4 ways your choice of celebrant can make or break your wedding photos

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Do you want the most perfect photographs of your wedding? Ones that capture all the feels, tell the story of the day, show the beauty of your relationship, and trigger the perfect memories? Of course you do. And your choice of photographer has a lot to do with that. But so does your choice of celebrant. In fact, your choice of celebrant can make or break your wedding ceremony, your wedding memories, and, in both surprising and not-so-surprising ways, your wedding photos, both professional photos, and those candid shots taken by your guests.

The confronting truth is that your celebrant can make, or, please no, ruin your photos. It comes down to four things that are all within the control of your celebrant:

• How well your celebrant understands what a professional photographer needs
  
• The content of your ceremony, not just the words, but the emotions they generate, together with the choreography, how people move within the ceremony space
• What your celebrant wears
• Where everyone, including your celebrant, stands, and how they stand
  

How well your celebrant understands what a photographer needs

The importance of hiring a skilled, professional, photographer for your wedding can never be overstated. Lock in the best one you can, as soon as you can. But, be aware that the photos you end up with won't be down to your photographer alone.

Your celebrant's experience, knowledge, and all round being considerate of your photographer as a fellow professional, is key to your photographer being able to deliver photos that will touch your heart and bring back happy memories.

As a celebrant, erstwhile photographic model, and keen amateur photographer, and veteran of well over 1,200 legal and non-legal weddings, I've got a really good handle on what the person behind the camera needs to make sure your photos are wonderful.

• Something to photograph! That sounds obvious, but if your ceremony is talking heads your photographer's options are limited.
  
• Freedom to move around. Some of that is down to the venue. A chapel without side aisles is limiting. But a lot of it is down to how your celebrant sets the ceremony up, and whether the celebrant puts restrictions on the photographer (I don't).
  
• Available light. Again, this partly down to the venue and the time of day, but it can be impacted on how the celebrant sets the ceremony up.
  
• Verbal clues that iconic moments are about to unfold.
• Minimising of the need to photoshop unwanted details and celebrant body parts out of the photos.
  

Your ceremony content - words, actions, emotions

Great wedding photos start in the celebrant's mind, how the celebrant thinks. 

It's very much about the content of your ceremony, which means it is very much about

• how well your celebrant's process taps into who you are, your personalities
• how well your celebrant's process draws out of you the little gems of insight and events that make up your story
• how skilled your celebrant is at asking the right questions
• how creative your celebrant is
• how skilled a wordsmith your celebrant is
• how skilled your celebrant is at choreographing the ceremony
• how expert a stage manager your celebrant is

What your celebrant wears

Ask any wedding photographer and they will tell you that an unfortunate choice of celebrant outfit can take over in your ceremony photos. It's not just about the celebrant's personal style, it's about

• wearing anything that will draw the eye in photographs (red is notorious for this)
  
• wearing florals and wild prints that attract attention, can clash with the wedding party, and may cause problems with exposure and focus, particularly if anyone is taking photos on their phone
• wearing anything that might create a huge reflection or flash of light in photos
  
• wearing anything that might compete with or upstage your mothers
• and for videographers, anything that clinks, jangles, or rustles loudly
  

Read more about my take on What a celebrant wears

Where and how your celebrant tells you to stand and where and how your celebrant stands

There are historical reasons and "celebrant showcasing" reasons for how couples think they have to stand - both of which don't apply and can get in the way of your guests seeing your faces, and will also make it difficult for your photographer to take emotion-filled photos of both of you, rather than having to move around to capture your faces one at a time.

And then there's the other way - facing your guests, holding hands, celebrant body parts well and truly out of the picture. Much better.

Read more about my take on
The 3 Reasons Where and How You Stand during Your Wedding Ceremony is Important