Free guides
Guides for wedding photographers
Twenty practical guides in three groups: planning the day, onboarding clients, and the workflow around them. Each one is written to be used, with tables to check your own numbers against and lists to copy.
- All guides
- Wedding day planning for photographers
- Client onboarding for wedding photographers
- Wedding photographer workflow, pricing and delivery
Wedding day planning for photographers
A wedding photography timeline is a handful of fixed points with arithmetic between them.
- How to build a wedding photography timelineBuild a wedding day timeline a photographer can keep: start from the hard stop, add real travel minutes, and budget family photos by name.
- 8 hour wedding photography timeline sampleA sample 8 hour wedding photography timeline with and without a first look, plus how to adjust it for travel, sunset, and family photos.
- First look vs no first look: two sample timelinesThe same 4 PM wedding timed twice, with a first look and without. Minute-by-minute tables, a side-by-side comparison, and what to ask the couple.
- UK wedding photography timeline: sample scheduleA sample 9-hour UK wedding photography timeline: 2 PM ceremony, wedding breakfast, speeches and evening guests, with winter light and venue questions.
- Elopement photography timeline: sunrise and sunsetTwo elopement timelines built backward from the light: a 7:30 PM sunset and a 6:30 AM sunrise, with permits, a pack list and the questions to ask.
- How long do family formals take at a wedding?How to estimate time for wedding family formal photos: count groups, not people, add gathering time, and plan the order so the list fits the window you have.
- Family formals time math: groups per windowThe arithmetic for wedding family formals: gather time plus groups times minutes per group plus slack, with tables for 10, 12 and 15 groups.
- Wedding photography shot list templateA wedding photography shot list template: the must-have moments, the shots couples forget, and how to keep the list short enough to use on the day.
- Second shooter tips: how to brief your secondSecond shooter tips for lead photographers: what to send before the day, where they stand, what to cover, and the file rules to agree in writing.
Client onboarding for wedding photographers
Onboarding is everything between “are you free on the 14th?” and the wedding morning.
- Wedding photographer inquiry reply emails to copyFive copy-ready emails for a wedding inquiry: first reply, date unavailable, two follow-ups and the booking confirmation, plus rules for using them.
- Wedding photography contract: what to coverA plain-language checklist of the topics a wedding photography contract covers and the decision behind each. Not legal advice.
- Wedding client questionnaire: what to askWhat a wedding photographer should ask before the booking call: six groups of questions, and which answers change the timeline.
- Questions to ask wedding clients before the weddingThe questions a wedding photographer should ask a couple before the day: logistics, people, timing, light, coverage, and the one thing they are worried about.
- Send a wedding questionnaire by email (script)When to send a wedding photography client questionnaire, what to write in the email so couples actually fill it in, and how to follow up without nagging.
- Split a wedding questionnaire into three sendsWhy one long wedding questionnaire goes unanswered, and how to split it into three short sends across the months before the wedding, with emails to copy.
- Wedding client welcome packet: what to sendWhat to put in a wedding photography client welcome packet, and the order to send the emails so the timeline is locked a week out.
- Wedding photographer client onboarding checklistA dated onboarding checklist for wedding photographers: what to send and ask at booking, 6 months, 3 months, 6 weeks, the week of, and after.
Wedding photographer workflow, pricing and delivery
These guides cover what holds the rest together: the order in which work happens, how packages are priced from the hours and money a wedding actually costs, and how the gallery is handed over.
- Wedding photographer workflow: inquiry to galleryA simple wedding photographer client workflow: inquiry, booking, planning, wedding day, editing and delivery, with the emails and documents needed at each step.
- Wedding photography packages: how to structure themBuild wedding photography packages from your own costs: an hours worksheet, a floor formula, tier boundaries and add-ons, with invented example numbers.
- Wedding gallery delivery checklist and emailsA checklist to run before you send a wedding gallery, a promise-versus-delivery table, three delivery emails and a follow-up calendar.
How these guides are written
Example numbers in the guides are planning examples, not statistics or market averages, and they say so where they appear. Contract topics are checklists, not legal advice. Where a guide mentions one of our templates, it says what the template covers and what it does not. Questions or corrections: help@vestifina.com.