4 Benefits of A Pre or Post-Wedding Photo Shoot
Ever heard of a pre or post-wedding photo session?
Because of the often limited time that the wedding day brings— for the bride, groom, and their photographer— many couples are opting for a separate photo session that comes before or follows after their wedding.
This allows for a full, unrushed portrait session in their wedding attire that is often at a location other than their initial venue. While the benefits of a pre or post-wedding photo session are plenty, there are also some drawbacks. In this post, I’ll be covering four reasons why you might consider booking this kind of session with your photographer, or why you as a photographer might want to add these to your wedding photography packages.
1. The time on the wedding day is so limited.
This is the number one reason why you should have a second wedding photo shoot.
Even if you have your wedding day planned down to the minute, that timeline doesn't always go according to plan. The first thing that usually gets shaved down are the couple portraits, unless your client or you as the photographer are asked to really prioritize the portrait session.
Knowing that you have another opportunity to do photos of the couple alleviates a lot of that stress and pressure both for your client and for you as a photographer. That way, the bride and groom can spend time with the family and you as the wedding photographer can focus on capturing those family portraits and those more traditional photos of the couple.
2. You can make the most out of your wedding attire.
Whether you’ve purchased your outfit for $5, $500 or $5,000, this is a way you're able to get the most out of the money you’ve put into your wedding day wardrobe.
Plus, it’s such special attire and I know many of you have probably planned it out since you were teenagers, and so being able to spend more time in the outfit, along with celebrating this exciting milestone in your life, is a great way to be able to soak in a little bit more of that wedding day until things settle back to normal. Milk every last drop of your wedding day wardrobe by doing a second session!
3. You can get adventurous with the location.
Typically, couples will choose a location other than their wedding venue that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to highlight during the wedding day.
This may be a downtown area, in a forest, up on a mountain, or a different sentimental location. This enables you to highlight this tremendous occasion from a perspective that is different from your original venue.
4. It enables you to get creative with poses and create unique portraits.
I'm going to speak specifically to my photographers, but brides and grooms still listen up!
Okay photographer— when you know that your couple has booked a second portrait session with you, it allows you to still get those traditional bridal portraits and couple shots during the wedding day along with extra time for more creative and non-traditional poses. On the wedding day itself, you can fully focus on documenting the day, and the bride and groom get to spend more time with their friends and family. Bringing families together is, traditionally, what the wedding day is all about!
By alleviating the stress and the pressure of having a vast variety of photos in a two hour (sometimes one hour) window, it takes that pressure off and allows you to do your job to the best of your ability, while also allowing the bride and groom to relax just a tiny bit more! You can still get those traditional photos during the time that’s available, but when it comes to the second photo shoot, it will allow your clients’ personality to really shine through.
Summing it all up from a practical side, you as the bride and groom will receive more photo variety and additional use out of your wedding day attire along with being able to soak up more of the wedding day.
Now that I’ve *pretty much* convinced you, let’s talk about the best time to book a second wedding shoot. Realistically, there are two options: before or after the wedding. If you’re looking for my personal opinion, I think that both are fine. It’s all going to depend on your own timeline and what you would like to prioritize. Let’s list out things to note about each.
Before the Wedding:
1. Make sure you have time to get your dress dry-cleaned.
If you are planning on having a second shoot before the wedding day, make sure that there is enough time to get your wedding attire dry cleaned. Even if it's not going to get super dirty, you want it to be fresh. You invested time and money into your outfit, and it's really important that it's fresh and cleaned and fully ready for the wedding day itself.
2. Your partner will see you before you walk down the aisle.
If you are a little bit more traditional and you do not want your fiancé to see you in your wedding attire before the ceremony, then you would probably want to opt for doing the second shoot after the wedding day.
After the Wedding:
1. It’s 100% about the couple.
If you do your session after the wedding, the stress, pressure, nerves and interruptions will be GONE! A big reason why doing the second shoot can be so special is because the wedding day heavily involves family, but your second session can be totally focused on the couple.
2. You’ll have to preserve and dry-clean your attire.
If you decide to do a second session later down the line (I’ve had couples book one a year after their wedding), you'll want to make sure to have your attire dry cleaned and preserved for when it’s time to put it back on again.
Because of this, you might prefer to have your second session soon after your wedding day. I personally recommend doing your second session as soon as possible after the wedding as well as before your honeymoon. That way, you can get it all done, leave for your honeymoon, and then transition into reality when you arrive home.
For all my photographers out there— no matter if you decide to include a second shoot in your wedding package or not, I highly recommend you download the posing app for photographers called Unscripted so that you are able to mix in some of those cute, candid, and unique poses for your couples.
Inside the app, you’ll find posing glossaries that are divided up by type of photoshoot. Then, it will break down the pose based on things like standing, walking, sitting, laying, etc. There are so many different types of categories to choose from!
It will also give you a visual of the pose, how to instruct your client into the pose, as well as a prompt in order to get a certain reaction from your client. If you're interested in Unscripted, click here and use code “JESSICA” for $20 off when you get the year or lifetime membership.
If you're a photographer or a wedding client reading this post and you have changed your mind about adding a second session to your wedding packages or have decided to book a second session with your photographer, let me know in the comments on the YouTube video!
Resources:
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