Tips on how to plan your speeches from a wedding photographer

Your wedding day will be one of the fastest days of your life. Before you know it, it’ll be time for everyone to be seated and for the speeches to commence! I really enjoy photographing this part of the day as it’s full of emotion and makes for some amazing shots. Read on to find out how to make the most of the speeches from a photographer’s perspective.

Have them all together in one block of time

Have the speeches before dinner, here’s why:

9 times out of 10, your day will run late. By keeping all the speeches in one block of time, it means completing them before moving onto the next thing which is less overwhelming for you and your guests.

Your guests don’t want to be photographed while they’re eating. Some people are slower eaters than others or maybe served later than your table. 

Empty plates and cutlery will be in your guest candids if you don’t. It’s messy, clutters the images and it’s noisy for the people giving speeches which can be distracting.

Do you want your wait staff to appear in the background of the photos while they are clearing plates? These photos are never gallery worthy and impossible to PhotoShop!

It gives the photo & video team a proper break throughout the day. Typically, we’ll spend up to 10 hours with our couples and so a proper break is required. We usually take this when you and your guests are eating and we usually don’t get fed until you and your guests have been served your main course. If the speeches are in between courses, we don’t get a proper full break and we also get our meal as soon as you finish yours and are onto the next speech. So we have to leave it, it gets cold, becomes inedible or it’s been taken away by the time we come back to it. 

Pick the right people

I’ve witnessed a lot of weddings and stood through a lot of speeches. The best ones are personable, funny, tad bit emosh, concise and memorable. Pick people that you know will deliver this criteria and you’ll be in for a treat. Think belly laughs, happy tears and any excuse for a cheers. These are the photos you want in your gallery. 

Keep them short and sweet

Your guests will thank you. As much as they love you and are happy to be celebrating with you on this special day, they don’t want to listen to Uncle Derek give a 30-minute speech where he’s saying the same thing over and over again just with different words. You do not want photos of your guests looking bored, offended or asleep (I’ve seen it happen before, no joke).

Avoid screens

I understand why people giving speeches want to use props like a projector, a screen or a TV but they can be a nightmare to photograph. They can cause weird colour casts, the details get lost in the photographs and there are loads of ugly wires and cables to contend with. Plus, only a handful of the guests will be able to see/read what’s on the screen anyway. If possible try and avoid using visual aids in this way and stick to physical props to tell the story of the couple.

It’s also a bit of a bug bear of mine to see people reading off their phones when it comes to the speeches. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s a thing of convenience but I honestly think it looks way better when a speech is printed off or written down on cue cards. It makes the images timeless.

And those are my top tips on how to plan your speeches from a wedding photographer! I hope this post has been insightful. Please stick around to read more tips and tricks for your special day. If you want to see more of my wedding photography, head on over to my gallery page.