What exactly is a Bridal Portrait Session?

Bridal portrait sessions are a great way to get you into your wedding dress before the wedding and capture your stunning beauty without the stress and hassle of the wedding day looming overhead. It’s a time where we can take our time together and get some really amazing and creative portraits of you in the dress.

Let’s talk about why you should consider doing a session, where you should do the session, the extra benefits, and tips on having the best session possible!

Why you should do a Bridal Portrait Session!

The main reason you should do one is to capture how you feel in the dress in a more stress-free environment. You’ve spent many hours searching for that perfect dress and you deserve to wear it more than just the one time on your wedding day. Bridal portraits will give you that reason to get glammed up and zip up the dress! What’s the point of planning out the perfect wedding if you don’t treat yourself along the way. If you are interested in learning more, then feel free to reach out to me and let’s get your session scheduled!

Where is the best place to do bridal portraits?

There’s a couple thoughts on this one. You can do your bridal portraits at your venue, or if you are going out of town I have several beautiful places to do your portraits around the Auburn and Opelika area. A third option is to make a trip out of it and go down to the beach or up to the mountains.

Doing them at your venue will give you a similar vibe to your wedding pictures, however there might be some small discrepancies in your hairstyle, florals, or season at the venue that will make it obvious your bridal portraits were done at a different time than your wedding. Some people are ok with this and others might not like it so much. For those that don’t like it as much, I have a solution for you.

Choosing a different location than your venue will set your bridal portraits apart from the wedding day altogether and give them their own distinct look. I have a list of places for portraits based on what you want your aesthetic to be. For example if you want a more timeless and elegant look then we will go to Jule Colins Art Museum here in Auburn, or if you want a little more industrial we will go to the Historic Downtown in Opelika Alabama.

Extra benefits of a bridal portrait session.

Everyone needs to do a trial hair and makeup session before the wedding to make sure that the stylists knows what look to do on the day of your wedding. Why not do it for a bridal session so that you have professional hair and makeup done for your bridal portraits. Then you can make your fiancé take you out to a fancy dinner that night!

Bridal sessions give you more time to be in your dress. We spend a lot of money on these dresses to wear for one day. Get more use out of your gown by doing a bridal portrait session.

Trying on the dress for bridal portraits after alterations have been finished will give you a good sense of how the dress will fit and feel on the day of the wedding. Sometime these alterations take months and months and if you’ve lost more weight than expected then you’ll want to make sure to account for that. I can guarantee that you do not want to find out that your dress doesn’t fit on the wedding day.

Another good benefit is that we don’t have to devote as much time to bridal portraits on the wedding day. Of course we will still do some for you, but we don’t have to take 30 minutes of the day to do them. Instead we can do them right after you get in the dress and during the couples portraits! Bridal portraits really help the efficiency of the wedding day!

Some pro tips for bridal portrait sessions.

1. Make sure that you steam your dress before the session. Having just gotten the dress back from alterations, your dress might be wrinkly. Steaming the dress before the session will give you a fresh looking dress for your portraits

2. Make sure to have the dress cleaned after the portrait session. We won’t be doing anything crazy or super dirty, but leaves, grass, sticks, and little critters will get in the dress anytime it’s work outside so make sure to take it to be professionally cleaned before the wedding.

3. Bring a friend or your mom to your session. This is super important because you’ll need help getting into the dress.

4. Make sure to wear the same underwear you plan to wear on the wedding day. If you plan on wearing shape-wear be sure to bring that.

5. Bring the same shoes so you can break them in.

6. Don’t forget about the veil. You want to treat a bridal portrait session like it’s your wedding day.

Book your bridal portrait session today