Tips to Capture Your Day Beautifully

Aloha! After years of photographing heartfelt weddings in so many gorgeous locations, we’ve put together this streamlined guide to help you get the most timeless, natural, fun images possible.

We recommend reading this together (grooms, there’s a special note for you in #7). These are guidelines, not rules, your day, your way. Let’s make it amazing.

1. Embrace Natural Light & Trust the Flow: Photography thrives on light, and we love using the sun’s soft, beautiful glow. We’ll scout the best spots and timing based on the light, so share your ideas early, but on the day, let us guide locations for the smoothest experience. Quick pre-wedding chats about your timeline and spots help everything click.

2. Prep for Picture-Perfect Skin: Even skin tones photograph best. Skip intense sun exposure to avoid tan lines or burns, and steer clear of sunless/spray tans, they can turn orange under golden hour light and don’t translate well in photos.

3. Getting Ready: Set the Scene for Magic (for 4+ hour coverage) These anticipatory moments with your closest people are storytelling gold. Bridal preparation photos typically start after the Hair and Make Up Team has finished and left the room. To help us nail it:

4. Family and Wedding Party Photos

We keep this portion efficient (about 45+ minutes, a bit longer if your wedding party is large) so you can enjoy cocktail hour sooner. We’ll begin with the larger groupings (both families), then narrow down to smaller sets and individuals. We recommend designating a “family wrangler” to help gather everyone quickly. If you have any special photo requests, plan to add about 2 extra minutes per additional grouping.

5. Consider a First Look?

Seeing each other privately before the ceremony can be simple, intimate, and game-changing, especially with larger wedding parties and guest count. Benefits:

• It calms the nerves and gives you space to connect. Seeing each other before the ceremony creates a quiet, intimate moment in the middle of a big day. You can hug, laugh, take it all in, and share what you’re feeling without an audience.
• It creates a relaxed wedding experience. In a place like Hawaii, where the sun sets quickly, seeing each other before the ceremony allows us to complete family and wedding party portraits beforehand, when everyone is fresh and relaxed. That way, you and your loved ones can head straight into cocktail hour after the ceremony and fully enjoy the celebration, which often leads to the most natural and joyful candids.

If the aisle reveal is your dream, we’ll make it work (maybe with an extended cocktail hour!). It’s your call.

6. Build a Realistic Timeline Share your draft timeline early (or have your planner do it). A good timeline is the key to a relaxed wedding day experience.

• Allow about 30 minutes for bridal details aka flat-lays: invitations, rings, vow books, accessories, your dress, etc. All the beautiful little things you thoughtfully chose.
• Plan for 1 hour of bridal getting-ready photos (after hair and makeup are complete). This gives us time for those calm, joyful, fully-ready moments.
• Allow 30 minutes for groom prep if you’re getting ready at the same location (a bit more time if you’re separate).
• Aim to schedule your ceremony about 2 hours before sunset (or 2.5 hours before sunset if you’re skipping a first look). This helps us capture that dreamy golden light for portraits while still giving you time to mingle during cocktail hour.
• Best time for your couple portraits : the most magical light is typically the hour before sunset : soft, flattering, and glowy.
• General photo timing guide:
  Details 30 min • First Look 30 min • Family & wedding party 45 min • Couple portraits 45 min • Reception coverage as needed.
• Build gentle buffer time into your timeline to create breathing room. It allows you to be present, soak in the day, and gives us the flexibility to capture thoughtful, creative images

7. Couple Portraits: Your Moment to Shine

We’ll steal you away for about 45 minutes (depending on your venue and timeline) to explore beautiful backdrops and create a variety of images, ideally during golden hour, when the light is soft, flattering, and romantic. We’ll gently guide you when needed, but what we love most is your natural chemistry. Flirt, laugh, hug, be playful and most importantly, just be yourselves. Grooms: This part may sound like a big production, but it’s actually relaxed and fun. We’ll give you plenty of direction so you never feel awkward. Many grooms tell us afterward it was their favorite part of the day: a quiet moment together that feels natural, easy, and unexpectedly special. These are the images that will live on your walls, in your albums, and in your memories for decades to come.

8. Reception Tips for Standout Shots: We’ll capture the energy as it unfolds. Help us shine:

• Share plans for first dance/special dances so we’re positioned perfectly.
• During open dancing, swing to the edge of the floor together for a few songs, we’ll grab joyful shots of you two partying.
• Don’t be afraid to encourage your guests and yourselves to dance for, and interact with the camera!

9. Pre-Wedding or Post-Wedding Session

Engagement Session : Some of our couples come to Maui prior to their wedding to visit their venue, do tastings, etc and take advantage of their visit to do their Hair and Make Up trial followed by a couple’s photo session with us. They use these images for their guest book, and other wedding day details. It is a great way to connect prior to your day and to ‘practice’ being in front of the camera.

Post-Wedding ~ Some of our couples opt to have a photo session after their wedding day a.k.a. Day After Session. This is a great option for couples who want to have more time to mingle with their guests on their wedding day and want to do couples photos in a few different Maui locations after their wedding. Please let us know if you would like more info about any of these. 

13. Displaying Your Wedding Images at Home
Once your main wedding details are taken care of, it is a great idea to start thinking about how you’d like to display your wedding photos at home. In this digital era, most of us store our photos and memories in our devices, rarely go back to see them and sometimes we run the risk of losing them. You are making a big investment in your celebration, we encourage you to think about printing your wedding photos or ordering a wedding album with your favorite images. This way they can be displayed at your home, and not forgotten on a device.
We love helping our couples with their wedding albums. Together we create a custom design heirloom piece with their favorite memories of the day. You can learn more about our albums here.

14. Other Considerations: Factor in travel times (they often exceed Google Maps!) and buffer time in between events, consider an unplugged ceremony for distraction-free moments, use market lights/candles for romantic reception glow (avoid super-dim or flashy DJ lights during first dance/parents dance). Bring sunglasses, they make for some great editorial portraits, and they are also super fun on the dance floor!

Final Thoughts, consider these thoughtful add on’s to make your special day perfect!

Our hope is that these tips help your day flow joyfully while we capture the real you. We’re excited to document it all!

Warmest Aloha,

Dmitri & Sandra