Also known as an engagement shoot
Yes – that was easy, read no more!
There are a few reasons we consider a pre wedding shoot a good idea, let us tell you a bit more about what we do and our approach.
We regard ourselves as relaxed, fun and creative as well as many other buzzwords that most wedding photographers use! Our approach to weddings is that we are your friends who will be taking beautiful photos of you for the whole day, but wait? Friends? But you’re just a couple of random people we saw at a wedding fair, on Instagram, wherever!, you’re not friends – we’re not friends YET! So this is one (of many) great reasons to have a pre wedding shoot.
Getting to know your photographers
It’s not an issue for us to meet new people on a wedding day we have been around so many different types of people for the hundreds of weddings we have covered so we can make friends fairly easily, however a lot of people are not like this, they need to warm up to people.
A pre wedding shoot is usually a half hour meeting to plan out times and think about photo gaps/opportunities and then maybe an hour somewhere scenic to get some photos, it’s like a date with another couple with cameras, wait this sounds weird…
As we meet and talk about plans we have chit chat, find out more about each other and we will often see if we can test boundaries, nothing too crazy we just take your lead on what’s comfortable and what stuff you might be up for, this leads us into another reason a pre wedding shoot is a good idea.
Testing out creative ideas
We love taking photos of people, it’s even more fun when they’re willing to take direction, so when we come to a pre wedding shoot at a certain location we will think of things that have worked here before but also things we can do differently, the same as we do on a wedding day, sometimes we might have a new idea bouncing round in our heads and the next couple are the perfect opportunity to try it out on, so as well as a pre wedding shoot being your practice run, something’s we do or say are also practice for us! Which can create some beautiful pictures!
A collection of beautiful pictures.
So if your anything like us and 99% of the worlds couples, when it comes to pictures of the two of you it’s a selfie, a drunken pic your mate has taken, or a picture a stranger has taken that isn’t quite the right angles but your too British to tell them to do it again, but better!
So a pre wedding shoot is a dedicated time for you and your beau to dress up a bit (more on this further down) and have a professional photographer get some photos of the two of you, a pre wedding shoot usually has at least 30 finished images, so if you want to gift your nan a nice pic for the mantlepiece you’re all set! In amongst the photos we will have a variety of backdrops and positions, we keep things fluid and relaxed so we have one pose go into the next, we have a look at the camera, look at each other and a kiss, at a certain point this becomes second nature, which is great as it lets you start to concentrate on each other and those moments which in turn makes better pictures!
At the beginning it will be awkward there’s no denying that, but as we’ve just touched on it will get easier, you will relax into it, but if nothing else it will ease those photography nerves.
Wedding photography anxiety
Your experience of a wedding photographer may be as a guest, or as a bridesmaid/groomsman, most modern photographer have the same outlook as ourselves, however we still hear stories of photographers who shout orders at guests, have huge egos and your never stood in the right way! So you might be booking a wedding photographer with a little knot in your stomach thinking that the day is going to be uncomfortable for some reason, maybe noted above.
So a pre wedding shoot should put to one side those fears and anxieties, we meet, and pretty much every time we get on with people, and anyone who didn’t get on with us obviously thought we were too nice to be able to tell it to our face, which is still good, right?! Nick spend most the time looking for photo opportunities while laura spends most the time gossiping about this that and the other, by the time we leave you’ll likely find out your related (this has actually happened before), or you share best friends, or something that only her chat could uncover! But by the end 100% of couples have told us that they felt better about the wedding day photos now, the nerves were now out of the way.
Tips for a good pre wedding session
A few pointers in what makes for a good shoot;
Location- this could be countryside, seaside, forested areas or even urban settings, think about the time of year & time of day, rush hour is no fun to get stuck in, and a quayside shoot during a festival or market is going to be quite overcrowded.
Clothing- The best things to wear are smart casual, something fairly simple as we don’t want the clothes to be the focus, try and avoid tracksuits, large logos on clothing tat kinda thing.
Don’t let the nerves get the better of you, you can be nervous, its what we expect.
Don’t overthink it, just relax and let us guide you, don’t get bogged down in social media poses you’ve seen which involve gymnastic flexibility.
Don’t let the weather put you off, if its drizzly or rainy go with it, you won’t be able to call off the wedding day due to poor weather so just embrace it!
Check out some of our work!
Our website has some work we have done over the years, take a look for inspiration!
We put a lot of effort into social media, so take a look at our instagram feed, in there you will find behind the scenes weddings, wedding guides, and a whole feed full of real weddings.
