Planning the Perfect Grand Exit | Wedding Tips for Brides | Christa Rene Photography

Grand exits are always SO fun and amazing, and are always some of my favorites from the wedding day! But they do take planning and careful execution to get amazing shots! They also can happen at a variety of different times and in different ways, so I wanted to share some tips with you to have the BEST exit shots!

Grand exit tips:

If the wedding reception is going late, consider a controlled exit!

After toasts, speeches, etc, I only photographing about an hour of dancing, and after this I encourage a controlled exit! With that hour, I’m able to capture all your friends (and you!) getting down on the dance floor! Then after that time, we can set up for a controlled exit! This is where we can either bring everyone, or just bridal party members and family outside for a “fake” exit! They’d stand around you cheering with sparklers or whatever you’d like to leave with! We’d get beautiful shots of you kissing in the middle! After that, you can go back in and party with your guests until however late you’d like and whenever you feel like leaving! But you’d know your photos would still tell the entire story of your wedding day!

Decide what guests will do during the exit!

If it’s an evening wedding, sparklers are always a beautiful option! Just be sure they’re the type that don’t smoke too much so you aren’t running into a cloud of smoke! I’ve also seen glow sticks for evening! Some popular daytime exit options are throwing petals and blowing bubbles. Either makes incredible pictures! I’d suggest to be cautious about throwing anything small like rice or lavender, since it will easily get stuck in your hair and dress.

Have a designated person to get the car.

And make sure it’s someone trusted! Give the keys to someone earlier in the day is dependable, and point him out to your coordinator so when the exit time is getting close she can ask him to pull up the car!

Walk, don’t run!

While it might look like in exit pictures the couple is literally running, they actually aren’t! I tell my couples to take their time and walk! This way I can get even more amazing photos, it makes it less likely you’ll run into someone’s sparkler, and you’ll be able to soak in that amazing time even more!

Hold the kiss!

I tell my couples to stop and kiss when they see me wave (I’ll wait until they’re about half-way through the exit line)! If people are throwing petals, I tell them to wait to throw them until the couple kisses so it’s a beautiful rain of petals at once!

If holding sparklers, I have people in the back hold them more towards the middle so you look surrounded with sparklers! So when you stop and kiss, I’ll remind you to hold it for around 3-5 seconds. While that sounds incredibly long, this allows me to get plenty of amazing images! My exit set up can sometimes involve multiple things like an off-camera-flash, and focusing can sometimes take an extra second if it’s pretty dark! I always want to be sure I captured amazing images for my couples that show off the exit!

These shots are always some of my favorites, and my couples love them too!! I hope this helps as you plan your exit and gives ideas to allow it go smoothly!!

If this was helpful, you might enjoy this post on hiring a wedding planner!