Why We Love Bridal Sessions and Why you Should Totally Do One | Wedding Advice from | Albuquerque We

“What is a bridal portrait session?” We get asked that a lot.

Simply put, it’s the southern tradition of a portrait session of just the bride in her dress before the wedding.

It’s one of our favorite traditions for so many reasons!

We want to share with you more about what they are, and why you should do one!

1) You get to wear your dream dress more than once and get more photos of it!

Brides spend hours upon hours looking for the perfect dress of their dreams and you only get to wear it once! So many brides dream of beautiful photos of their stunning dress from their wedding day. What most brides don’t know is that on the wedding day you only get maybe 5 to 10 minutes max to take photos of just you in your dress. And considering you’ve been DREAMING of this dress, you should get more than that!

With a bridal portrait session not only do you get to wear your stunning gown more than once, but you get so so many more photos of it! And not even just your dress, your whole bridal look.

Shoes, veil, necklace, the whole deal. It allows you to make sure the fit of your dress is perfect too!

You’ll get to see if you need to make any more final adjustments before the big day!

2) You get a sneak peak of your final bridal look!

If you’re anything like me, you were so stressed about how your hair and make up were going to look on your wedding day. Sure, we’re hiring professionals who ALWAYS do amazing work, but this is my face. And I know what I do and don’t like. We have color preferences and 100 Pinterest ideas. Doing a bridal session allows you to do an extra hair and makeup trial before the big day. Most hair and make up artists do trials before the wedding. But it can be hard to really visualize it with the veil and the dress and the flowers and all.

With a bridal session, you get to get dolled up and then slip into your dress and get a whole visualization.

In doing so, it allows you to make changes to your final look if you want to.

Maybe you were set on red lipstick, now you’re thinking something lighter. Or different shoes.

You can be 100% confident in your look going into your wedding.

​3) More photos, more practice!

I know we mentioned this in point 1. But this isn’t just about your dress. You will be so happy when you look back on your wedding and have more photos of you in your dream dress. Your mom will love it, your grandma will love it and your future children will love it. Many times, even the husbands love having so many photos of their new wife! Now they can choose which ones they want on their desk and in their wallets.

You may only get married once, but that doesn’t mean you only get one shot at photos! You’ll have more time to be relaxed and enjoy taking your portraits!

You also get more posing practice. Many brides tell us they’re ‘unphotogenic’ or ‘awkward in front of the camera.’ And honestly, you’re more photogenic than you think! And unless you’re a professional model, no one is 100% comfortable in front of a camera. During your bridal session, you have time to get your jitters out and get comfortable.

You’ll learn the poses that we’ll put you in on your wedding day, and have time to feel better taking photos. This means you’ll be a total pro on your wedding day!

4) You can have the best of both worlds!

There is no rule that says your bridal portrait needs to be at the same venue as your wedding or in our studio! It doesn’t even have to fit within the same theme. You’ll get plenty of pictures at your wedding venue on the wedding day so why not take the opportunity to explore a different location, style or season? You’ve invested a lot in your dress and should have pictures that showcase it and you in various locations. maybe you’re having a winter wedding but LOVE the summer colors. You can do your portrait session in the summer, and wedding photos in the winter. If you’re having a destination wedding, but still love your hometown, you can have photos in both locations! The possibilities are basically endless!

Didn’t get to do a bridal portrait session?

Contact us about doing a “trash the dress” session! You can include your hubby and get some really fun portraits in your dress without worrying about getting it dirty. And you dont have to ruin your dress, in fact I strongly dislike the term “trash.” Its just an opportunity to get some really fun portraits that you originally couldn’t get on the wedding day!