My Pre- and Post-Intimate Wedding, Elopement, & Couples Photography Session Process

There’s a lot to love about Fridays … it’s the end of the workweek for most people, the anticipation of the upcoming weekend brings a whiff of that *summertime feeling* to the air (even if it’s the dead of winter and you’ve been out of school for 10+ years so “summer” doesn’t mean “vacation” anymore lol) … and of course it’s the day I get to post to this blog. Honestly, it’s one of the things I love most about my business – growing up I always wanted to be a writer, and I love that I get to incorporate writing into my business! 

This week’s post is all about my process before, during, and after your wedding. A while back I wrote a blog post about your experience when you hire me for your session or elopement, but today I’m sharing more about my heart behind what I do and how I prepare to serve you to the best of my ability. 

Before

As soon as I receive an inquiry, I prepare for our pre-booking consultation call. I create a Google doc for each and every couple with all the information from your inquiry form, and I fill it in with questions I want to ask, suggestions I have for locations, outfits, etc., and links to Pinterest inspiration boards that I send you. 

After our call I finalize your contract with all the details we’ve discussed before sending it over. After you’re officially booked, I send over a welcome guide which includes my style guide and tips on how to get the most from your wedding or session (the wedding and elopement guides also include wedding planning tips!).

Next, I finalize specific location details which includes a visit to the location if possible. For weddings and elopements, I also work on creating a custom wedding day timeline and am always available for questions as you book your vendors and plan and dream about what your day will look like. 

As your wedding or session approaches, I will make any necessary arrangements for gear rentals as needed, make sure I have purchased and charged batteries, clean my gear, and lay everything out so that I can easily make sure I have everything and pack it up before heading to you! Once I arrive and before the session starts, I will usually glance at the Pinterest inspiration board one more time to make sure I have the vibe we’re going for in my head. 

During 

I remember when I first started shooting sessions I would get so nervous and just forget everything I had planned as far as poses or prompts. Now, I don’t worry about that so much anymore. I like to start each session by chatting with you for several minutes before I start shooting. This helps both you and me be more comfortable together. I also am scanning your outfits to make sure no pockets are untucked, no hair ties are on wrists, no shoes are untied, etc. 

While I do have a bank of poses and prompts that I love to use (and give pretty unique results for each couple), I very much go with the flow and use both you and the location for inspiration when directing you on what to do. On wedding days when I get to be more of a documentarian instead of posing or prompting, I love finding creative angles and perspectives to shoot from. 

Anyone who says that photography is easy because “all you do is push a button” has clearly never seen me shoot a session! I am all over the place; one minute I’ll be standing on my tiptoes or climbing on a rock or a chair, and the next I’ll be laying on the ground. Even during winter sessions I am usually sweating by the end of the shoot. 

I am slowly getting better about remembering to take water breaks while shooting, pulling out my phone to take a quick behind-the-scenes video, using different pieces of gear like my flash, a prism, or a different lens, and being okay with asking my couple to repeat a prompt – I used to feel so much pressure to get the exact shot I wanted on the first try, but that’s just not realistic every time (P.S. this is why your photographer will ask you to make your first kiss an extra long one, so that they can be sure to capture that once in a lifetime moment perfectly). Slowing down and shooting more intentionally also helps bring out my creativity, which helps me deliver galleries that I am truly proud of. 

After 

As soon as I get home from a wedding or session, I start the process of backing up the photos I took. For weddings and elopements I will do my absolute best to send a sneak peek of about 10 photos within 24-48 hours, but other than that it’s not uncommon for me to not look at the rest of the photos for several days. This gives me a chance to look at them with fresh eyes as I begin the process of culling (choosing the absolute best photos) and editing. 

There are so many different ways to go about this process, and I definitely don’t do it the way most other photographers do, but it works for me and I’ve gotten really good at it. I will upload all the photos from your session into the editing software I use called Lightroom. I use a preset to edit with, and I will apply that preset along with any tweaks I need to make to exposure (how light or dark the image is) or white balance (how blue or how yellow the image is) to all of the photos. Then I will go through and choose my favorite photos while removing any that are duplicates, have closed eyes, are blurry (but not in the *aesthetic* way lol), etc. 

After this first round of culling, I will go back through and choose the best of the best photos. While I am going through this second time, I am cropping and turning into black and white and removing distractions. Once I have the final gallery chosen, I will go back through a couple of times and view it in a few different formats to make sure the gallery is cohesive and absolutely perfect before saving the gallery to my hard drive. 

Then I upload it to the gallery delivery service I currently use which is called Pixieset. One thing I love about Pixieset is that I am able to copy and paste the gallery link and download PIN and put that in my own email or text message or Instagram DM to you (email is definitely my preferred way of communication, but what can I say? I’m accommodating haha). 

I’ve gotten in the habit of including instructions when I deliver each gallery on the importance of downloading the entire gallery to multiple places and never taking screenshots, but I’ll take any opportunity to talk about it some more. The reason why you should never take screenshots from your gallery is that it decreases the quality of the photos exponentially. So even if it looks fine on your phone, looking at that screenshot from your phone on a computer or using it to print your photos will cause them to be blurry (I have a very specific story about this that you can ask me to tell at your session if you’re curious!). 

One of the other things I include with your gallery is a link to leave me a review. It’s one of the kindest things you can do for me to show your appreciation, and it only takes about five minutes. 

And that’s about it! I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a peek into my process from start to finish – of course there’s so much more that goes into it like location scouting and creating the guides and freebies that all my couples have access to. If you have any questions about anything at all, feel free to leave a comment below, send me an email (at bree.hanan.photography@gmail.com) or an Instagram DM, or reach out on Threads, Tiktok, or Pinterest! 

*All my blog posts contain a selection of images that I’ve taken. If you are interested in booking a wedding or session with me, I am more than happy to send you a full gallery upon request!

I’m a wife, a dog mom, a foodie, a wanderer, a registered nurse, and a couples/intimate wedding/elopement photographer … and this blog will cover it all! If you enjoyed this post, first of all thank you, and second of all please follow me on Instagram + Facebook and sign up for my monthly newsletter to get exclusive wedding planning advice and access to all of my new (and old) freebies! If you have any questions about elopement photography, my journey from nursing to photography, or my time spent as a full-time RVer, drop a comment and I just might write a blog post answering your question (but I definitely will)!

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