How Photographers make their Wedding Images

This may come as a shock to a lot of brides BUT a lot of the images that you see in bridal and fashion magazines are not shot on the Wedding day.  There are a ton of photographers who “require” brides to do bridal shoots or “trash the dress” sessions as part of their Wedding package.  This allows the photographers to get wonderful images of the bride and groom but sometimes lack the emotions and personality of the images on the Wedding day.

Some photographers even go as far as to have “bridal shoots” where they will dress a model up in bridal wear to capture beautiful images and they will push them as “Wedding images.”  To me this is not the case and they should be clear on when the images were taken.  A tell tale sign, in most cases, is when the bride does not have a bouquet.  Some brides go without bouquets though.

wedding images are images taken on your wedding day

Wedding Photography, Bridal Shoot, or Trash the Dress Sessions?

I recently viewed a top photographers images on Facebook and could not believe that this person had a title of “Wedding Images.”  There were images of a bride all over the place with tons of different poses but no wedding flowers.  They used scarves and different props for the shoot.   To me this is false advertising.  If the images are not shot on the Wedding day then they are not “Wedding Images, ” they are bridal shoots, lifestyle sessions, fashion shoots, or trash the dress sessions, which are fabulous images if not pushed as Wedding images.  I have done all of them but I won’t say that a model that we take out and put a dress on is a wedding image.

To all of the future brides out there.  Ask to see full Wedding day images and ask the question about whether they are all taken on the Wedding day.  I personally show images that were taken on the Wedding day and find pride in the fact that I get 100’s of fabulous images of brides and grooms, families, and friends in such a short period of time.  99% of my Weddings are all shot on the Wedding day.   I get the occasional bridal shoot and the occasional trash the dress BUT I won’t create albums with images and push them as Wedding day images.  I just think that this is unethical.

bride on her wedding day image

Will my Wedding Photographs look like these portfolio images?

A word to the brides and grooms, be careful who you book and what they guarantee on your Wedding day.  In the heat of the moment on your Wedding day you want the absolute best possible Wedding images with personality and emotions flowing out of the images.  Make sure that your photographer is up to the challenge and that the images you are looking at are created on the Wedding day, unless of course you are going to do a bridal session or trash the dress session.

Have fun in your Wedding Photographer search and feel free to visit Paul Retherford Wedding Photography site to see the list of questions you should ask your potential Photographer.  Cheers.

wedding day emotion