If I had any tips to achieve long-term success and happiness as a wedding photographer, it's to learn to appreciate as many of the tasks and skills required as possible. In the end, this job consists of making thousands of choices and solving innumerable problems each wedding day, and there is a joy to be found in simply doing well, whatever the task. We both entered into wedding photography with a joy and expertise in storytelling and using light and lenses in interesting ways, but now we also find joy not just in things like organizing large bridal parties in flattering ways but also things that are entirely structural and non-creative.

I look back with pride on weddings where we entered into family photos 90 minutes behind schedule and finished on schedule, or when we had 25 table shots to do in 30 minutes and somehow pulled it off without making people feel rushed or harried.

Some of these things may not be the stuff of Pulitzers, but it is all part of the job, and learning to find joy in each part not only helps you as a photographer and avoids burn-out, but you'll inevitably do all of these things better.

(Especially since one of the best hints for any group photo is to be wearing a genuine smile).