Frequently Asked Questions

You’ll find ours at the intersection of Documentary and Romantic styles.

Our documentary style means we’ll be discrete for much of the day, and watching out for funny, tender, emotional, or surprising moments. This is less about offering direction, and more about using our storytelling instincts to be at the right place at the right time to capture photos and video.

Our romantic style means that we can step in at appropriate times to offer guidance and direction or even to position details or decorative items in compelling ways. This helps us take control of natural or flash lighting to bathe each scene in flattering light.

Take a look at our wedding photography portfolio or wedding video portfolio to see what we mean. Our Instagram and Facebook accounts are also great places to look.

Even the nicest venues will have certain spaces with poor lighting. Or couples are getting married in backyards or courtyards with nothing but twinkle lights to illuminate the action.

We adapt to dark environments with gear changes, and by utilizing off-camera flash. Switching to “fast” prime lenses on our cameras lets us gather more light from dark environments and make cleaner photos. Meanwhile, photographers use flashes on light stands (“off-camera flash”) to add in light from the right direction. Videographers also use portable constant lights to light up the action directly in front of their cameras.

And ultimately, we use much of this same equipment even in well-lit venues as it offers us more control over the direction and intensity of light.

Yes indeed. Just ask during your consultation meeting and we’ll send you access to full gallery of photos or videos for a wedding similar to what you’re planning.

Our prices range from $2995-$12,045, and most couples spend $3995.

You can opt for photography-focused packages, a standalone videography package, or bundle the two for a discount. Photo packages start at $2995, and our ultimate package bundles all-day photo and video with album book and engagement photo extras for $12,045. We’ll send detailed package pricing when you inquire about your wedding date.

These prices reflect a storytelling team that’s been in business for over a decade, made up of professional artists who boast a sterling reputation, and who craft genuinely striking photography and videography.

You’ll pay 1/3 of your package price as a deposit in order to book with us. We prefer online payment via Zelle, or alternatively by check or credit card.

You’ll pay the remaining 2/3 of their price by the wedding day. We prefer online payment via Zelle, though we also accept payment by cash, check or credit card.

There are a variety of extras that you can add on to your package, such as second photographers, engagement photo sessions, bespoke album books, additional coverage time, expanded travel distance, etc. You cannot remove basic components of packages, as they represent the minimum standard of service for the weddings that they’ve been built to document. As in, we don’t want to disappoint you!

We do also capture civil weddings, and as they can differ so drastically in design, we do create custom packages around those more intimate celebrations. Civil weddings usually involve at least two hours of coverage.

Yes. All photography and videography packages include travel within 100 miles of Sacramento–to multiple locations. That means that we might start the day at a hotel, drive to a church for a ceremony, travel to a venue for the reception and even make our way up the hill for some sunset photos. That’s all included in the package price.

This service window means that we document weddings in Sacramento, and as far away as San Francisco, Napa Valley, Chico, Lake Tahoe, and Turlock with no fees.

If your wedding is happening beyond that radius of Sacramento, we charge $75/hour of additional drive time and may require lodging fees.

We recommend booking 9-18 months ahead of the wedding, just as soon as you’ve locked in your venue and date.

Weekend dates are most in demand, especially during Northern California’s temperature spring and fall, so they will book up quickly. So can particularly easy-to-remember dates like 10/10/2010 or 6/6/2026. Weekday or off-season dates may be available even with shorter lead time.

Check our availability for your wedding date by using the form at the bottom of this page.

Once you’ve decided that we’re the right storytelling team for your wedding, we’ll ask you to sign an electronic agreement. It outlines deliverables, payment schedule, cancellation and rescheduling policies, and promotional use of your images or videos. Consider it a point of protection and transparent pricing for you and for us. You’ll get a copy for your own records.

We also ask you to pay a non-refundable deposit for 1/3 of the value of your package via Zelle, check or credit card.

Once we’ve received the signed contract and deposit, you are booked and we’ll lock in your date. We do not reserve dates without a contract and deposit, and we operate on a first come-first served basis.

Sometimes things don’t go as planned, and your wedding date must be moved or the wedding cancelled.

In the event that a wedding date is moved, we will reschedule your booking with us to the new date at no cost—provided our team is available on that date. We ask that you consult with us prior to changing your wedding date for the least possible revision to your plans.

If your wedding must be cancelled, you will not receive a refund of your deposit. However you may request that the funds you spent on the deposit be put toward a photo session (e.g. family photos, headshot photos, etc.).

That depends on the package you choose to book.

When it comes to photography, an intimate wedding or elopement with fewer than 75 guests may be served well by one lead photographer. Though we recommend booking a package featuring two photographers for weddings with more than 75 guests, or whose coverage involves visiting multiple locations. Getting ready, family portraits, and reception candids all benefit from having two people at different places at the same time.

Our videography package includes two videographers. With more gear to move, and films featuring multi-camera coverage (and even drone footage), we find that a team of two makes for the best storytelling.

Fits & Stops Photography is fronted by Lead Photographer P.J. Oswald, who has captured hundreds of weddings since opening the business in 2015. He serves as your planning point of contact, as well as the editor of your final images.

When your wedding involves an alternate Lead Photographer or second photographer, we invite another photographer from a small pool of trusted professionals who aren’t booked on your date. This is not an intern or lighting assistant, but another professional photographer who has spent years in the industry.

When you add videography services, the talented and intuitive Spencer Knight will serve as your wedding videographer. His second videographers are other professionals with years of video and production experience. Ultimately, Spencer will complete edits on all final videos.

Beyond artistic experience, you can expect kindness, emotional intelligence, and flexibility from anyone on your Fits & Stops Photography team.

Not usually. We typically arrive prior to our agreed upon coverage time on the wedding day to scout under the lighting and weather conditions of that exact day. Visiting a venue prior to the wedding day is less useful because variations in time of year, time of day and weather can make outdoor locations look drastically different.

We also check out venue maps and websites to get a feel for highlights of any location prior to arriving.

If your venue requires an advance walk-through from your vendors, we can schedule a that at their convenience. Though we will charge you a $75/hour fee for travel and time spent on-site.

Absolutely! Our engagement and pre-wedding photo sessions offer you a chance to work with us before your wedding day. We’ll capture romantic, authentic photos of you two at a location of your choice without wedding-day pressures or timelines. You’ll receive digital downloads of your images within a week of your session, which you can use for save-the-date cards, invitations, or even decorations at the wedding.

Take a look at some of our favorite engagement photo locations in Northern California for help picking a spot!

We also offer rehearsal dinner photography coverage upon request, with prices negotiated based on length of coverage and travel time involved.

Yes. We capture photography and videography simultaneously and with as little friction as possible. Because of our “documentary meets romantic” approach, we capture lots of candid moments throughout the day. Though we also offer direction at other points. At these moments, our photographers usually capture photos first, and then defer to videographers in case they need to capture different sorts of footage before moving on. Don’t worry, we’ll keep things moving on time and according to plan.

Our photographers and videographers both work from a shared timeline, which is prepared with help from you by a single point of contact at Fits & Stops Photography.

Yes. When you hire a planner for your wedding, they are looking to lighten your load by sorting through the details for you. They’ll usually prepare a timeline for all the vendors to work with. Once they’ve created it, we ask for a copy of their timeline so that we can build a detailed photo/video-specific timeline that our team can follow throughout the day.

We also ask for contact info for your vendor team as a part of the Photo/Video planning questionnaire you’ll fill out for us. That way, we can reach out directly when we’ve got questions.

Our videographer will often connect with the DJ in order to capture audio from your ceremony, toasts, or other reception moment.

We play nicely with other vendors to keep your day running as stress-free as possible.

This portion of the day can slow to a crawl without good planning, so we’ll do what it takes to get you back to the celebration. By submitting your Pre-wedding Questionnaire and Timeline Planning Worksheet, you’ll provide us with the names of people you want photographed. Most couples end up with a list of 10-15 combinations of family or guests.

Meanwhile, you can ask your officiant to make an announcement following your ceremony, inviting family to stick around for family photos. This way, we don’t have to send runners out to find missing family members.

When it’s time for family portraits, your photographer(s) will be responsible for calling out the names of people in each combination and helping with posing. You two will simply stand in place, looking incredible, surrounded by the people who matter most to you.

Most weddings that we capture are in Northern California, though we occasionally cover destination weddings as well. The more far-flung nature of these special celebrations requires that we charge additional fees for lodging and transportation, which we can negotiate during your consultation meeting.

Your photography package includes high-resolution, digital JPEG file downloads of your edited images—delivered within one month of your wedding. Your photos will live at an online gallery that you can share with friends and family, which you can use to order professional prints or wall art of your favorites. We’ll often try to send along some sneak peeks within a week of the wedding!

All photo packages include a premium print of your choice of image, which you can request once your photos have been delivered.

If your photo package includes an album book, you’ll receive a design questionnaire within a day of receiving access to your photo gallery. In that questionnaire, you’ll decide on which images to include, as well as to make stylistic choices about the book’s fit and finish. We’ll create a proof for you to review or revise, and once you’ve signed off on a final proof you’ll receive your album book by mail within 10 days.

Your videography service includes a variety of video downloads, delivered within 3 months of the wedding. Your centerpiece highlight video will be accompanied by 2 social media videos, as well as full videos with audio of your ceremony and toasts. These videos are located at an online video gallery. When airspace rules allow, we’ll capture drone footage of your venue and surrounding area.

Yes. Filling out our Pre-wedding Questionnaire helps us discern which shots are truly important to you, as well as which moments and details might be essential. We’ll also ask for the specific groups of family/guests (by name) you hope to have photographed, so that we can move through that portion of the day as swiftly as possible.

You’ll also be invited to share a Pinterest “mood board” if you have specific inspiration photos you’d be interested in replicating. Ultimately, the images you receive will be unique and will be edited according to our style and color recipes.

Beyond these requests, you can expect that we’ll be working to capture candid and unscripted moments as they come.

We keep your memories as safe as possible during and beyond the wedding day with on-site redundancy, and off-site cloud  and gallery storage.

Photographers and videographers carry multiple cameras at your wedding, most of which save images/video footage to two storage cards simultaneously. And in the unlikely case that one camera fails, they have a backup cameras to work with.

We save your photos to a cloud backup system just as soon as they are moved on an editing computer. And we finish edits on photos and videos, we upload them to online gallery systems for you to access indefinitely, just as long as we are in business. Though we do recommend downloading your media to ensure that you keep copies available on your own devices.

You can expect to receive ~100 edited images per every hour of coverage in your photography package. So plan on ~800 photos after 8 hours of coverage.

Wedding highlight videos are typically ~10-13 minutes, while social media teasers are ~30 seconds apiece. The full ceremony or toast videos will vary in length based on the duration of actual events.

Because every wedding is unique and may feature more or less “moving parts” (e.g. short ceremony, moving between multiple locations), the final photo counts or duration of videos will vary by event.

All images and videos we deliver are edited to feature true-to-life colors, artistic cropping, and just the right brightness. Though if you see a photo that merits additional “retouching” to fix skin blemishes, hide a photobomber, or erase stray hairs, we can help. We offer retouching at a cost of $25 per image.

If it seems an element of the day might be missing from your highlight video, please let us know. We can explore our archive to see if we have unused footage to round out the story.

While Fits & Stops Photography will own the copyright to your photos and videos, you’ll retain license to use them however you like. You can share access to your photo and video galleries with family and friends. You can post media on websites or social media. You can even print images on your home printer, order prints through an online vendor, or make physical copies of videos, as you will have access to downloads of your media.

Your images and videos are the proof of our excellence in storytelling. So you can expect that Fits & Stops Photography will use your images or videos to promote our business online or in print. If you do not wish for us to promote with your media, we can discuss that request in a wedding consultation meeting and write it into the agreement you sign when booking.

Of course! You can order prints or wall art directly through your online photo gallery. Your artwork is lovingly produced by the artists at Bay Photo Lab in Santa Cruz, CA and mailed to your doorstep. Though because you receive digital downloads of images, you can print them wherever and however you wish.

You can share access to your photo and video galleries with anyone you like, or even share your moments through social media. And we always love it when you tag us online!

Certainly. When including wedding videography at your wedding, we utilize lapel mics, venue audio, or the DJ’s audio feed to capture those special words that are exchanged. Bits of this audio will be incorporated into your different videos, though uncut versions will appear in your full ceremony or full speech videos.

Please let us know during the planning phase if you expect that you’ll exchange private vows, or share important words at moments other than the ceremony and speeches so we can make the necessary arrangements.

Yes. Each of our photographers and videographers carries liability insurance of up to $1,000,000, which is typically enough to meet the needs of wedding venues, or remote locations like State Parks. We raise that coverage ceiling to higher levels if your venue requires it.

Drone footage is included in our videography service, as it brings sky-high perspective to your wedding story. Our videographer will inquire prior to the wedding about whether your venue offers permission to fly a drone on site. Keep in mind that some cities and areas like National Parks don’t allow drone operation, and bad weather can keep drones grounded.

1. Inquire. Reach out using the form at the bottom of this page to check our availability for your specific wedding date(s). We’ll typically get in touch within a few hours of your inquiry. If we’re available, we’ll send pricing information as well as a link to schedule a wedding consultation meeting over video or in person.
2. Schedule a consultation. This is a chance to go beyond trading emails, scouring the socials, and get to know the artists at Fits & Stops Photography. Use this hour to laugh, ask your questions, and we’ll ask some too. See if we’re a great fit for you. Then we’ll help you navigate pricing to find a package that suits the scope of your wedding. Within a few hours, we’ll send an electronic quote that outlines the price and deliverables of your wedding photo/video package.
3. Approve your quote. Request revisions, add on extras like an engagement session or album book, and accept the quote.
4. Sign an agreement and pay your deposit. Once you’ve given your electronic signature and made your nonrefundable deposit for 1/3 of the package price, you’re booked!

We’ll primarily communicate with you via email. This allows us to preserve conversation threads and pass occasional attachments back and forth.

Once you’re booked, you’ll receive an email confirming that you’re booked and we are locked in for your date. That email will also include links to complete your Pre-Wedding Questionnaire and Timeline Planner Worksheet by one month before your wedding. We’ll then work out a final photo/video timeline and portrait list with you that helps direct our team on the wedding day.

You can always schedule a video call to talk over your wedding plan if you need some extra support.