The Complete Studio KH Wedding Guide
Section 1:
Structuring Your Day
The first question to answer when you’re beginning to structure your timeline: are you doing a first look or saving the surprise for the ceremony? We can go either route, but a little prior planning is necessary to ensure we have a realistic timeline for either option.
Not sure yet which direction to go yet?
Pros for including a first look—
Logistics are easier. Especially if you have multiple venues to travel between.
Posed photos are done prior to the ceremony when everyone is fresh and more focused.
You get to take a breather after the ceremony and enjoy your cocktail hour with your guests.
Getting to experience that moment privately may allow you more freedom to connect, cry, and have some extra time with your person before you meet at the altar. (And in my experience, the altar walk is still impactful no matter what.)
Reasons to skip the first look—
Because you want to, and you can’t imagine your wedding any other way! Let’s make sure you don’t schedule your ceremony past 3-4pm to accommodate that. If you’re doing a winter wedding, aiming earlier for a 12-2pm range will allow us an opportunity for outdoor portraits with natural light.
Christian and Mary’s first look and his reaction at the altar
When structuring your day, let’s next consider your venue/s and any travel needed between them.
Are you both getting ready on-site? Will we need to budget extra time for travel 1, 2, or 3 times in the day, moving between venues? Will your entire wedding party and families be doing the 1, 2, 3 relocation with us? Are there any picturesque locations nearby that you want to travel offsite to include? There aren’t any right or wrong answers, but all will come in to play further down the line as we finalize your timeline.
Tyler and Siena on the streets of Chicago and at the iconic Rookery Building