Wedding Bridal Portraits

[iwannaprettyone]

I can see the pros and cons of doing pre wedding portraits, but would like to get an idea of what you all have done or are doing.

Seems to me it is adding expense (photos, hair etc), risk of dirtying or damaging the dress...

So, did you? Or did you skip it? Regrets???

Thanks

 

[mimzy]

i''m not going to do them. not only is there the added expense, but then i would have to answer the question of what would i possibly do with THAT many pictures of just me? If you want to forgo them, you could always just plan an extra half hour or something of photos the day of the wedding before the ceremoy that is set aside for just shooting you. i''m pretty sure that all photographers get a decent number of shots of just the bride anyways, so i think it''s pretty unnecessary unless you want them for something specific

 

[iwannaprettyone]

Date: 5/29/2008 4:13:53 PM
Author: mimzy
i''m not going to do them. not only is there the added expense, but then i would have to answer the question of what would i possibly do with THAT many pictures of just me? If you want to forgo them, you could always just plan an extra half hour or something of photos the day of the wedding before the ceremoy that is set aside for just shooting you. i''m pretty sure that all photographers get a decent number of shots of just the bride anyways, so i think it''s pretty unnecessary unless you want them for something specific

touché!

 

[Haven]

I just never even thought about it! We''re not doing them, although there are a few members of my family who are still appalled that we didn''t have pro pictures taken of just me so we could send that in with a proper engagement announcement, which we also did not do. THE HORROR!

I say if you''re thinking about getting them and you have the room in your budget, go for it! You''ll only have one opp to get a bridal portrait done, after all.

 

[Cleopatra]

I actually did my bridal portrait session two days ago - I haven''t seen my pictures yet, but I was a bit weary about doing them. But, I''m pretty glad I did them already - why? Because I got to see the WHOLE picture - hair, makeup, dress, veil, flowers, everything....And I was really happy with the overall look of everything was was finally happy with all of my decisions...

I took my bridal pictures at my grandmother''s house. I did some pretty adventurous things in my dress - actually got INTO a gigantic oak tree, standing on swooping branches and sitting on the huge trunk of the trees....It was really fun (my uncle practically fork-lifted me into the trees!!!)! I grew up playing on those old oak trees, so I definitely wanted to take pics on them!

My only suggestion is to have an army of helpers...My MOH, mom and FI''s mom were all there making sure I didn''t mess up my dress, putting drop-cloths on the trees, and lifting the dress, holding the flowers, etc....

Only do them if you want to! I don''t think I would have been upset had I not taken bridal pics.....but I honestly can''t wait to see them!

 

[MonkeyPie]

Instead of doing them before the wedding, I did them after - months after due to laziness on my part - and then followed it with a TTD session.

Oh, and I got them done for free by letting a photographer use them in his portfolio And they are AMAZING. I got some with the hubby, too.

 

[oobiecoo]

I voted for not wanting the extra expense. Our photography package came with a bridal portrait but we switched it and did engagement photos instead... not that we''ll ever get them because of our photog drama, but still. I liked what Mimzy said... I figured there would be enough photos of me on the wedding day that it wasn''t neccessary to do a whole seperate thing for it. Our new photographer did a good job but I don''t think there are many of me alone, all dressed and whatnot. There are some amazing ones of me and DH though so I don''t really miss the "alone" ones. Plus, I can always trash my dress!!

 

[jcrow]

i took them. and i''m very very glad i did. it''s like a dress rehearsal. you can see how the hair and makeup actually look in pictures. for instance, i wore diamond studs for my bridals. when i got my pics back i didn''t think that was the best choice. so, for the wedding ceremony i opted for pearls. i know this seems like a silly example, but think bigger picture. you love your hair trail but after pics realize it''s not flattering, etc. you now can change it for you big day.

 

[calidaisy]

we''re doing one in lieu of our engagement photos.
i just didn''t see much point in getting a professional-posed-semi artsy shots in street clothes ... so instead, decided to a wedding shot.

fi will be wearing a tux he owns while i bought a dress on ebay (thus, became a two dress bride

) since my dress has not been altered yet (at least the ebay dress fit me perfectly ... saving me tons in alteration costs). plus, i wanted a beach shot (running around in the sand) and was worried that i might mess up my real dress.

in any case, i will have a make-up/ hair trial session that day as well so that i get to see how i photo in the make-up/ hair arrangement.

we also plan to use the photos to make our invitation and/ or thank you cards.

thus, i''m not sure whether i''m incurring extra/ unnecessary costs ... or killing multiple birds with one stone ... but will let you know how i feel about the whole thing after the photoshoot next month.

 

[calidaisy]

btw, in terms of costs ... the photographer price is included in the package, i was going to do hair/ make-up trial anyway, so the only extra i spent was on the dress.

however, i plan to sell the dress afterwards ... and even if it doesn''t sell, i think i spent a little more than i would have on cleaning my other dress had i worn that. plus, we''re saving money by making our own invitation. so ... in my mind, the expense has been justified.

 

[sarahmills]

i have pretty much decided not to get bridal portraits done. they aren''t included in my photography package (we''re doing an engagement shoot instead), and honestly i don''t want to go through the hassle of getting my hair/make-up done, dragging my dress out and wearing it before the wedding. my grandmother keeps bugging me about doing them, and i have told her that there will be plenty of picutures of just me on my wedding day that to me, are just the same as a bridal portrait. that is just my opinion on them, and like you, iwanna, i can see the pros and cons to both sides.

 

[rubybeth]

I will probably have some ''just me'' shots taken before the wedding, but we have a bit of a different ''wedding photographer'' deal going. I have an old friend taking our engagement/wedding photos, so we''re just giving him a little lump of money (which I''m sure he''ll appreciate as a college senior) and he''ll take whatever photos we want for however long we want, plus he''s editing them. It''s great! He''s very easygoing and we''re both comfortable with him, and thus far, are pleased with the results (we had round 1 of engagement photos on Wednesday, round 2 coming up because we didn''t get in a location we wanted to).

I think we are also going to do our more formal/artistic shots of ''just us'' a couple of days before the wedding (I am making my own bouquet and bouts., plus having my sis do my hair/nails) so we''ll just have the family formal shots to take before the actual evening ceremony. Additionally, the best light for outdoor shots happens right when we''ll be getting married (6pm) so we''d either be dealing with weird outdoor shadows or having a gap time between our wedding and reception, which seems silly with a guestlist of fewer than 50 so we can hang out and enjoy our guests.

Just my .02$

 

[Stephanie]

There is a bridal sitting that is in our photographers package, but I opted to swap that sitting out to do a boudior sitting for FI. I thought that would be more fun than having a bijillion pictures of me in my dress. We have the photog the entire day so there will be plenty of pictures of me in my dress.