It’s been a while since I’ve shared a wedding blog post, so today I wanted to share about my bridal portrait experience. When I first started wedding planning, I wrote off bridal portraits early on. I thought that I didn’t need a bunch of pictures of myself, and that we could save money without them. As time went on, I started to doubt my decision more and more. After seeing so many beautiful portraits from our photographer, Missy Loves Jerry Photography, I finally decided to go for it. It was the BEST decision! I brought my mom along with me and it was a really fun day! I’m sharing the top 6 reasons below as to why you shouldn’t skip out on bridal portraits!
This post contains affiliate links – read more about what that means HERE.
Hair & Makeup Trial: Taking bridal portraits allows you to do a trial run with your hair stylist and makeup artist. Bring inspiration pictures (or send them ahead of time) so that they can create the exact look you want! If there’s something you aren’t loving, now is the perfect time to tell them. The last thing you want is to dislike something about your hair or makeup on your big day. This is typically the #1 reason that brides think of when deciding on bridal portraits. Although it’s an important reason, it’s definitely not the only one!
Bouquet Trial: Bridal portraits are also a great time to ask your florist to make your wedding bouquet. It’s the best way to see the flowers you chose all put together! Plus you get to take a gorgeous bouquet home with you. I actually asked my florist to tweak a few things for my wedding bouquet and I’m so glad I was able to do that.
Moving Around in Your Dress: Taking bridal portraits allows you to wear your dress for an extended amount of time and actually move around in it. Walking around is a lot different than just trying it on in the bridal shop. While getting my portraits done, we actually noticed that there was a gap in the back of my dress when I walked. I was able to ask to get it taken in a little bit more when we took it back to the dress shop. They also cleaned and steamed it again for me.
Trying out Your Shoes: Whether you get bridal portraits done or not, you need to walk around in your shoes! Although I loved my shoes so much, I learned while getting my portraits done that my feet started to hurt after a while. This let me know to bring a change of shoes for the reception. I changed into a lower heel when I changed my dress before our first dance. I couldn’t find the link to the shoes I wore, but I’m linking the low wedge heels my bridesmaids wore HERE.
Having Gorgeous Photos to Cherish: You only get to wear this dress once (or twice if you take portraits). There are so many things to take photos of on the big day, plus you want to enjoy your time with family and friends too! Taking bridal portraits allowed my photographer to capture every detail of my bridal look. And the photos are simply gorgeous!!! Whether you want to display some at your reception or not (I only had a small one), you will want these special photos to look back on!
Feel Confident and Beautiful: The last reason that I’m so happy I took these bridal portraits is because of how confident and beautiful it made me feel! To see the entire look put together was amazing. I truly felt like a bride, and it made me even more excited for the wedding day. It was also such a relief that we noticed those minor details and could fix them before the big day. I knew I didn’t have to worry about my hair/makeup, bouquet, dress fitting while walking, or shoe comfort.
Overall I had the best experience taking bridal portraits! I was skeptical about doing them in the beginning, but I’m so glad I went for it! My dress is Kenneth Winston from New York Bridge & Groom of Raleigh. Watered Garden Florist designed my bouquet and WINK Hair + Makeup did my glam. We took the pictures at JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh. You can see a full list of my amazing vendors HERE.
