Ways to Make Your Wedding More Photogenic

because everyone wants pretty pictures of their wedding day:)

I stated in a previous blog post that a wedding day is not an 8-hour photoshoot. Now with that being said, there’s no shame in wanting to get the absolute best photos of your wedding day! Because we want that for you too! Your photos are the hard copies of your memories and we want you to get the wedding gallery of your dreams. We want your beautiful memories to be surrounded by just as beautiful environments. So we’re here to give you 7 things you might want to incorporate into your wedding day to make it more “photogenic” as well as 2 bonus tips at the end!

1. Book a venue with lots of natural light

While your love story is the main subject of your wedding day photos, your venue is the background of every single photo. And available light plays the biggest role in how your day photographs overall. Natural light is the most photogenic light so a venue where you’re mostly outdoors or that has a lot of windows is key! Now if you’re going for a dark, moody, or flash-centered vibe then that’s a whole ‘nother thing entirely. Make sure in this case that there is interesting yet flattering ambient lighting throughout the venue!

2. Get ready at a boutique hotel

The getting ready spaces in some venues can have an almost sterile feel to them. And getting ready for your wedding day should be anything but procedural! We recommend booking a boutique hotel or eclectic airbnb for you and your people to get ready at. Imagine putting on your lipstick in front of an antique gold mirror or sitting next to large window on a velvet chaise to put on your shoes. I mean if not for the photos, do it for the mems!

3. If you have an overall “theme” or “vibe,” commit to the bit!

Your wedding day is not one to skimp out on. And I’m not talking about budgets, because we all have to be realistic in that aspect. But if you pick a theme for your wedding, it should permeate through the entirety of it. Weddings with a “garden party” theme should have flowers and flower petals everywhere you turn, for a romantic theme there’d better be pearls and satin and floating candles galore, and if you’re vibe is vintage we’d better see antique gold candlesticks, velvet, heck maybe even a classic car!

Have you ever tried to take a picture of something but it feels like the camera is not doing it justice? Like the thing you’re looking at is so pretty or epic but for some reason the camera is just minimizing its effect? Same is true for photos. If you’re “theme” is very minimally present in real-life it’s likely going to photograph even less than that. So, if anything, be gaudy with it!

4. Buffer extra time into your itinerary

Candid, documentary style photography shines best when you allow space in your day to truly enjoy the presence of your family and friends. It is during these scheduled “downtimes” that beautiful moments happen and authentic memories are made. These are the instances of your day that you may forget occurred until you relive those memories upon getting your photos back.

And along these lines, if you want to get those picture-perfect moments together, make sure you’re actually spending time together during these down times:) It’s tough to get candids of you two with each other and your guests if you are off in different directions.

5. Do a first look

Now we are team “whatever our clients want” when it comes to the big first look or no fist look debate. But when it comes to being able to enjoy time with your guests as much as possible, it’s easiest to get all your bridal party and family photos done before the ceremony. This is only possible if you two see each other pre-nuptials as well.

Doing a first look also provides an opportunity to exchange gifts or personal vows as well as an additional opportunity to take portraits of you two! You get those pre-ceremony shots in and then you get to sneak away sometime during the evening to truly take in all that newlywed bliss and have it captured! Whether your second photo opportunity is flash or golden hour, we’ve never had a client regret taking more pictures together on their big day.

6. GO SOMEWHERE!

If you’re not going somewhere epic for your wedding entirely, maybe schedule some time during your day to “take a break” from the inevitable chaos, and go off-site for some portraits! Provide a little variety in your wedding day photo backdrops by scheduling in some secondary location portraits! This could be a nearby park with fields or beaches, rooftop parking garage, vibey bar, etc. The options are endless!

7. Give your guests a dress code and/or color scheme.

No you don’t have to make your guests wear ball gowns and tuxedos but a general dress code and/or color scheme requirement makes sure that anyone in or wandering around any photos doesn’t serve as a potentially distracting presence. For example, if you are getting married in the summer at a vineyard you can tell your guests for their attire to be dressy casual with a garden party color scheme. All your photos will feature ladies in floral dresses or pastels and the guys can wear neutrals with pops of color as well. If you’re getting married at a venue in the middle of a concrete jungle ask your guests to dress semi-formal in only neutral colors. Photos of you and your guests will be so cohesive and any decor or florals you’ve made part of the day will really stand out! This advice is to ensure that no matter what photo we take on your wedding day, everything will be aesthetic and work cohesively with the venue, season, and theme of the wedding day you worked so hard to design!

BONUS TIPS!

1. Have the officiant stand anywhere but behind you during the ceremony

Everyone knows to instruct their officiant to try to remember moving out of the way for the first kiss. But think about setting them up off to the side for the entirety of the ceremony. Your ceremony photos will be free of any distraction from you two and your connection. Along those lines, remember to hold hands during your ceremony too:) And also, consider having your bridal party seated during the ceremony. Again this is in an effort to keep the entire focus on you two and you two alone! We actually did this for our own ceremony, but we kept our maid-of-honor and best man standing beside us!

Another amazing option is to have your officiant stand in the aisle, maybe a couple rows deep. When they do this, you’re facing the crowd and all of your loved ones (and your photographers) can see your smiling or joyfully tearful faces better.

2. Assign someone to de-clutter, or have a wedding day coordinator who can do so.

Phone chargers, trash, overnight bags, extra supplies, etc. none of it adds to a photo other than distraction so assign someone the task of keeping things tidier. Whether this is a day-of wedding coordinator, a personal attendant, or other friend/family member doesn’t matter. But tidying up is an important part to having beautiful, timeless and aesthetic wedding photos.

Key Takeaway: Trust Your Photographer

We’ve been a bride and groom ourselves and have also helped almost 100 couples through the exciting journey from fiancés to spouses so we have learned a thing or two. When you book with us we send an 80+ page guide full of information to help you design your wedding while keeping photography in the back of your mind. And when it comes to the day itself, your only job is to enjoy every moment, we will be there to capture those memories and then hand them back to you to enjoy for a lifetime!