Our clients always have the best questions when planning photography for their wedding weekend. One that we often get is, “Should I hire wedding welcome dinner photography coverage?” We have a few reasons why we believe the answer should be a yes!
1. Extend the Celebration
Don’t want your wedding day to be a one day event? Stretch out the celebration (and documenting it) by adding extra coverage to your weekend.
Your wedding weekend welcome party sets the tone for the entire event. It creates anticipation and excitement for the big day and warmly welcomes your guests. By documenting this prelude to the wedding, you can extend the celebration in your photo album and relive the memories of the entire weekend. This is an especially great idea if you have guests traveling in or if it’s a destination wedding. Plus, our deluxe weekend collection includes this add-on already!
2. Create a Complete Story with Your Wedding Album
Your wedding weekend can be a multi-day celebration with various events and gatherings. Including a photographer at the welcome party helps create a cohesive storytelling experience. Each moment, from the welcome party to the farewell brunch, contributes to the overall narrative of your wedding weekend. It’s also great for capturing cultural festivities such as Chinese door games and tea parties. Photography coverage from your entire wedding weekend also looks gorgeous in an album.
3. A Fun Way To Document Guest Interactions
A welcome party is a fantastic opportunity for guests to mingle and interact in a relaxed atmosphere before the formalities of the wedding day. If you have guests who have never met, the welcome party is a great way to familiarize your favorite people with each other before the big day.
During the welcome dinner, we can capture these candid interactions and heartfelt conversations. From laughter-filled moments to the best stories about you as a couple, by documenting this event, we can create a keepsake of all those moments between the people you love most!
4. It Allows You To Be in The Moment
Planning a wedding can be a lot of work, and you may not have the time or energy to capture every moment yourself. Hiring a photographer for the welcome party alleviates this. It allows you to put your phones away and be fully immersed in the moment, allowing you to relax and celebrate, knowing that a professional is capturing all the important moments on your behalf.
Bonus: Capturing Speeches Before The Wedding Day
One of our favorite aspects of documenting the wedding day is the opportunity to photograph speeches before the wedding day. A recent wedding trend we love is opting for speeches at the welcome party, which preemptively addresses the need for speeches at the wedding reception.
This reduces the pressure on the wedding day and gives speakers a more relaxed atmosphere to express their sentiments, ensuring that the speeches are heartfelt and memorable without competing with the excitement of the reception.
Still wondering if you should hire wedding welcome dinner photography coverage for your weekend? Below, you will find some of our favorite moments from welcome dinners past!
Hope Helmuth is a Luxury Destination wedding photographer based in Bucks County, PA & NYC. Hope specializes in timeless, candid, and romantic wedding imagery, serving modern couples across the East Coast and internationally. For more information about the experience or to book your destination wedding, you can find more information here.
