How To Stay Relaxed During Your Wedding Photo Session

Do you feel awkward in front of the camera? More often than not people clam up in front of the camera because they’re not used to having their pictures taken professionally. Prepping for your wedding photos can be the difference between natural and fun-looking photos and stiff awkward ones. Follow these tips to stay relaxed during your session so you can get beautiful, natural pictures of your wedding day!

 

Tips For The Couple

Choose The Right Photographer

 One of the best ways to make sure that you’re relaxed during your wedding photo session is to choose a photographer that you feel comfortable with. Meet with at least three different photographers to see which one you feel most at ease with. You will use the same photographer for your engagement shoot and your wedding day so you can get to know them and have a warm up session before the big day.

If you’re still looking for the perfect photographer, I would love to be a part of your day and capture those special moments. Book a free consultation so we can get started!

Engagement Photo Session

Having an engagement photo session is a great practice run that will get you a good feel for what it will be like during your wedding. This will be the first time you get to work with your photographer and get comfortable with them.

Feel Great Before The Day

When you know you’re serving looks, you will feel flawless in front of the camera! Looking and feeling your best before pictures is a great way to be more relaxed during the session. Spoil yourself and have your hair and makeup professionally done. If you want to take your beauty routine to the next level, try beauty procedures like facials, massages, a manicure/pedicure, spray tan, whitening your teeth, or even microblading your eyebrows. Of course only try whatever intrigues you and you have the budget for.

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Having a beauty routine before your wedding to help you feel relaxed for photos isn’t only exclusive to the brides! Grooms can also take part in a beauty routine so they will feel confident and handsome for their pictures. Males can also get facials, massages, find the perfect hairstyle, or whiten their teeth. Again, whatever grooming routine that will make you feel confident and ready to take pictures.

To continue to feel relaxed and your best during your photo session, have a member of your party keep touch up supplies on them so you’re not oily and don’t have stray hairs flying around in your face. 

Practice Posing

Like most things in life, the more you practice something, the better you get at it. When you know how to do something, you will innately feel more relaxed and confident when doing it. Get a close friend or family member to come over a couple times and take pictures of you and your partner posing. Your photographer will help pose you during your wedding photo session but knowing that you like the pose and how to do it will make things easier for you.

It will be stressful if you don't think about who you want pictures with until the day of your wedding. Make a plan of people you want pictures with (family and friends) and tell your photographer ahead of time so they can better plan your wedding photo session.

 Have Fun

Remember, these are your pictures and your wedding! If you have positive thoughts about the  experience, feel confident, gorgeous and ready to take on the photo session, that’s how you will look in your photos. If you still feel like you might be uncomfortable, take your pictures away from your guests so you don’t feel like you have a huge audience watching you. You can even grab a speaker and play your favorite music to put you more at ease. Your wedding day shouldn’t make you feel tense, and your photographer shouldn’t scare you. Be happy, enjoy yourself and you’ll get amazing photos.

Something else to keep in mind is that despite popular belief, it’s not the best idea to have an excess of alcohol before the pictures to help you “loosen” up. Drinking too much alcohol before pictures can make your skin tone look more red than usual and you might feel bloated. 

Tips For Photographers

Most of the customers you work with probably don’t have tons of experience in having their pictures professionally taken. It’s part of your job to help them feel comfortable and relaxed. Here are a few tips for how to make them feel relaxed during your wedding session.

Stay relaxed

When you give off a calm, cool, and collected vibe, your customers will pick up on that. Stay relaxed and it will rub off. Show up on time ready to work and be on their schedule. It’s important to stay flexible and not stress because it will likely make the couple anxious thinking something is going wrong in their pictures or their timeline for the day.

Lay Out Your Plan

Tell them exactly what your timeline is, how the pictures will work with you, and how you’re going to instruct them so they won’t have any surprises. Be thorough in answering all their questions and concerns.

Give Helpful Posing Instructions

Be extremely direct and informative on how you want them to pose. When you take control, they will be more at ease and excited for the results.

Shower Them In Compliments

Tell them they look good! If you’re complimenting them along the way, they will feel more relaxed and excited about the shoot. Plus, when you get an amazing shot, make sure you show it to them. The reinforcement will allow them to loosen up and get more into the pictures.

I hope these tips will help you stay relaxed, or keep your customers relaxed during a wedding photo session.