Scouting the locations of your wedding ceremony and
reception venues is an important part of a photographer’s job. The scouting and examination of the venues
should start many weeks before the wedding.
Upon securing the deposit from your client, a wedding photographer should immediately start to plan to visit the wedding venues. If you are a Delaware
wedding photographer and your event is being held near Philadelphia,
Washington DC, New
Jersey or Baltimore,
then there is no excuse not to scout your venues many weeks before the wedding.
On 03/21/10,
I scouted the church and the reception for a wedding that is to be held on May 29th, 2010. The church is called St James Evangelical Lutheran Church located at 5185
Castor Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19124. I was able to have church staff show me both
the outdoor garden area and the sanctuary.
The garden area was in the center of the church and was open to the
sky. It should yield great
photographs. The sanctuary is very nice
with a balcony. I typically use the
balconies to create special shots from overhead. This is good information to know well in advance of the wedding.
Later, I was able to drive the approximate route from the
church to the reception venue. This has
a lot of value. It told me how much
flexibility in timing between the church and the reception venue. This drive took about 5 minutes. The reception venue for this wedding is
called The Chateau. The Chateau is
located at Bridge St at
Harbeson Ave, Philadelphia, PA
19124 It is very well impressive and well laid out. While scouting, I had the occasion to meet the
Banquet Consultant for The Chateau. Her name was Debbie
Marchak. She gave me a tour of the
facility with emphasis on areas that I could produce formal shots. While talking with Debbie, I was reminded that the person that runs the reception hall
should be your “best friend”. They can
be a very good client resource for your wedding photographer business.
The lesson here is that the wedding photographer should plan
well ahead of the wedding in an effort to have a good event. When the photographer has less surprises, it tends to yield better and more creative images.
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