My Approach to your Couple Portraits

Couple portraits are my favourite part of a wedding day. If you look on my website or social media it makes up the main bulk of what I share. Your wedding day is about the two of you and your families and I think having some beautiful natural photographs of all elements of the day is really important. This is why I think it’s really important to set aside time for your couple portraits in your wedding day and to trust anything I ask you to do while we do them, I promise you’re going to look amazing! 

What are couple portraits?

Couple portraits are simply photographs of the two of you, if you look basically anywhere on my website or social media you’ll see lots of them dotted about everywhere. We set aside a bit of time in your wedding day after your ceremony to get some photographs of the two of you. I usually always do these after your confetti and group shots. They’re usually photos of the two of you having a cuddle, a kiss or just simply holding hands and looking at each other. They’re the photographs you’re most likely to use on social media to announce your wedding. They’re the photographs that you’ll get printed and hang on your wall. They’re the photographs that you’ll dedicate a full page spread to in your album. And they’re the photographs that future generations will look at and marvel at how beautiful you look. Just by setting aside a bit of dedicated time to your couple portraits on your wedding day you get some gorgeous photographs to look back on of just the two of you that will transport you both back to how the day felt. They’re my favourite part of a wedding day to shoot because I think it’s one of the most important parts of your day. It’s the time of the day where you both have a breather and spend time completely by yourselves with me in the background. Your wedding will go by in the blink of an eye, it’s so important that you take this moment to treasure this time and know that you will look back on this day in all the years to come. I can guarantee that your couple portraits are going to be one of the main parts of the day that you can remember.

My approach

My approach to your couple portraits is very relaxed. I’ll give you a bit of gentle direction but there won’t be any super stiff posing and I promise I won’t manually place you in awkward positions. You don’t know it yet but you know how to pose yourselves. I want you to look back on these photographs and remember the moment, I don’t want you to remember feeling super awkward because your photographer placed you in a weird position. To give you a general idea of the gentle direction I’ll give, I’ll probably ask you to have a cuddle or for one of you to go behind the other, for you to hold hands or for you to whisper silly things in the other persons ear. I’m not interested in putting you into poses that I think will look good for a photograph but will in reality, feel really awkward. I want to give you a bit of an idea and for you both to interpret the direction however you want. Not only does this feel a million times more natural but it means you’ll remember the moment more than whatever it was I asked you to do. The main thing I am always looking to photograph is moments between the two of you. This usually means I’ll ask you to do something that feels silly but it will be guaranteed to make you laugh. Whatever I ask you to do, just trust that I haven’t completely lost it, I know we’ll get good photographs at the end of it.

Most of my couples hate having their photo taken and this is the part of their wedding day that they’re probably most nervous about. Every single one of my couples look amazing in the photographs so you definitely don’t have to worry about anything. If you are worried though and you’d like to get to know me a bit before your wedding and have a bit of a practice before the day itself then I can’t recommend an engagement enough. Full disclosure, engagement shoots start out with feeling a bit weird. I’m someone you’ve most likely just met and I’m taking photos of the two of you having a cuddle, it’s a bit weird. As the shoot goes on though it becomes really normal and you’ll go from dreading the couple portrait part of your wedding day to really looking forward to it. I don’t think anyone should dread any aspect of their wedding day so if this sounds like you then please do book in for an engagement shoot so I can show you exactly how awesome you’re going to look on the day itself. After the shoot I promise you’ll be completely chilled and looking forward to it!

How long should we set aside for couple portraits?

Setting a wedding timeline is no easy task, there are so many parts of the day to think about. I recently wrote a guest blog on Shropshire Petals site which will give you more info about setting an overall wedding timeline. For your couple portraits between 20-30 minutes after we’ve done your ceremony and group shots is ideal. This is the perfect time for us to leave your guests to their own devices for a little while and for you to have some time to yourselves. Giving yourselves a dedicated 20-30 minutes in your wedding day to get some beautiful couple portraits is just the right amount of time for us to go for a bit of a wander around your venues grounds or nearby and to take a breather so the two of you actually get some time together on your wedding day. If we get chance after your food we may go out again for some more photographs if we get a beautiful golden hour and you’re not too photoed-out. However I always get some photographs of the two of you before you sit down to eat. This is for a number of reasons, it ensures we won’t lose the light, you’ll both look your best, no one will be too drunk and there’s no chance you’ll have spilt food down yourself!

Couple portraits can be such a lovely part of a wedding day and I’d really recommend that you make the most of this time, you’ll have so many amazing memories from it!