Many hours are spent on the day of the wedding, capturing the event to the fullest. The wedding day is just the beginning of the process. After our gear is packed up and we say our congratulations to the happy couple, the behind the scenes work begins.
Immediately following the wedding, we back up our files. I am very cautious with files and love to have things stored in multiple places. On the wedding day, I write images onto two cards so I instantly have two copies in case something happens with one of the cards. Then, we save the files onto my computer.
The next step is to begin the process of culling the images. In the culling process, I select the best of the best images that together fully tell the wedding day story. During formals, we take multiple images of each group in case someone is blinking, talking, or not paying attention (yes, it happens!). During culling, I choose the images where everyone is looking their best. In the candid images from the day, I select the ones where the emotions and interactions are the best and get rid of the blinks or otherwise unflattering shots. I keep the ones that show how beautiful the wedding day was and the love of the people who were there to celebrate it with the happy couple. This process takes a day or two to complete, as I sort through roughly 1,000-1,500 images from myself and my assistant. At the end of culling, there are usually between 500-800 images awaiting final editing. The final step for the images is the editing process. This step can take over two weeks to finish as I edit each image in the final cull.
After the images are edited, they are uploaded to an online gallery for viewing. Most of our collections include a disk with the high resolution images. Once the editing is finished, I begin to design the case and disks. Each case is custom designed to coordinate with the wedding colors and style. Once ordered, it takes about a week to receive the case and disks back in studio and prepare them for delivery.
Several collections include an album. Each album is custom designed. I begin the process by selecting the 40-60 images from a wedding day that best tell the story. I feel an album should more than a way to display photos, conveniently bound. It should be a story book that guides you through the wedding day from start to finish, showing the events, the people, the emotions of the wedding day. Each album takes many hours of careful design. Once the initial design is complete, it is uploaded to an online gallery for proofing. The bride and groom then have the opportunity to request changes; ie. swapping images, changing the layout, adding portraits, adding text, etc. After the edits are made, it takes one to two weeks to receive the finished album back in the studio.
Once the products are received in the studio, I inspect and custom package each item in order to get it ready for delivery. Delivering the final product depends on where the couple is located. I prefer to hand deliver products to my clients, but that is not always a possibility. In which case, I carefully pack and mail their products.
Often clients ask why it takes several weeks to receive their image gallery, I hope this blog sheds some light on the time and energy I devote to each of my couples because, truly, they deserve the best.
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