One of our favorite moments at a wedding is when the flower girl and ring bearer walk down the isle. The guest faces just light up with joy and “Awes” can be heard filling the air. I mean really, kids are just adorable, God made them all that way. And from what parents tell me, “God made them cute to help us forget about how crazy they can be”;)  Again, these are words from parents I know, not mine… but I totally believe them.

I recently received and email from one of our brides asking when was the best time to photograph the flower girl/girls + ring bearer/bearers. I can only speak from our personal experience, but typically what we have found is that its easer to take the little ones photos before – hand. They seem to run low on “good behavior” by the end of the wedding ceremony. They are usually ready to have fun and eat cake after the ceremony… but who can blame them, we all love fun +cake:) 
If at all possible it is best to be able to photograph them with the bridal party before the ceremony. If the bride and groom opt for a first look we like to do all the bridal photos before the wedding directly following the first look. This way everyone is fresh, looks amazing + a bonus, it saves time after the ceremony on photos. If the bride and groom for go the first look then we opt to do bridal photos separately, so there is no peeking. This way we can still capture everyone when they are fresh + looking their best and we can get the kids while they are still on their “best behavior”.

However, I also totally understand that it may be difficult to get them into their outfits an hour and a half before the wedding + expect them to stay clean.  So the best second option is to have the kids arrive at the ceremony  location 40mins prior to the wedding. This gives us a 10min window to snag some adorable photos of the kids (flower girl with the bride + bridesmaid and the ring bearer with with groom + groomsmen).