Timing is everything. It sets the tone and feeling of your wedding day, and can be the difference between a relaxing day with your loved ones to a scary stress-fest.
I mean, you came all the way to Italy. You asked your friends to hop flights with all these connections. You picked the perfect place – we agree – but then you hurried. You timed things wrong. Now the whole thing feels rushed.
This whole “let’s have our wedding in Tuscany” shenanigan is supposed to be about slowness. Being connected. La dolce vita.
If getting married in the Italian summer, chances are you can get pretty wild with your timeline. With the sun not setting until well past 8pm in the middle of summer, chances are you’re gonna have a day filled with light.
But hey, there’s a limit. And it might be cloudy. You never know! Our main tip is to consider scheduling your ceremony for a little earlier than you originally considered. Little things happen, timelines sometimes get a little stretched – and if not careful, you might miss out on this beautiful Italian light.
Do ask us what our opinion is. Are you having a first look? Are we doing the portraits before the ceremony? All of this plays a role on what time you put down on those beautiful invitations you’re making. Natural light is the one thing to make our work look good. No sense in not having us doing the best we can do.
You picked your dress two years ago. You hauled it across the globe. You’re wearing your grandmother’s earrings. Things could be perfect, but you didn’t realize there’s a neon green wall in your room. Now everything is green. Good times.
Kindly ask your makeup artist to set you up near a large window. Oh, and plan on being totally ready around an hour early so you can sip some bubbly in style – or at least have your bridal portraits properly taken by the Marilia-master.
Details do matter. Your grandmother’s ring matters. The stationery and invitations you picked out matter. They are all part of your story.
As soon as we get to wherever you’re getting ready, we will start photographing all these details. We kindly ask you to have your wedding dress, shoes, jewelry, family heirlooms, accessories and other details from your wedding you would like to have photographed ready by the time we arrive. That way we can start working on these photographs before or while you first start getting ready.
This also includes all your stationery/invitation suite – without any creases. Your welcome bag. Your calligraphy and envelopes. Whatever details you think may help tell the story of your wedding in Tuscany. We are going to style the heck out of everything and it’s going to be glorious.
We have a secret to share: A lot of those photos you looked at (and saved as references of your perfect wedding photos) before getting married, of couples in stunning locations, were taken before the ceremony.
Taking your portraits before the ceremony (as well as those beautiful family and bridal party formal portraits) is a way to ensure we have more time to create and make you two look awesome. It also means that after the ceremony, you’re free. Free to enjoy your cocktail hour. Free to enjoy your lovely jazz trio. Free to stand in your receiving line without worrying about time, or about getting dirty from your cousin’s makeup.
You planned this moment for years. You wrote out your vows. Your boo is crying happy tears at the altar. Guests are weeping. The officiant says you may kiss each other. You hired the best photographers on planet earth. Then your uncle steps in front of us with his iPad and ruins the photo.
You planned this moment for years. You wrote out your vows. Your boo is crying happy tears at the altar. Guests are weeping. The officiant says you may kiss each other. You hired the best photographers on planet earth. Then your uncle steps in front of us with his iPad and ruins the photo.
This is a true story. It has happened before. Many times.
We are all for family and guests taking pictures with their phones during the wedding. But having your officiant kindly requesting guests to fully enjoy the ceremony without phones (or larger devices) for your wedding in Tuscany isn’t rude at all. This is Italy, the sun is shining. Questo momento è troppo bello per essere sprecato davanti uno schermo. Google translate that. We’re here. We got this. These pictures are going to look oh-so-good.
Oh yeah, don’t forget that clark gable-esque kiss at the end of the ceremony.
This ties in perfectly with the previous tip. Story time: Frankie’s grandpa has photos of his Italian family at his wedding. Frankie didn’t know about these photos until his grandfather pulled them out of this beautiful little box a few years ago at his mom’s house. His grandparents were born in the 1920s and got married in the 40s. These photos are beautiful and really made us think about their importance.
These portraits need to be looked at as a crucial part of the wedding day. Your other photos are beautiful to share on social media and with your friends – but these will last generations.
As long as you plan for, and allot time for these portraits, they are quick and painless. We will ask you for a list of specific people you may want to include in these formal portraits. We will ask about any specific groupings dynamics, such as stepparents and divorced parents. We’ll get through this and these photos will be glorious.
Even if done just the day before the wedding, these photos are the best way for us to get to know each other. I mean, we’re in Italy, you’re usually somewhere else. Even if we hit it off on Skype and Instagram, even if we have lots of coffee in Florence a year before the wedding, we’re probably not going to get much time together.
This may seem a little trivial to you, but it’s a way for you to feel more at ease with us. I mean, we’re lighthearted, fun, and super modest – there’s no way you wouldn’t feel instantly at ease with us. But this is the best way for you to just let us in on your wedding day.
And letting us in is the only way we can really capture you, your families, and the essence of your wedding in Tuscany. If we’re not part of the experience, if we’re just looking in from outside, these photos won’t feel as meaningful.
We’re in this for the money. It’s our work. We put in countless hours of work into every wedding we photograph. We had to write this thing you’re reading. We built this website. We reply to your emails and Instagram messages. It’s always us. From going to the bank to removing that little blemish on your nose – it’s all us. So we charge what we think we’re worth.
But we’ll let you in a little secret: We’re really proud of the work we make. We want it to look good. We want you to love the photos. We want your family and friends to love the photos – and yes – we want to love the photos. It’s personal for us. Like it is for many “vendors” that chose to work with weddings.
To us, it’s something we create. It’s our passion. We’re go above and beyond, not only because of the money. Probably because we’re proud and we want our work to get better and better.
So trust us. Be vulnerable. Make sure you want to be photographed when you hire us. We want to take your photos. We have been doing this for over ten years. We have been to hundreds of weddings. Trust our experience. With that trust, you can be free to be yourself. To feel at ease. And we’ll feel free. Trust us wholeheartedly, and we’ll give you gold.
There isn’t a way to stress this enough. We’re stressing this so you don’t have to stress. There are things you don’t even imagine that come with planning a wedding. Planning a wedding in Tuscany (or anywhere else), from abroad, is a thousand times more difficult.
Let a good planner worry so you can be free to enjoy all of your wedding. But do make sure you chose a planner that understands your desires and your needs. This is your wedding. It needs to be what you want it to be.
A good planner will be thorough and open to your ideas. They’ll be firm but calm. Open and kind. To us, it’s even more necessary they understand the needs of a modern-day wedding photography duo. And that they’re kind-hearted patient humans that are nice to be around for such a long time, you’re gonna spend a lot of time with them.
Reach out to us. We have a lot of friends that would do an incredible job at making your wedding in Tuscany or anywhere in Italy happen flawlessly.