5 Items We Can't Live Without on a Wedding Day - Chico Photographer

In the last five years of being wedding photographers and videographers, we've come to realize that wedding days run so much smoother for us if we pack correctly. We always spend the day prior to the wedding charging and cleaning our equipment and making sure everything is packed the night before. Besides our photo and video equipment we always bring, below is our list of the top five random items we never leave home without!

Costco Cart - Many of you see us hauling this around on our Instagram stories or in our behind the scenes blog post. This cart has been one of the best investments we have ever made in our business (maybe that was a little dramatic of a statement, but it feels true). I don’t know how we even managed on wedding days before having it. Over the years, our gear collection has increased and the number of trips to the car was taking us away from the footage we needed to be capturing. Our rolling suitcase wasn’t cutting it for us. Now, with this cart, we can hold all three of our camera bags, tripods, extra snacks and water bottles for us and our couples. Often times, our bridal parties will even leave their personal items like purses and cell phones in the cart while getting photos taken. Because being a wedding photographer and videographer is such a physically demanding job, this has saved our backs countless times from carrying all our heavy equipment around all day.
Our Water Bottle - This 64 oz water bottle is a game changer for hot summer days. It’s the biggest water bottle we could find that not only is insulated but really sturdy. We highly recommend this. And because our cart is with us, it doesn’t matter if we’re hauling this around. Pro Tip - Get this straw lid to make drinking from it way easier...especially while driving (the bottle is so big if you don't have the straw lid it will block your view and you may just rear end the car in front of you...Stephen can tell you this from personal experience).
My Stool - By the wedding day, our couples are totally used to seeing this stool. Although I will never be six feet tall, this stool helps me capture more flattering "down angles" of our couples. If you’re a short photographer (TréShorties as we like to call it) it’s really hard to get flattering angles of people when shooting up on them all the time. This stool is often put to use when our bride having her veil put in or if we need a higher angle for styled detailed photos of reception table scapes. It's nice because it folds flat and we can take it everywhere! We do get funny looks sometimes when taking it through Airport security haha. We've also boughten random stools on trips too if we don't have room for them on the plane.
Protein Bars- Stephen and I have selected some of our favorite protein and energy bars that we constantly stock up on over the years. Some recent favorites are the Complete Cookie, and Bounce Bars, and RXBars. We keep at least a few in our car, cart and in our own personal bags in case we or anyone around gets hungry. On a wedding day, it’s non stop work until dinner time so we don’t have a lot of time to eat anything. My go-to snack is eating one of these right before the ceremony which will hold of the hangry until dinner :D
Styling Kit - Over the years, I’ve learned that pretty Pinterest photos and perfectly styled detailed photos don’t typically just happen at weddings. One of the reasons our brides love TréCreative is because of the focus and effort we put into on our detail photos. These are fun styled photos of all the important little things that go into a wedding day. These photos are so fun to look back on, seeing the shoes you wore, the perfume, the rings, etc. In my bag, I’ve collected items that will enhance the look of these detail photos if I’m not given very many pieces to play with. Those times include, hand dyed ribbon, vintage stamps and scissors (p.s. these are really sharp, Stephen once stabbed himself reaching into my bag so make sure to wrap them in something to avoid this), a few Mrs. Box’s if the color combination lines up, and spools of different colored ribbon. Having these items in my styling kit can really enhance the look of our bride's details and help get more of our bride's weddings featured in magazines and online publications!