The planning guide

Most couples start with the portfolio, and it is the right place to begin. There you can see how someone works with light and with people, and whether their pictures are the kind you want for yourselves. But a portfolio shows the best pictures from many weddings, so ask to see one whole wedding as well, from getting ready right through to the party.

Just as important is how it feels to talk to the people you are thinking of booking. Your photographer and filmmaker will spend the day closer to you than most of your guests, and you should be able to relax in their company. It is best to meet before you decide, and to notice whether they ask about you or mostly talk about themselves.

If you are booking your photographer and your filmmaker separately, it is worth asking whether the two have worked together. Two teams who do not know each other will have to share the same space during the ceremony, the portraits and the first dance, and that is easier for people who have done it before.

A good meeting before the wedding is mostly about you. We want to get to know you and understand what kind of people you are, what you like and what you would like our help with. That says more about which pictures you will like than a shot list does.

Do bring pictures you like, your own or other people's, and they need not be from weddings. It is often easier to point to a picture than to put into words what you are after.

We need to know who is closest to you, such as a grandmother or a friend who has travelled a long way. We do not know your guests, so if you tell us who these people are, we will make sure they are in the photographs and in the film.

Tell us as well if anything is sensitive. That might be relatives who would rather not stand side by side, a guest who does not want to be photographed, or something about yourselves that you would prefer not to see in a picture. If we have heard about it beforehand, none of us has to give it a thought on the day.

Most venues have a couple of spots that are obvious for portraits and a few that nobody thinks of until you are standing in them, such as a staircase, an avenue of trees or a window in a corridor. It pays to walk round the venue beforehand, ideally at the time of day the portraits will be taken, and see where the light falls. If the venue has tall trees or buildings to the west, the sun disappears a good while before sunset, and the portraits then need to start a little earlier.

We look first for somewhere close to the reception. Any time spent walking or driving comes out of either the portraits or your time with your guests, and there is usually something lovely within walking distance.

Here in Scandinavia the weather can turn quickly, so for us a backup plan is a must. Together with you we settle on an indoor alternative in case it rains, preferably a room with large windows, so that nobody has to make a decision at the last minute.

Have a word, too, with whoever is marrying you about what they allow in the way of photography and filming during the ceremony. Some churches and celebrants have rules about where the photographer and filmmaker may stand and whether they may move around, and it is good to know well in advance.

When the schedule holds, you have time to be with each other and with your guests, and we have time to be in the right place. Most things on a wedding day run over a little, so it is wise to allow an extra quarter of an hour before the ceremony and another before dinner.

Almost every couple tells us they are uncomfortable in front of a camera, and that is perfectly all right. It feels odd for the first ten minutes, and then it wears off.

What helps most is having something to do. So during the portraits we ask you to take a short walk together, talk to each other or straighten a veil. Then you think about each other and forget the camera, and it shows in the pictures.

We like to take the portraits a little way from your guests, because it is easier to be close to each other when nobody is looking on.

If you would like to get used to it first, an engagement session is a good way of doing so. By the time the wedding day comes you will already have stood in front of us once, and you will know how it works.

In a film the sound matters as much as the picture. When you watch the film, it is the voices during the ceremony, the speeches and the laughter in the room that bring back how it was.

So it is a good idea to decide where the speeches will be given. If every speech is given from the same spot in the room, ideally where the light is good, the speaker can be both heard and seen, and nobody has to move in the middle of a speech.

If you are writing your own vows or reading something to each other, we would like to know in advance. The same goes for music that means something to you, such as a song during the ceremony or the track for your first dance.

It is also worth asking what the film will contain and how long it will be. A short film cut to music and a long film in which the speeches and the vows are heard in full are two different things, and it is easier to choose once you know what you want to be able to hear again.

The agreement should say how and when you get the photographs and the film, how long your files are kept and what you may do with the pictures. It is easier to read it before the wedding than to go looking for it a year later.

Download the gallery as soon as you have it, and make a backup of your own. It is best if the photographs and the film are kept in two different places, such as a hard drive at home and a cloud service.

Do print some of the pictures as well. You will look at a picture on the wall or in an album more often than at one in a folder on your computer.