Firstly, lets be honest, you might not be looking forward to your couple shoot! I said it, and yes I get it! Most of you guys who book me have told me that you’re not a fan of having your photos taken or you’re really awkward in front of the camera. Well hey, guess what, me too, so I totally know where you’re coming from and how you feel. That is one of the reasons for me putting this post together today. I want you to get the most out of your couple shoot, I want you to enjoy it and I want you to leave the shoot thinking, wow I’m so happy we did that!!

So here are some tips which will help achieve this.

Firstly, I’d ask you to try and change your mindset form “we’re going to have a photoshoot” to “let’s have a day together and just feel totally loved up”. Two very different things but if you ask me the second is way easier to think about and feel excited for!! Here’s the thing, yes you are going to have some photos taken but at no point do I want or expect you to perform for me. All I want is for two people totally in love, to show up for a fun evening. We’ll have a good time getting to know each other better and I’ll get some photos to remind you how you felt a month before becoming husband and wife.

Taking a day off together to just enjoy each others company, away from all the busyness of wedding planning and work commitments, can really help you get in the right mindset for the couple shoot. I know you’re holiday days are valuable but bare with me as I explain more. I try to do couple shoots about a month before the wedding. With a month to go until you get married it could be a really nice time to just have a day, just the two of you doing things you want to do. Enjoy a lie in, have breakfast out, take a walk along the beach, how ever that looks for you, but just have a day to be together being totally in love and getting excited of the thought of becoming husband and wife. I will ask you to bring all of the love along to the shoot with you 😉

Some Brides choose to book their make up trial on the day of the couple shoot. I always think this is a nice idea, it will help you feel a little bit more glamed up, but also it’s nice to see how the make up will look in the photos.

It’s also a good idea to pick out a few outfits for the shoot about a week before hand to make sure they’re ready to be worn. There’s nothing worse than getting to the day of the shoot and trying to find the outfit you want to wear only to find it’s got ketchup down it (nope, just me, ok). On the day of the shoot you can decide together exactly which outfit to wear. It’s nice for your outfits to compliment each other without being too matchy matchy. Basically you don’t want to turn up Britney and Justin style in double denim but if you’re wearing colour that work well together then fab.

It’s a tricky question to answer “what should we wear to our couple shoot” but it’s one I get a lot. Everyone’s style is different so it’s hard to give a good answer but what I would say first and foremost, be comfortable! If you feel comfy this will reflect in the photos, you will look more relaxed and natural. Checks, stripes or block colours tend to look good. The only thing I would really say to avoid would be any big logos or slogans. When clothes crease up the logo will too and it just doesn’t look quite right in photos. Other than that, as long as you feel comfortable and are happy with how you look we are on to a winner 🙂

Once you’ve decided on what to wear, get together in front of the mirror and just check ya selves out!! Haha!! Seeing how great you both look together before heading to the shoot will help give you a little confidence boost before we meet up.

This brings me onto the second part of this post, what to expect from your couple shoot.

As I said before, I really don’t want you to preform for me so that’s one thing you don’t need to worry about. One of my goals for a couple shoot is for me to get to know you guys better and for you to get to know me better so when it comes to the wedding day it will feel more like you’ve got another friend there. I’ll get a better idea as to who you are as a couple and how you interact with each other so I can capture that in the photos on the shoot and on the wedding day. So basically the first thing to expect is a lot of chatter and story telling and obviously I’ll want to hear how all your wedding plans have come together and what you’re really excited about.

On couple shoots I try to pick between 3 and 5 different spots at your chosen location so we can have a variety of different backdrops. You can let me know of any spots you really like beforehand or you can leave it totally down to me but we can chat more about this in the lead up to the shoot.

Most couple shoots last about an hour but sometimes if we can’t stop chatting or if we have a fair bit of walking it can run to 2 hours. I usually plan to meet up a couple of hours before sunset as that’s when the light is really pretty for the photos.

During the moment where I’m taking photos I try to keep “posing” to a minimum, it’s not something that you’re doing on a daily basis so it’s not something that will feel normal. I want the whole shoot to feel fun and relaxed so rather than me moving you from pose to pose I will more than likely just ask for you to do something, a task if you like. I might ask for you to walk towards me (hand in hand) but after every 5 steps you have to give each other a big bear hug, or a kiss. I might ask you to practice your first dance but in slow motion. Things like this! I’d rather you think about the task I’ve given you and focus on each other, than have you worrying about a camera pointing at you and being concerned about what to do or how to stand. Towards the end of the shoot once you’re pros 😉 I might do a few more photos of the two of you together, more close and cuddly, less tasks, just a couple in love. My aim is to mix it up so you’ve got a variety of photos to see and help us know what to focus more on for the wedding photos.

I hope this has been a little helpful but as with anything if you have any questions or just want a chat, I’m always at the end of an email or text 🙂