You will remember about forty percent of your wedding day. Everyone says this and everyone is surprised when it turns out to be true.
The photos are not a souvenir of the day. For a lot of it, the photos are going to be the day.
That is a fairly heavy thing to hand to a stranger. So it is worth knowing what that stranger is actually doing for eight hours.
Before the Day: The Part Nobody Sees
Good wedding photography is mostly decided before anyone picks up a camera.
I want your timeline. Not a vague version of it, the real one, with when hair and makeup finishes and how far the ceremony site is from the reception.
I want to know where the light will be at 4pm and where we go if it rains, because in Central Florida it is going to rain at some point and pretending otherwise is not a plan.
I want to know who matters. Which grandmother needs to be in a portrait. Which two relatives should not be put in the same frame. Who is going to cry.
When that groundwork is done, the day runs. When it is not, you spend your cocktail hour being herded.
During the Day: Getting Ready Through the Last Song
Getting ready
Details first. The dress, the rings, the invitation suite, the shoes, the note he wrote you that morning. These are quiet, unglamorous frames that end up carrying a lot of the album.
Then the room. Your friends, your mother zipping you up, the moment somebody says something and everybody loses it.
The ceremony
I work quietly here. Long lens, edges of the room, out of your sightline. You should not be aware of me during your vows.
The frames that matter are the ones nobody performs. His face when the doors open. Her father's hands. The exhale after the kiss.
Portraits
This is where a lot of couples brace, and this is where I need you to trust me.
No stiff poses. I give you easy things to do and let the real moments happen, the same way I would at an engagement session. Twenty or thirty minutes of good light and the two of you actually enjoying it beats two hours of holding a pose.
The reception
Toasts, first dance, the parents dancing, your uncle who should not be dancing. Then the room as it gets loose, which is where the honest photos live.
How the Collections Work
Every collection includes an online gallery you can share, download from, and order prints through. Every collection includes high resolution digital files with no cap on downloads. That is worth repeating because most photographers cap it. You get all the best photos from the day, professionally edited, and you take as many as you want.
Silver, from $2,199. Up to 6 hours of coverage. Right for a ceremony and reception in one place, or a smaller day that does not need dawn-to-midnight coverage.
Platinum, from $2,799. Up to 8 hours, a second photographer, and $100 toward an engagement session. Eight hours is where most full wedding days actually land.
Diamond, from $3,599. Up to 10 hours, a second photographer, an engagement session, and $100 in store credit. Right for a bigger day, a separate ceremony and reception venue, or a getting-ready-to-sparkler-exit timeline.
Add-ons start at $200 and cover the bachelorette party, bridal shower, engagement party, rehearsal dinner, sneak peeks, and a wedding highlights video.
On hours, honestly
Most couples underestimate. If your ceremony is at 4 and you want photos of getting ready, you are already starting around noon. Add a first dance, a cake cutting, and a send-off and you are at ten hours before anybody planned to be.
It is cheaper to book the right number of hours now than to add them at 9pm.
On the second photographer
The second photographer is not redundancy. It is the only way to have the groom's side and the bride's side covered simultaneously, and the only way to have the aisle and the altar shot at the same time. On a wedding over about a hundred guests, it stops being optional.
Small Weddings and Elopements
Not everybody wants a production, and skipping one is not settling.
Some of the best days I have photographed were two people, a courthouse, and an afternoon that went wherever it wanted. Winter Garden and Winter Park both do this beautifully, and a small day means the whole thing can be about the two of you instead of about logistics.
Elopement coverage is quoted individually because these days vary so much. Tell me what you are picturing and I will put together something that fits it.
If Your Day Is Somewhere Else
Most of what I shoot is within an hour of Orlando. Not all of it.
I have photographed a wedding at Culzean Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland, groom in a kilt, daffodils out, the whole thing. If your day is somewhere else and you want me there, ask. Travel outside the Orlando metro adds a fee that depends on where you are going, so tell me the location early and I will give you a real number instead of a guess.
After: What Happens Next
Sneak peeks come within 24 hours. A handful of quick edits so you can post something before the group chat beats you to it.
Full wedding galleries land within four weeks. I try hard to be earlier and usually am, but four weeks is the number I will hold myself to rather than a hopeful three that leaves no room if something goes sideways.
Travel outside the Orlando metro may add a fee. I will tell you before you book, not after.
How to Actually Choose
Look at full galleries, not highlight reels. Anyone can produce ten good frames. You are hiring someone for eight hundred.
Look at a wedding shot at your venue, or at least in your kind of light. Florida sun at 2pm is a specific problem.
Then talk to the person. You are going to spend more time with your photographer on your wedding day than with almost anyone else there, including most of your family. Whether you like them matters as much as the portfolio does.
Let's Talk About Your Day
Send me your date, your venue, and roughly what you are picturing. I will tell you honestly whether I am the right fit and what the day would actually cost.
David Stella Photography
Orlando and Central Florida
321.475.7792
