How To Actually Be Present For Your Cocktail Hour

Vows have been exchanged, rings are on fingers and you’ve shared your first kiss as married people, props to you friends, you smashed this whole getting married thing! So now everyone is mingling, eating delicious food and getting stuck into the bar tab while you… eff off for three hours to have your photos taken? HELL NO!

Cocktail hour is seriously underrated and we’re huge believers in the two of you actually being present for probably the most expensive party you’ll ever throw in your entire life, and who the hell wants to be part of a three hour photo shoot?! As wedding photography and videography aficionados we’ll tell you who: absolutely freaking no one.

We’ve heard from countless engaged couples that have been to weddings where the photos take three hours and all they want is to be present for their guests, and still get some rad wedding content too. I get that the portraits are important, those are ones that make your profile pictures and hang up on the wall, but we’re here for the memories, right? Well how the heck are you going to be making memories when you’re too busy sniffing each other’s ears? (It’s an inside joke, if you’ve gotten hitched with us you’ll laugh, I promise). As self proclaimed world class wedding capturers we’ve got you covered, we’ve been to enough fancy shindigs to know how to break your day up so the photo and video content is not only documented, it’s fucking epic! As well as not being away from your guests for 1000 years (seriously, that’s what three hour long photo shoots feel like). 

Do a first look

Screw you, Dream Cave, we’re TRADITIONALISTS and this is the advice you give us?!

Well if you’re the traditional type you’re probably in the wrong place so you can just go hang out with the photographers who take three hours to shoot a couple of swoon worthy portraits, or worse, deliver 2000 identical photos #roasted.

But hear us out, a first look is an incredible way to add a bit more oomph to your photos and videos. It’s an awesome way to ease the nerves and make each other cry but not in front of everyone you know. All we need is around to 15 minutes to capture the moment, give you some space to take it all in and snap a few portraits. We never make it a huge intrusive thing or a rushed thing because you will generally be nervous before you do the whole professing-of-your-love-in-front-of-everyone-you-know thing. But this one simple but absolutely once in a lifetime moment can free up a bunch of time for you later!

Of course, it’s your wedding and you can do whatever the heck makes you feel good! If that’s seeing each other for the first time at the aisle then do it!

Don’t spend heaps of time doing photos with your wedding party

I know your wedding party is super special, you chose those people to stand by your side while you get super married but really, how many photos are you going to hang on the wall of the whole gang? I’m going to guess anywhere between 0 and 1. Sure, you’ll probably share a few on socials and give a few as gifts but in reality you probably don’t need more than 20 really good portraits of your wedding party, we can bash that out in a few minutes so your gang doesn’t have to endure the pain of going from location to location and missing out on the hors d'oeuvres.

Keep the locations to a minimum

Unless you’ve got somewhere really meaningful you’d like to go I recommend sticking to just one or two portrait locations. It’s super sucky eating up your precious time travelling when we can take your portraits next to the bin and they’ll still look absolutely rad!

Do a sunset shoot

Everyone wants this for the absolutely dreamy magical photo ops that sunset provides but it’s also a super simple way to break your photo sessions up so you’re not doing for continuous hours. The other massive bonus is you’re probably a few drinks deep and ready to pash on camera. 

We promise your sunset photos will take 15 to 20 minutes tops and you’ll likely be stoked to be away from the barrage of adoring guests who just can’t wait for a chat, it can be lot sometimes!

Do a pre wedding shoot

Definitely not a must have but doing a practice run before the real deal means you’ll go into your wedding day portraits with more confidence and a better idea of the photos you absolutely love, meaning we can skip the awks bits and run through the stuff you want more of with ease. Win win!

These sessions are all also awesome if you want to send out save the dates, make a photo guestbook or just have more cute photos in casual clothes.

I hope these hot tips have helped give you some confidence going into your wedding day knowing you’re gonna get some canapés and you’re not going to be dicking around for ages playing it up for the camera! If you’ve got anything to add our couples would love your advice!