Getting ready photos, and wreck-the-dress photos,

can be a whole lot of fun. When you look at a couple or more hundred photos after your wedding, it’s really important to have diversity in them. Getting ready photos, as well as wreck-the-dress photos, are two possibilities to create a more well rounded series of photos to document your special day. Besides, it’s nice to look back on the whole day and remember it, even those nervous moments getting dressed up beforehand!

Getting Ready Photos

What are getting ready photos, and why have them?

People tend to forget about allotting some of their photo time for getting ready shots. Remember, the wedding photos are supposed to be telling a story of your day … which is a whole lot more than just the 15 minute ceremony! Getting ready photos display the bride and the things/people that are important to her. Getting ready photos set the stage for anticipation and how important it was to the bride to be, at her best, for the love of her life. If she’s lucky enough to have friends or family there in the room to help her get ready, it’s also a chance to visually tell a story of how important that friendship/person helping her get ready is to her. Some of the best father/daughter, mother/daughter or best friend shots we’ve seen have been taken before the bride even got to the ceremony.

What is the timing for getting ready shots?

Getting ready shots can mean anything from Timory getting there for an hour before your wedding (or more) to just arriving in your room 10 min before you walk out the door to your ceremony and doing (or just reenacting if you’re trying to cut costs on photography time) a few of the more key getting ready shots. There are a lot of examples on my site of getting ready shots here:

https://weddingphotoskauai.com/project/getting-ready/

Wreck-the-Dress Photos

What do you have to do, and why bother with wreck-the-dress photos?

As you can see from the link below, wreck-the-dress photos also add a depth of diversity to the entire photo shoot. They can be as simple as you walking at the water’s edge of a pool or the ocean. You don’t need to get more than the bottom of your legs wet. They can also be more adventurous, going half way in or further. They are the shots that show you as a fun couple (remember, we are showing through images who you are as a couple together) being relaxed, spontaneous, adventurous or playful. Trust us, people stuck in the box never do these … so they set you apart from the rest as adventurous!

What is the timing for wreck-the-dress photos?

The timing for wreck-the-dress photos can be very short, or longer if you prefer. They can be as simple as 5 minutes at the end of the wedding photo shoot getting only your legs wet, or longer playing in the water and getting fairly wet. You do NOT need to go all the way in to get great shots. Going up to your waist is about as far as most people go in. You can forget about your photographer; these are mostly candid shots. Just look at each other, play around for a few minutes, and before you know it you’re done (these are normally the guy’s favorite part of the shoot!). Then, you just go change your clothes and go off to eat (or whatever you have planned next) … and your dress will dry and be cleaned perfectly fine. Your hair/makeup does not need to be touched and it does not stain the dress nor need extra clean up beyond changing your clothes.

https://weddingphotoskauai.com/project/candids-trash-the-dress/

Changing Locations

When making plans for either getting ready shots or a change of background shots, people often want to know how the timing works for changing locations in terms of what they are paying for. Generally speaking, the getting ready photos are done next to or closet to their wedding location. If this is the case, then we do not charge for a change of fee location. As long as the change of location is not too lengthy, Timory is very generous with her time and is happy to stop the “photography clock” to help make these very special shots work better for people’s budget. If the change of locations is further away, just give us a ring and check … we are very fair, and we will make it work for you.

Final Wedding Photo Tips

Finally, here are a few final tips to help your photos turn out amazingly.

Many brides are concerned about looking good on their wedding day. Some are worried about looking heavier than they’d like to in their wedding photos. There, we said it! Although Timory has no special trick to take 20 pounds off of you when editing the photos, she does have some tricks up her sleeve. She knows some good slimming poses as well as how to hide things that bug us about ourselves. Just let Caitlin or Timory know what your sensitivities are, and she can help you out with how she takes the photos, what she crops out, hides or accentuates. Timory can really help if you give her a heads up on what you want, or don’t want. As a woman, she understands well that us women have a tendency to be overly critical of our bodies, and Timory is great at working with this to make sure that the photos don’t just look great to other people, but that you look great to you!

Consider whether you want to have your guests holding phones/cameras during the ceremony. It’s fine with us what you choose, but do be aware that small crowd of people taking photos of your special moment is not necessary (you’ll have all the photos you need from us!) and also looks distracting in an otherwise romantic and beautiful photo. Consider asking your guests to wait until after they are in the photographs too to take out their cameras and assure them that you can share your photos with them later.