There’s a reason being a bride-to-be is so fun! The celebrations, the outfits, the dreaming… it’s all a huge perk of the “job”, but one thing many of our brides seem to agree on is that being a bride and playing an active role in the wedding industry is MUCH different that pinning your dream wedding to a Pinterest board. We’re talking a wealth of new knowledge and lots of new words you didn’t know existed. With all this exciting newness, usually comes a sense of being overwhelmed. The common question of ‘Am I making the best decision always comes to play.
While we can’t make the decisions for you, we can provide you with past-bride opinions that can help guide you in your decision-making. This blog post is all bout bridal portraits and learning if they are the right choice for you! We reached out to #AnnaliseRealBride Cassie to get her take on the bridal portrait experience and what advice she’d give to current brides weighing their options: to portrait or not.
WHY DO BRIDES GET BRIDAL PORTRAITS?
One of the most common reasons brides get bridal portraits done is to help them become comfortable with their photographer. It’s an awesome way to test out how you feel in front of a camera before the big moment. For Cassie the ability to connect with her wedding photographer before her wedding day really helped her relax and feel confident in front of the camera. Cassie explained, “I always feel a tad awkward while taking pictures and Kathryn put me at ease and taught me some helpful tricks of the trade for posing”. Not only can your photographer help you feel natural in front of the camera before the big day, they can also give you tips that you may not be aware of. For Cassie one of those tips was, “my dress had hanger straps that showed in some of the bridal portraits and she reminded me to cut them out on my wedding day”. It may be small, but those are the details that are easy to forget and will show up in photos that you’ll look back on forever! Other reasons include, but are not limited to: timeline restrictions for solo shots during your wedding day, using portraits as a gift for your mom and mother-in-law, trial run for hair and makeup, or the classic… my mom wanted me to take them. This wasn’t the case for Cassie, but we hear it all!
WHAT ARE COMMON CONCERNS FOR GETTING BRIDAL PORTRAITS?
One of the most common concerns we hear is wondering if bridal portraits will complicate the wedding dress timeline at all. If you’re on a time crunch it can be a bit more difficult to squeeze in portraits before the big day, but it’s still doable! Regardless of timeline, you’ll ALWAYS want to communicate that you’ll be getting portraits done to both your bridal stylist and your seamstress once you
start fittings. For Cassie, who had a pretty typical timeline, the gown she purchased at the end of December arrived in May. Upon picking up her gown with us, she made her first alterations appointment for mid-May. Cassie talks through her experience by explaining she came back for another fitting in June or July and picked up her dress on the day of her bridal portraits, which took place about a month before her wedding. Adding “as a caveat, I was fortunate that my dress did not require many alterations, but regardless of the modifications your gown needs, as long as you tell the person doing alternations you plan to do bridal portraits, he or she will accommodate the portraits”.
Another common misconception is that bridal portraits are another expense. While this can be the case, it isn’t always true! “If you are concerned about cost, I would recommend speaking with your photographer to see if they will work with you. For example, if your photographer includes a free or reduced engagement session with your package and engagement photographs aren’t for you, ask if they will replace them with a bridal portrait session!”
WHAT TO DO ONCE YOU OPT FOR BRIDAL PORTRAITS
If you do decide that bridal portraits are right for you here are a few pointers of things to keep in mind during the process. First and foremost make sure you’re paying attention to what you like and if there is anything you don’t like about your look! Cassie agrees saying, “bridal portraits were great because they allowed me to make a few slight modifications where necessary”. She made sure to not only look at herself in the mirror upon getting her hair and makeup done for portraits, but also look at how her bridal beauty choices showed up on camera. “I decided I wanted a different lipstick color and a hair accessory after reviewing my bridal portraits–I probably would not have realized as much had I not done the bridal portraits in advance.”
So there you have it. Bridal portraits are more than a southern wedding tradition! They’re the ultimate trial run before the big day. It’s an easy way to obtain another relic from such a special moment in your life while also making sure that the vendors you have chosen are on the exact same page with the vision you have in mind. And if all this info didn’t help you decide the route you
want to take… maybe scrolling through Cassie’s gorgeous bridal portrait gallery will!
