A professional wedding photographer should have a very good knowledge of certain important things while he/she enters this profession. The following is a list of the Essential Equipment he/she requires for the wedding photography.

 1-Two camera bodies that share the same lenses 2-Two flashes (strobes) plus cables, etc. 3-28mm Wide-angle prime lens,     or 28mm-70mm zoom 4-50mm standard lens F1.8 or even better F1.4 for low light situations 5-Not essential, but handy for candid and from back of church images is a 75mm-300mm zoom lens or similar 6-Twice as much film as you think, or minimum of two large capacity (250MB - 1GB) digital storage cards depending on your camera  7-At least twice as many batteries as you think you will need  8-Two white reflectors, Diffusion (soft-focus) filter and Red filter (for black & white only)  9- 85c warming filter for grey days  10- Tripod for formal photos and Lens hoods to control flare

2- You must prepare a timetable to work from, if you want to do your job promptly and efficiently. Remember that the bride will be never on time and the cars sometimes arrive late. Ministers often take longer time to finish their talk, there might be a traffic jam and something might have been forgotten somewhere. Set apart plenty of time for each section of the shooting script.

3-Planning is very crucial, so ensure that sufficient time has been allotted for photography and traveling to each location.

4-Find out who is paying for the photography, because the person footing the bill is your client and should be consulted with. If the bride's parents are paying and want nice, classic portrait shots of Bride & Groom, and the Bride wants cross-processed, arty, or black & white images, you better get nice safe photos for father and mother.

Another important matter to find out and determine exactly is what the client wants and expects to get. Very often people do not know what they want until you shoot shot it. What you hate to hear is: “We didn't want half of this stuff, we want a refund!” Ensure you get paid up front. On normal course, ask for 1/3 of the fee while signing the contract and the balance seven days before the wedding date.

5-Type your shooting schedule and give to attendants in the bridal party to organise everybody for their photo to save time. Also type your schedule on small cards for your pocket while you are shooting, so you know when the next sequence is due or when to change film, inform your clients that formal photos of the bridal party should be taken between 1- 1.5 hours. In a subtle way, point out that the guests should be advised of what is going on. The client should know that if they cut your time, you would have to cut the amount of photography to shoot.

6-You need to be very careful as you set up groups, for example, think about ex-wives versus new wives, stepchildren and recently divorced couples. Better allow people sort themselves where they want to be and then just arrange the set-ups accordingly. If everyone, guests also, know exactly what happens, when, and with whom, it will alleviate the bride and groom's stress, your stress, and you will get results that please your clients.

7-You will need somewhere to photograph if it's raining, snowing, gale-force winds etc. and a choice of idyllic locations.