All About Bridal Portraits

If you’ve found your dream dress, you’re probably counting down the days until you can wear it again. Well, photographers have heard your pleas and answered with bridal portrait sessions. Think of bridal portraits as rehearsals you may have had if you were in theatre, musicals, dance, or cheer. Acting as a dry-run, this is a moment in time when you can wear your wedding gown, get in full wedding hair and makeup, pose fabulously and maybe twirl around like the diva you are, and love every single moment of it. Oh, and you get amazing photographs of just you to add to your wedding album and memories!

Bridal Portrait Sessions

Bridal portrait sessions are a wedding tradition that gives brides another momento even after the wedding has come and gone. Sure, bridal portraits are a great excuse to wear your wedding dress on another occasion, but they’re also an opportunity to get more photos of you in it than you normally would. On the wedding day there’s only so much time, which is why the photographer and you will work out a carefullycurated timeline for photos on the day-of.

In these sessions, you will have an allotted amount of time with your photographer to pose however you’d like. Some brides even go for a more fun and celebratory vibe for their bridal portraits. Pop the champagne in some photos if you want, release balloons at the end, do whatever you want, because it’s totally and completely your session.

Picking a Location for Your Bridal Portrait

The venue you choose for your wedding day doesn’t need to be where you have your bridal portrait session. Your photographer will confirm, you can select any location you want. However, some brides choose to keep with the landscape and theme of their wedding photos and have them done at their wedding venue for consistency purposes. It is all about the vibes, after all.

When to Have Your Bridal Portraits

Like your engagement session with your wedding photographer, you’ll want to have your bridal portraits taken months before the wedding day. We did say this was a dry-run, right? It’s rehearsal for your look and gives you a chance to see how you feel in your wedding gown, wedding shoes, hair and makeup. Besides, just think, you’ll get these photographs in advance of your actual wedding album or gallery link, and isn’t that fun?

Getting Ready for Your Bridal Portraits

As we mentioned, besides another opportunity to wear your wedding dress, you may also try out the hair and makeup you planned for your wedding day, but you may also select a completely different hairstyle, say maybe an updo if you are doing loose curls on the day of, or makeup options for the bridal portraits. Always wanted to try fake eyelashes out? Now may be the time. Considering ombré eyeshadow? This may be your chance to try it out. Have fun with your prep and lean into ideas your vendors have for you, because you may just be pleasantly surprised by the results. Who knows? Maybe the look from your bridal portraits will inspire your final wedding day look? Either way, you’ll have your bridal portrait photos to look back on.

Here photo courtesy of SBJames Photography

Photos within courtesy of Vanessa Joy Photography