Maine & NH Wedding Photographer // The Most Meaningful Wedding Moments Aren’t On Your Shot List

Every wedding photographer has seen The Shot List.

You know the one—bride with her mom, groom adjusting his tie, bridal party lined up like they’re auditioning for a toothpaste commercial. And yeah, those are important. We’ll get them. But here’s the truth:

The moments that will choke you up in ten years?

They’re almost never on that list.

The magic happens in-between.

It’s your grandma slipping you a folded napkin because she saw you tearing up before the ceremony.

It’s your flower girl eating her weight in cheese cubes during cocktail hour.

It’s your dad practicing his toast under his breath when he thinks no one’s looking.

You can’t predict that. You can’t pose it. You definitely can’t write it into a checklist.

Shot lists are fine—but they can be a trap.

When you hand your photographer a four-page, single-spaced document of every shot you saw on Pinterest, here’s what happens:

• We’re stuck chasing the list instead of reading the room.

• We miss the real stuff because we’re busy making sure we got “bride holding bouquet in left hand while looking over right shoulder with veil flowing dramatically in front of ivy wall.”

• You get fewer of the moments that are actually yours—and more that look like everyone else’s wedding.

Trust the person behind the lens.

If you’ve hired someone you actually like (and I hope you have), they’re already tuned into the moments that matter. We’re trained to watch for that quick squeeze of your hand, the inside jokes, the sudden tears. Those photos? They’ll hit you harder than the perfectly posed ones.

The real wedding album you’ll want.

Here’s the thing: years from now, the posed portraits will be nice, but the pictures that stop you in your tracks will be the ones where you can feel the day. The ones where you can smell the perfume, hear the laughter, or remember how your heart was pounding in that exact second.

You don’t need to write those down.

You just need to let them happen—and let me catch them.