Gazing off into the distance…
Formal photos at a wedding are one of those things that I don’t quite understand.
I find it a little bit strange that people will leave their own wedding, often for several hours, to take photos of their wedding day. You wouldn’t leave your own birthday party to take posed, formal photos so you can remember the day – you just take photos of everyone enjoying the party. Wouldn’t these types of pictures be a more appropriate reflection of your wedding day, too?!
I understand that girls are all dressed up, likely wearing the most expensive dress they’ve ever owned and with professional hair and makeup, so they want to capture that forever on film (or on a memory card!) But that can be captured in 30 minutes of professional posing, can’t it?!
For this, reason we’re only having one hour of ‘formal’ photos (I use that term loosely – I don’t want any ‘gazing off into the distance’ posed shots!). In that one hour, we’re going to get a handful of shots of the two of us, another dozen or so of us with our bridal party, and then some photos with relatives and friends.
Beyond that, we’ve done the traditional thing and bought 20 disposable cameras to deposit on each of the tables. I can’t wait to get them developed and see the “real” photos of the evening – when our guests are eating and dancing and drinking and letting loose! I’m even looking forward to the blurry, grainy photos. To me, those are much more fun than the posed professional pictures we’ll get back from our photographer.
A couple we know got married two years ago, and they had a similar philosophy – and they even took it a step further. They simply did not want to leave their own wedding to have photos taken, so they had their professional photographer meet them at the venue two hours before their wedding ceremony. They had all of their family and bridal party photos taken then, and after the ceremony, the photographer snapped dozens of candid shots of the couple mingling with guests and enjoying themselves.
For them, the benefit of being able to enjoy their entire wedding day and spend every single minute with friends and family was worth ruining the ‘surprise’ moment when the groom first sees the bride walk down the aisle. It’s not a bad idea at all!