It’s not really a secret that I love photographing bridal sessions. It’s such a fun and special session! Bridal sessions are really a Southern tradition. In fact, my Northern photographer friends have never even heard of Bridal Portraits before! So for my non-Southern photographers, Bridal Portraits are a session with just the bride in her dress before the wedding day. In addition to digital files, our brides receive a framed enlargement of their favorite image to display at their wedding and then, ultimately, in their home.

Brides spend countless hours looking on Pinterest and in magazines searching for the dress of their dreams. (I know I did! I went to a specific bridal boutique because they had a dress I had found in a magazine.) After all the time you spend dreaming and planning, you really only get to wear your dress once on your wedding day if you opt out of a bridal session. But there are so many advantages to adding a Bridal session to your Wedding Experience!

HAIR & MAKE UP

Bridal sessions let you see your whole bridal vision with hair and makeup before the wedding day! The last thing you want is to end up not really loving your hair and makeup on your wedding day. We had a bride totally change her hair style because she ended up not liking her “up do” vision she originally wanted. Can you imagine how she would have felt discovering that on her wedding day? By doing a bridal session, she was able to see her whole vision come together in real life instead of just imagining it. After her bridal session, she had time to go back to the drawing board and find a new hair style that she loved instead of being unhappy with how she looked in her wedding photos.

FIT

Bridal sessions give you a chance to really wear and be active in your wedding dress before the wedding day. This is huge! It’s an opportunity to ensure that your dress fits well and is comfortable. I’ve found that there’s a big difference from standing on a pedestal with your tailor, to actually walking around, posing, sitting, and really wearing it for longer periods of time. We’ve had brides take their dresses back to alterations for adjustments after wearing them during their bridal session because the fit wasn’t quite as right as they thought it was. After all the time and thought that goes in to picking your wedding dress, how disappointing would it be if you spent your entire weding day being umcomfortable in your dress because it didn’t really fit?

“It’s also very helpful to make sure everything is right with your dress! Fittings are one thing but actually moving around in the dress is completely different. After my bridal session, I realized something didn’t fit right and one of my bustle buttons was missing so I had PLENTY of time before the big day to get with alterations and fix things.” – Darline (JK Bride)

MORE PHOTOS

Wedding days can be hectic. Timelines can sometimes be tight or get behind schedule and it’s not always possible to take a lot of photographs of just the bride in her dress. You may walk away with just a handful of images of just you in the dress of your dreams. But with bridal sessions, you have so many more photos of yourself as a bride. As a wedding photographer, I want my brides to be able to look back in 50 years and have so many wonderful and beautiful memories of what they looked like and what they felt like as a bride. I want my brides to have more than just the traditional looking and smiling at the camera photo. I want them to feel beautiful. I want them to feel like they belong in a magazine. I want them to love how they look because it’s so important to love and be comfortable with yourself. Bridal sessions really give me this time with my brides. I love creating gorgeous photos for my brides that make them feel like a million bucks. After the wedding day is over, you have a gorgeous portrait of yourself as a bride to take home and cherish forever. Plus, you get to wear your dress for more than one day. Who doesn’t love that?!