Welcome back to our series on Timeline Tips and scheduling your wedding photography coverage! If you missed the first few you can check them out here:

Previous Timeline Series Posts:

01. Getting Ready to Get Ready

02. 5 Ways The First Look Can Change your Day

03. How to Ace Your Family Formals

04. Reception Planning + Sunset Photos

As we wrap up our timeline series, I want to leave you with a few reminders. You have all the hours of the day covered. You know to remember to breathe when your families are driving you crazy. You know how a first look can totally change how your day pans out.

Aside from the actual coverage times, this is the best advice I can give you.

Wait a second. Before we jump into the best advice I can give, want to know our best kept secret? Download the number one way you can maximize your photography coverage at the bottom of this post!

Here’s the advice that wedding vendor Holly would give to future bridal Holly:

01. Utilize your vendors.

I promise you, if you hire the right people, we are there for you! This is literally our job. Even if you have a planner, ask your other vendors questions on things you don’t know. Your florist can help guide you in the right season of flowers. Your caterer knows exactly how much people will eat and how a buffet should run. Your planner especially has done this many many times and can show you the ropes. Pinterest and Facebook groups can be great for inspiration, but trust the professionals over them.

02. Prep as many things as you can ahead of time.

Weeks ahead if you can. Put everything that needs to be together in it’s own separate bag/box and keep everything together at all times. Make sure all your vendors are paid, make sure you have a day of emergency kit, make sure that you’ve thought of everything. So you can feel confident in everything when you head to your venue on that long anticipated day. The goal is to have as little scrambling as possible!

03. Don’t be afraid to delegate things out to people.

This goes along with my first piece of advice. Just like how the best man is the one who’s in charge of the rings! Your wedding party, your family, your vendors, we’re all here and eager to help. And aside from your vendors, your loved ones may not have a clue what would be helpful to you on your wedding day. So don’t be afraid to assign people specific tasks. They’ll feel helpful and proud, you’ll feel relieved knowing you can rely on them. It’s a win win! You have a whole team of friends who will be with you all day. I promise they want to help you!

04. Focus on what matters.

Don’t forget to breathe and drink lots of water. Don’t get overwhelmed with the little things, and especially don’t get overwhelmed about the things you can’t control.

Texas weather can be out of control. Things can run longer than you anticipated. Time can simply run out! The wind can make a mess out of everything.

Try to let go of deep set expectations for the frivolous things. Just because it’s not exactly as you were envisioning it doesn’t mean it’s not going to be perfect. An easy way to do this is to remember why you’re there. To marry your best friend and soulmate, to party with your closest friends and family, and to eat that cake.

I’m sure you noticed in our previous post that when talking about reception coverage and your send off, I was telling you to limit photography coverage to only 4 hours. So how does that work?

One of the number one questions we get asked is about coverage time. It can be daunting to envision your wedding day, and the imagine which hours should be documented. Don’t you want all of them!?

So how did we decided on eight hours? Will that be enough time for you? Does that include travel? Our families are ready to party til 3am, you mean you won’t stay that entire time??

Friend, it’s time to let you in on a little secret.

This strategy is something we use 100% for our couples who don’t add additional hours of coverage.

That means every single one of our couples who book us for our standard eight hours is using this secret weapon to make sure they fit all the photography coverage they need into their day.

It’s not just about the what but the how?? I’ll explain the ins and outs of this strategy, the hows and the logistics! And I’ll tell you why it’s foolproof!

Are you ready to be let in on this secret? Download your freebie at the link below!!

P.S. If you missed the first weeks of timeline tips, you can check them out here:

1. Start with: Getting Ready
2. Next Up: The First Look
3. Then: Family Portraits
4. Then: Reception Planning
5. Now: Maximizing Your Photography Coverage