When I first started shooting weddings 4 years ago, I think I googled this and so many freakin lists showed up that I just ended up winging it until I figured out what worked. There are some lenses that seem pretty go-to for every wedding photographer, but at the end of the day the gear you use for weddings really comes down to the look and feel you like best. If you're a new wedding photographer, I would totally understand if you are completely lost as to what to buy to get the perfect shots, and at some point you will definitely need to upgrade that crop frame and kit lens.

If you cant afford to shell out $10,000 to get everything you need (i mean really who can do this all at once?) most major cities have camera rental companies that allow you to rent what you need for sometimes as short as one day. This is also a really great way to try out new equipment before committing to it.

Below is a list of what I typically use for wedding photography and what parts of the day I use it for. Hope this helps!

canon 35mm

My absolute favorite lens to work with is the 35mm. The 35mm is my go to for bridal portraits, detail shots, prep shots, family portraits and my favorite creative wide shots.

canon 24-70mm & Canon 85mm

When its time to shoot the wedding ceremony, I pull out a 24-70mm (zoom lens) and either an 85mm (small guest count) or 70-200mm (bigger guest count). I use these to tackle wide and up-close shots simultaneously, especially when I don't have a second shooter. When the first dances roll around I continue to use both to again capture both wide and portrait shots. The 85mm is great for speeches/toasts and then once the dance floor opens up the 24-70mm and a speedlite is all i need to finish out the night.

Note: If the notice the 70-200mm zoom lens is too heavy for you (slightly blurry photos will be your indicator that you’re not holding it steady), the 135mm works just fine and is a more comfortable weight.

canon 5d mark iii or IV & canon 6d

Having two or more camera bodies is a common best practice for wedding photography. If something happens to your primary, you HAVE to have a backup. These are my favorite full frame bodies. I use the 5Ds as my main cameras and my second shooter uses my 6D. For ceremonies, I'll strap on two cameras using my Holdfast Harness to get a variety of shots and the lenses are typically 24-70mm and 70-200mm.

Other stuff:

speedlite/flash

My speedlites are Canon 600EX II. I also have tons of rechargeable and regular batteries that I use with them. I also have a Canon 580EX II, but each new version is faster than the last. I only use a flash during the reception as I dislike the look of artificial light on top of natural light, but you can use it however you want of course.

memory cards

My favorite SD Card is the San Disk 128GB Extreme. The 128GB has enough space to hold an entire wedding, so some photographers prefer to split their weddings up onto multiple 64GBs as a precaution, in case something happens to their first card. I ain’t scared so I use one 128GB per camera. As a ninja squirrel, I tend to fire off shots like I've been drinking espressos all day (bad for your camera body actually so don't do that) and the 128GB keeps up with me with no delay (convenient during a wedding ceremony). The 64GBs are my backup cards, they record images a smidge slower so I use these for slower paced captures like portrait sessions or detail shots. 

When not in use, my memory cards are kept protected in my Pelican Memory Card Holder. It's waterproof and stomp-proof (think otter box for memory cards).

Also, I keep my wedding images on the memory cards I shot them on until I have delivered the images to the clients so I have about 12 128GB cards that I keep in rotation (2 cards per wedding and I shoot about 4 weddings a month).

batteries

For full day weddings, I always carry 2 batteries per camera body with me. I only buy Canon batteries, although there are cheaper off-brand batteries that you could purchase if you dare...

hard drives

Memory cards are dumped onto a 1TB hard drive (my temp back up) and also onto my main 4TB hard drive (which I edit off of). Best practice is to keep your raw images in a minimum of 2 different places.

CLOud Backup

My cloud storage of choice is BackBlaze. For like $5 a month it will back up your hard drives anytime you connect them to your computer, just runs in the background so you don’t even have to remember to do it.

CARD READER

I use the Transcend USB Multi Card Reader because it downloads both SD and CF cards.

Lost images/recovery

In case you think it cant happen to you, you might, for whatever reason lose your images. Either you forgot to download a memory card, or your images dont save to lightroom they way they usually do, etc. This is why i no longer erase my memory cards until after i have delivered the final product. But in case you do, and find you need to recover images, i recommend RecoveRx which i believe the software came free with my card reader mentioned above.

photo galleries

For client galleries, I use PASS mostly, clients can download full galleries with one click and also purchase prints directly from PASS and they will send you a credit for it. I used to use PixieSet but cant remember why I stopped. I have also heard Shootproof is good.

I hope that was helpful! Drop me a comment below if you loved this post or if you want to add some of your favorite go-tos to the list!