. I moved around the ceremony area to make sure as many angles were captured. Rings were exchanged and the bride and groom kissed and then walked back down the aisle and did another kiss at the end (which is something I always recommend to my couples to do). In this instance, it was a little difficult because there seemed to be a little miscommunication with one of the bridesmaids who was expecting to follow the bride and groom out of the ceremony, and she was kind of in the way and hovering in the back of the photos of the couple kissing at the end of the aisle. So one of the biggest things I now tell my couples looking to book weddings with me, is to make sure they wait for the bride and groom to be done and out of the aisle before having the wedding party exit. We then went inside the barn where the reception was to take place and captured their private vows.

Next up were the family portraits, which we shot in the ceremony area to make use of the wooden arch, then we moved to the entrance of the venue to do bridal party and wedding party photos, as well as a few bride and groom portraits while cocktail hour went on. After cocktail hour, we proceeded with the reception. There was a mariachi band which was to enter first, followed by the wedding party, and finally the bride and groom. If there was anything I could change about this moment, it would be to have staggered the entrances. At this particular wedding, the wedding party was directly behind the mariachi band, and then the bride and groom were directly behind the wedding party, so it was difficult to get standalone shots of the entrances, other than the mariachi band. This was a big learning experience for me since every wedding reception entrance is different, so I should have communicated the staggering of the entrances to everyone as well as the wedding coordinators so that could have been better captured. It was a good thing to learn for next time. The rest of the reception proceeded with some speeches by the bride and groom, and the bride's mom. They did a small cake cutting, and then went around the reception to speak to all their guests to greet them. This was followed by their first dance and then the guests proceeded to eat and mingle, so I captured some of that and then it was time for the guests to dance with the bride and groom.

The final part of the wedding day was the bride and groom's sunset portraits. We walked and shuttled around the property making sure to capture the couple around the venue and get as much of the venue's charm and details in the photos like the longhorns in their stable and being able to feed them, the vintage car styled golf cart, the truck fountain by the groom's suite. The wedding day ended for me around 8:30pm and that was the entire day!

Overall, it was a great wedding day despite the Texas heat and I managed to capture some great shots on film and digital. One of the biggest things I learned was that having a second-shooter for a full sized wedding would have made such a difference, I definitely felt like I needed to be in two places at once and felt a little rushed at certain parts of the day, but other times, I felt like flying solo was perfectly fine, but in those times having a second-shooter would have been a benefit to be able to capture digital and film at the same time. This is why I've adjusted my pricing when it comes to weddings because elopements, micro-weddings, and weddings are all different and have different requirements and needs. If you want a visual recap of the day, I have a YouTube vlog of the behind the scenes of the wedding day and what the final photos looked like. I did forget my tripod this day (rookie mistake) so I did struggle with making sure as much footage was captured for it but I did my best!

XOXO, MATHILDA