The Pre Wedding Session – Your Together Shoot

Is a Pre-Wedding Session going to help you with your wedding photography?

So.  You’re getting married and you’re planning the best day (trust me – it will be) of your lives so far. You’ve found your venue and  you’ve booked the caterer and started thinking about the band, and how you’re going to fill the day.

You know you’re going to be needing a photographer, but….here it is… You HATE having your picture taken. I hear it a lot…

So why even bother booking a photographer at all? You could ask your friends to photograph the whole thing and send you the pictures afterwards.

Why can’t this work? It would certainly be the cheap option…

Here’s the answer: If you don’t like being in front of the camera, that’s what you’ll be left with – some awkward pictures taken by your uncle of you looking at a camera with a big grin on your faces like a couple of goofy teenagers. Sorry – but that’s how it’s going to go. Your wedding pictures will forever be, well, just a little bit awkward looking and really just something you cringe at whenever you dust them off to look at them.

There might be another way, and apart from actually booking the professional and paying for that, you might want to also think about what that professional is doing for you. Turning up and getting some great looking, in-focus, well lit photographs is one thing, but getting you to be comfortable and at ease in front of the camera is another.

Together

So you’ve heard about the Pre-Wedding Session idea? Some call it an E-Shoot, some call it a pre-wedding shoot, some call it a Love Shoot – we call it your ‘Together Session’.

The Together Session is such an important part of the process for us. So much so, in fact, that we’ve decided to include it for free in all of our main packages. Together is more than a little practice session before the big day. It’s more than paying lip-service to “What’s included in your package”. The Together Session is designed to do a few things.

I Hate Having My Picture Taken

That whole “I hate having my picture taken” thing – yes – we do hear it all the time. In fact, by now it’s what we’ve come to expect to hear when people first get in touch.

Let’s break this down a little.

When you look in the mirror you see the daily version of yourself that you’ve become used to seeing. Every dimple, every wonky nose, every feature out of symmetry somehow. We’re all the same if only because of our irregularity. But here’s the thing – that image you recognise as you isn’t real. It’s all backwards – reversed and embedded in your subconscious as the wrong way round version of you. Flipped, back to front, left to right. Your parting? It’s on the other side. Your left eye is a little more sparkly than your right? (it’s your right eye). Right?

Right.

You only really get to see you in the same way that everybody else does when you see yourself in pictures, or caught on video, and your brain has to snap adjust to recognise that of course it’s you – it’s just not the you you’re used to. It’s not the you you were expecting.

Worse still, you’re usually caught unawares and in between figuring out your photo-face while everyone is trying to do the same thing as the camera is aimed straight at you expecting you to present a satisfactory cool/at ease/smiley/ version of yourself.

The whole thing’s a disaster, and frankly, you’re just about done with having to look at pictures of yourself, with the constant reminder that you could do with losing a few pounds and maybe that recent haircut was, on reflection, a mistake. Please tell me it’s not just me!

Your Wedding

You get one chance to get a comprehensive record of your wedding that both looks good, and tells the story of you, as a couple, marking your moment in time – your best version of you – your wedding story. You’re going to be in front of not just my camera, but most of your guests are going to want to take pictures of you on the day and If you already don’t like having your picture taken, you’re going to need to find a way to get over that bump. It’s not as simple as looking at a camera and smiling, and then turning to another camera and repeating. Doing this can make it feel like the whole day is a photo shoot, and you can feel like you’re missing out on just being in the moment, interacting with your guests, and enjoying the day. If you’re not ready for it, you might be surprised at how much time is taken up getting the best shots, but if you are ready for it because you’ve already had your pre-wedding Together Session, then we can fly through the important pictures and I can leave you to enjoy spending time with your guests, without the feeling of being under pressure.

Getting it Together – Your Pre Wedding Session

The Together shoot is an ice breaker. I always say that it’s better to spend a little time figuring out what’s going to work best for you in the Together Session, than it is to try to fumble our way to the good stuff on the wedding day. By the time we get to the day itself, we’ve already had a walk and a talk and got to know each other a little. You get to understand how I work, and I get to see how you guys fit together, and a bit about who you are and what’s important to you. It means we hit the ground running, there’s no anxiety, and there’s no weird expectations of what you think I need from you and visa/versa. I can get a handle on the timings of the day, and you can feel comfortable in natural poses and realise that you don’t have to spend the whole day grinning your heads off at the camera.

We can go for a walk – usually getting away from the public, into nature. Maybe it’s a place that you know well, or maybe it’s close to your venue, or even the venue itself if that’s going to work. I’m always headed to local venues like the Winkworth Arboretum, which is beautiful at any time of the year. Richmond Park is a good one, and Wisley Gardens delivers every time. That said, I’ve done them in people’s own back gardens before now, so anything goes. The point is that we get some great shots of you with each other, loosening up, and feeling comfortable. Importantly we can make sure that the pictures are authentically you. A version of you, Together, that you can recognise as true and unforced.

Free Yourself

It’s really hard for any of us to look at pictures of ourselves, and it takes a lot to get past the initial reaction of seeing your profile view or a side of you that you don’t ordinarily get to see. It took me years to realise that this is my face! And then to realise that all of the small gestures and characteristics that look larger than life to me don’t actually register with anybody else, and that’s very liberating.

So the Together Session is now a Free part of all of our popular packages. It used to be an extra charge, but  we think that it’s such a crucial part of getting to know each other that we want everyone to have it. It’s included, it’s Free.

Contact Us Now

If you’re getting married, let us help. We want to be your photographer! There’s no better time than right now to get in touch. Head over to our Contact Page to find out more about availability and next steps.