What does having a photogenic wedding day even mean? Wedding days are beautiful no matter what. What’s better than marrying your best friend, right? But there are a couple things you can do to make you wedding day photos even more perfect!

 

Keep those hair ties off your wrist!

As soon as your hair and make up are done make sure you take any hair ties off your wrist. They don’t look good in photos and can leave weird marks! Assign someone the job of “wrist police” and have them make sure none of your bridesmaids, flower girls, mother of the bride have hair ties on their wrist. In the same vein- have a conversation with your bridal party before hand on whether or not smart watches are okay.

Keep the room as clean as possible.

No matter how many wedding party members you have, getting ready areas clutter up fast. Try to keep a designated zone for “stuff” and throw away trash as you go. Crumpled plastic garment bags, water bottles, remains of lunch don’t look so great in photos. When you’re having getting ready photos done or putting your dress on you want the area to be free and clear of clutter!

No plastic hangers.

Get a wooden hanger for you dress and the bridesmaids dresses. It doesn’t have to be a super expensive custom hanger off of Etsy, just plain ones are fine! They just look so much nicer with dresses than plastic! They’ll also hold a heavy wedding dress a lot better.

Kiss proof lip color.

Make up artists are pros and will help you pick a product that will stay and not smudge, but if you’re doing your own make up its super important to pick a lip product that won’t get everywhere. You don’t want your grooms face covered in lipstick  or have it all over your teeth or be worried about it smearing while everyone is hugging you. Matte liquid lipsticks are a great stay all day option and come in a price for every budget.

The guys shoes need to match.

This might sound so strange, but the groomsmen need to be wearing the same colored shoes. Its very distracting if they all have different colored browns, blacks, and tans and looks more cohesive if they’re all the same color. Having them all wear different cool/funny socks is a fun detail though!

Natural light is the best.

One thing to pay attention to when choosing a venue and/or getting ready space is the amount of natural light in the getting ready and ceremony areas. Natural light is the most flattering and helps create the best environment for good photos. Fluorescent lights can create weird shadows on people where natural light helps keep things more even.

 

Plan around the sun.

Light plays such an important role in photography! When planning out your day, sun position and strength is very important to keep in mind. The time of best light for a summer wedding is going to be significantly different than that of a winter wedding. If you want those amazing glowy sunset photos, make sure you tell your venue and photographer that they’re a priority, that way the timeline for the day can be planned around optimal lighting.

 

Wear shoes you can walk in.

Heels are beautiful, truly. But, if you don’t normally wear heels and find them hard to move around in, go with something else. With most dresses you can’t really see the shoes anyway and you move around a lot on your wedding day. If you’re thinking “well, I’ll just change shoes before the reception”- don’t underestimate all the things that have to happen before then. There’s walking to your first look, bridal party photos, walking down the aisle, bride and groom portraits, family photos. If you’re feet hurt, or you’re having trouble walking its going to show up in your photos. You don’t want to look back on your wedding photos and only remember how much your feet hurt!

Help those details shine.

You and your partner worked hard to pick out all the details that went into your day. Make sure you keep all the details together (invitations/paper goods, jewelry, rings, shoes etc) so that they can be document by your photographer. Invest in a long ribbon in one of your wedding colors, a pretty ring box, and ask your florist for a few extra blooms and greens to help add depth and contrast to your detail photos!

 

The ceremony location matters.

The ceremony is arguably the most important part of the day. After all, this is what a wedding is all about- the getting married to your best friend. That makes your ceremony photos integral to the story that is your wedding day. When looking at venues or planning ceremony areas, think about where the light will be. The trick to beautiful glowy photos, no matter the time of day, is to keep the sun behind you. For example, if a venue has a beautiful mountain background in the east, but the sun sets in the west, its going to be really hard to get good photos with the mountains in the background as the sun will be in your face. A ceremony area that’s side lit means one person will be squinting into the sun for the entire ceremony while the other person casts a shadow.