Oh no, talking about Pinterest! I have such a love hate relationship with it! As a consumer and semi stereotypical female… I love Pintrest. My whole house was influenced by the hipster pins of Pintrest haha! Don’t believe me? Look right here  at my house haha! Now don’t get me wrong about Pintrest. It is amazing for its purpose, to get ideas. My problem with Pinterest is the unrealistic portrayal of what “every” photo of your wedding or portrait session should look like. The pins where a person can obsess over recreating the exact photo with the light coming through at the perfect time of the day. The photos you “generally” see on Pintrest are the best of the best from the wedding day. And it can start to really make you feel like your day isn’t special enough unless you get the exact Pintrest worthy photos! AND THAT’S NOT TURE!!! Your photographer will beautifully capture your day uniquely and there is no need to recreate every Pintrest photo you see!

I bet you’re thinking “but wait, you’re a professional photographer. You should be able to do all of this.” Yes I can likely recreate many images on Pinterest, but I don’t want to. You came to me as a creative person to capture your day. I wan’t you to have faith in my creative decisions. Unless we are in California on a cliff at sunset on a perfect late summer day… you’re not getting a photo like that in downtown Pittsburgh. You can pull ideas and poses from Pinterest! I really love it for that vibe of inspiration. But please do not expect any photographer to completely copy a whole board of your ideas for wedding pictures. Again we are all usually ok with you showing us ideas of feels you’re going for. But to sit back and ask us to copy everything is disrespectful  to the creative ideas you paid us to do.

You can throw 10 photographers into a location from all over the world. And we are all going to photograph the subject completely different. We will look at lighting different from one another. We are going to look at backgrounds and textures different from one another. We are even going to pose and create different interactions that are vastly going to differ from one another.

So what I’m saying here is that Pinterest isn’t evil. It should be a tool to gather ideas, but to not completely copy. You picked you’re photographer for a reason. Let them creatively tell your story not someone else’s!

The post Pintrest- Let me tell your story, not someone else’s appeared first on Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer.

Start To Finish

What the process looks like from booking to receiving your wedding images

I’m gonna get straight and to the point about what the process will be like! I am always so thankful for any couple who hires me to document their day. There are so many amazing photographers out there and I am always so excited to work with new couples and capture their day uniquely for them!

Here is a timeline to go over the wedding photography process with CTG Photography. If you are already booked with us or you are thinking about booking you can see below and in the video what steps you can look forward to!

1.Booking

After booking and signing the retainer you will get a private client portal with all your information and contracts. I tell clients to make a specific email folder for wedding photography to keep all the communications in one place!

After booking you will send in your retainers and you can pick the payment method within the booking process.

2.Wedding day timeline help ( 1 month after booking)

A few weeks after booking I will send out an email that has a link to a blog post and questionnaire for you to start thinking about your wedding day timeline. The blog post helps you plan out the day and buffer enough time for the different photography segments of the day!

3.Engagement scheduling (6-12 months prior to wedding)

If you have an engagement session in your package you generally want to book your session 6-12 months before your wedding. This is not set in stone and can be done anytime before the wedding. But this time frame is great if you want to send out save the dates.

Weekend shoots are not always a guarantee since I work many weekends for weddings. You will want to schedule your engagement session date  1-2 months before you want your images back.

4.Help videos and blog posts (1 month after booking to 1 month before wedding)

Around one month after your wedding I will start to send you blog post links and help videos about different photographic situations that happen on the wedding day. There will be videos about timely family formals, what first looks are and if its right for you, to prepping your getting ready room for photos and many more.

During the time I send these out any questions you have feel free to reach out to me!

5.Wedding questionnaire (4 months prior to the wedding)

Around 4 months prior to your wedding I will send out a wedding questioner that asks all the vital information I need for your wedding day. You have 3 months to fill it out! I like to send it early so you have time to work on it!

6.Check in ( 2 months prior to the wedding)

Generally around 2 months out from the wedding I will check in with you to see how the questionnaire is going and if you need any help or clarification for anything!

7. Phone call meeting (1 month prior to wedding)

1 month prior to the wedding we will schedule a time to have a phone call and go over the questionnaire and timeline.

8. Check in email (1 week prior to the meeting)

One week prior to the meeting I do a last check in through email and if any last minute changes are to be made we can talk about that then!

9.Gets room numbers (night prior to wedding)

If you are staying at a hotel and I am doing getting ready images I will contact you the night before to get the room number you will be in.

10.WEDDING DAY

It’s here!!!!!!

11.Sneak peek(few weeks after the wedding)

Within a few weeks after the wedding if you signed a model release I will share a sneak peek of your wedding images on different social media outlets!

12.Delivery of images (2-4 months after wedding)

Within 2 months after your wedding you will receive your wedding images. I put down 2-4 in my contract to buffer time in case we have a very busy season. But in my 6 years of business clients can generally expect their images 2-3 months after their wedding. 

The post From Booking to receiving your wedding images-Timeline of events appeared first on Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer.