8 to 10 hours are good coverage for a full day wedding for getting ready, ceremony, portraits, cocktail hour, and reception. Bride and groom portraits will take one hour. Bridal party and family pictures will be another 30 to 45 minutes. Indian wedding is usually a long day between 12 to 15 hours.

Many weddings don’t run on schedule. To avoid running behind the wedding day schedule, budget enough time in between each event of your big day, particularly during the morning make-up/hair part. If makeup and hair are about one hour, expect another 30 minutes as “buffer time” just in case it will take a little longer to get the bride and everyone else ready. The other parts to consider include:
1) Traffic and travel between each location, even if it’s just within walking distance.
2) Waiting for the bridal party and family members to arrive and be ready.
3) Makeup/hair touch-ups for Asian and Indian weddings.
4) Weather condition and rain plan

Wedding is often unpredictable, we approach your wedding day with a photojournalistic style yet still be creative with the given elements we are working with. We normally do not adhere to a photo list, but we will work with you on specific poses and ideas.

Yes, we can. A venue walk-through will help you and your photographer plan ahead for photo spots, especially when coming up with a rain day plan. If it’s a large venue with multiple portrait locations, it’s best to check how much time is needed to travel in between. Please note that most venues walkthrough will incur a travel fee for the photographer or videographer to visit the site.

We carry business liability insurance and will be ready to provide it to your venue upon request.

Most of the photos start out in RAW format and photos delivered to the client will be in JPEG. Post-processing of wedding photography includes color correction, brightness, sharpness, noise reduction, basic skin treatment, and contrast enhancement. In-depth editing for the album and for purchase will include close-up body and skin-retouching. Converting all photos to black and white is complimentary. Sometimes we can also apply film effects in a pastel and soft color tone, much like the vintage fuji film effect. Removal of objects including background and special effects are requested only for an additional price and we will try our best to fulfill the special request.

During wedding season, the delivery range should be longer because of the number of weddings we have to photograph and film. For example, an off-season wedding in winter may take about 4 to 6 weeks to edit. In a busy September month, we will take 6 to 8 weeks per wedding. Wedding season usually begins from April to December and off-season from January to March for New Jersey, Philadelphia, Houston, and New York City. For our Hawaii wedding and engagement clients, the wedding season is all year long. The highlight film is a faster turnaround time than the full documentary. Please email us for our turnaround time for wedding videography.

We offer flush-mount wedding albums, engagement albums,s and wedding guestbooks. Most of our albums are the large square size of 12×12. 20 to 30 pages are the standard amount of pages included. We also offer choices of cover options including leather and cover images. Name engraving on the cover is also available. We create all the layouts, thus your album’s layout will be unique to you and your wedding. Album samples are shown during our in-person meeting. We also offer matte or metallic prints in different sizes.

Chances are our initial consultation was months ago. It’s a good idea to recap specific details or any changes to your photographer or videographer before the big day. Introduce your wedding vendors to each other via email. Successful coordination between vendors will ensure your big day goes smoothly. For the family photos, prepare a list of the family members you would like photos with and in what combination. The list will help ease up the time in getting/finding the members for photos. Give the list to a dedicated individual at your bridal party.

For a smooth timeline, schedule your NJ wedding photographers or videographers to arrive when makeup and hair are about 80% done for the bride. We will photograph the wedding details such as the dress, shoes, engagement ring plus wedding bands, and sometimes the jewelry and bridesmaid dresses. Before the arrival of your photo and video team, prepare the dress and hang it on a nice hanger, put the shoes/rings in a box nearby the dress. We can also capture the groom's getting ready if you booked a two photographers team. Groom’s getting ready is usually quicker, so not much is needed to be prepared in advance.

If there wasn’t a rehearsal, besides the general ceremony instruction, communicate with the officiant, rabbi, or priest ahead about what to expect in terms of placement of objects and how long is the wedding ceremony. For example, during the stepping on glass part at a Jewish wedding ceremony, the rabbi placed the glass away from the front view. When the groom is stepping on the glass, his back is facing the audience and the decorations in the front are blocking the view of the glass and his feet. We were able to capture the important moment because the assistant photographer was on the side angle, but the guests weren’t able to witness the moment. Little thoughtful details for the guest are also good ideas. For example, it’s usually hot during an outdoor ceremony in the summer, especially for long Hindu and Indian ceremonies outdoor. Be sure to have the venue prepare ice water for the guest during the 1 to 3-hour cultural ritual outside.

It will take 1 hour for bride and groom photos. Additional 30 to 40 minutes for the bridal party and family pictures. The longer time we have, the better it is for us to get more creative photos. If you hired both photographers and videographers, be sure to budget enough time for those vendors because we have to take turns in doing photos and video footage. For example, the videographer may want to follow directly behind the bride to get the first look reaction on the groom and bride’s walking motion. However, photographers prefers not to have the videographer directly behind her back because he or she will be in the photo and it’s very distracting. In this case, first look will have to “take two”.

If you plan on having bridal party pictures after the wedding ceremony, be sure to let them know ahead, particularly if you have a large size party. Normally the cocktail hour follows right after the ceremony. Most guests ( including your bridal party members ) will want to get a drink, grab some delicious food, and just hang out. Once you “lost” someone from your bridal party, it will take a while to get him or her back again. On our side, we want you to be able to enjoy cocktail hour as well. The sooner photographers finish all the wedding portraits of everyone, the sooner you can go to cocktail and greet everyone. We also have to get table details at the ballroom and set up lighting for the reception. If there is enough time, ask your photographers to have a few photos of just you two inside the ballroom with all the beautiful details already setup.

Most of your day your wedding photographer will focus on a candid or photojournalistic style. For the family photos, prepare a list of the family members you would like photos with and in what combination. The list will help ease up the time in getting/finding the members for photos. Give the list to your Maid of Honor or a dedicated individual.

If your photographer is scheduled to leave before the end of the reception, make sure to coordinate the timeline with him or her about covering all the important and best moments: first dance, father and daughter dance, mother and son dance, toast and speeches, cake cutting, performances and bouquet toss. You can also have asked the venue coordinator to bring out the wedding cake earlier so that your wedding photographer and videographer can capture the cake cutting before he or she leaves.

We offer engagement photography coverage from 1 to 3 hour in NJ, NYC, Philly and Houston. 1 hour coverage is good for one photo spot in one location. Multiple photo spots in one large location will be 2 to 3 hour coverage. Night time option is available and will be included in the 3 hour coverage. For engagement story film, we will need at least 2 to 3 hours combining photo coverage.

Timeline for engagement photos are 2 weeks for off-season and about 3 to 4 weeks for wedding season. Wedding season usually begin from April to December and off season from January to March for New Jersey, Philadelphia, Houston and New York City. For our Hawaii wedding and engagement clients, wedding season is all year long. Please email us for our turnaround time for engagement story film and proposal video.

We will keep a look out on weather forecast. If it will rain or bad weather condition (eg: very windy on the day we plan on a waterfront location), then we will contact you for a potential reschedule.

A beautiful backdrop will enhance your engagement pictures, be sure to consider how crowded is that location. A good location is one that you are comfortable with without distraction of people and traffic. Pick the time of the day or the week a popular location is less crowded OR pick a location that’s not as popular but offer a simple nice backdrop to “pop” the couple. Less is more! If you choose multiple photo spots, budget enough time for the travel in between – which method is more efficient? taxi, subway, drive, or walk? We can help you narrow down the list and pick the best engagement photography locations in NJ, NYC, Houston and Philly.

We recommend 1 outfit for the 1 or 2 hour session and 2 outfits for the 3 hour session. For example, for a three hour including night time New York City engagement session, you can have outfit 1 at Central Park at Bethesda terrace, Bethesda fountain, bow bridge, and the great lawn area. When we get to Brooklyn and walk on the Brooklyn Bridge during sunset, you can change to outfit 2. Lastly, save the most dress-up outfit for the night time option. It’s also a good idea to choose lighter colors and simple patterns during the day. Darker colors and fancier choice at night engagement pictures. Many times your engagement photographer will ask you to sit on the grass / bench / floor and lean on walls, so dress comfortably for those situations. Additionally, for the ladies, bring comfortable shoes to walk around and switch to heels during the photos. Avoid busy pattern, bright colors or rigid clothes.

We encourage all types of props for the engagement session. It can be something sentimental ( favorite soda, coffee mug, books, movie ), handmade ( banner, save the date sign, old photos board ), and even something big ( car, vintage trailer, styled shoot props ). Some clients also setup a scene for the fun style engagement photos: a music station with guitar and drum, a picnic area with wine and small bites, a vintage backdrop with vinyl craft chandelier hanging on the tree and photo banners, etc etc. Dogs and cats are also welcome for your session!

If you are not into DIY or not much of a crafty person, many websites also sell engagement photo props such as Esty.com. You can also find tons of props and also craft items from store like Hobby Lobby, Marshall Homegoods, AC Moore and Michael’s.

Not all engagement photos have to be like a casual date in different locations. You can talk to us about how you meet each other and interesting stories you both shared. We can plan with you and photograph your engagement as if it’s telling a story, much like stills from movie. Simple love story, a suspense, and even a themed storyline will be fun. Engagement story film is also available from our NYC and NJ wedding videographers.