Your wedding photographer should have plenty of ideas, but it is always a good plan to have a few ideas of your own to discuss with them. After all, they won’t know you as well as you do, so it is well worth letting them know what kind of photos will suit your personalities. As ever, these days my first port of call for inspiration is Pinterest, where you can find so many different photos from other people’s weddings with a simple ‘wedding photo’ search. These are just a few of my favourite ideas:

Pre-ceremony shots

Obviously it is traditional that the groom doesn’t see the bride (and especially not her wedding dress!) until the ceremony starts, but there are ways you can get round that for an adorable photograph. If you’re outside, you can both approach the same corner of a building from different sides, then reach a hand round the corner to each other. The photographer can see both of you, but you can only see the hand you are holding. Alternatively, if you are inside, the bride can hide in the room with the door open and, with the groom standing out of sight behind the door, they can hold hands again. It’s usual for the photographer to take shots of the wedding dress, the bride’s bouquet, and even her shoes, but combining those photos with similar ones of the groom’s attire can create gorgeous, modern shots. For example, the bride and groom’s shoes side by side, or the wedding dress and the groom’s suit hanging next to each other.

Post-ceremony shots

Once you are actually allowed to see each other, the fun can really start! You can choose to having a photo booth complete with props for guests (and the happy couple) to create their own funny photos, or stand everyone in the shape of a heart and take the photo from above. Shots that include reflections from water or mirrors, or silhouettes of the bride and groom, can be amazingly beautiful. With a bit of preparation you could be holding signs saying ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs’, ‘Just Married’, or even (for the super prepared) ‘Thank you’ to create a picture for your thank you card.

Check out a few of our favourites on our Pinterest photography board.

Before your wedding you will no doubt be spending lots of time choosing the right wedding photographer, but you should also be considering how you will want to view the photographs of your wedding day (and, most importantly, your wedding dress!) in the future.

The most common and traditional form of photograph presentation is the wedding album. Usually made professionally by your photographer, these can be as simple or as swanky as you (with your budget’s consent) want. Alongside this you may choose a portrait of the two of you, or perhaps a large group photograph of all the guests, for you to hang on the wall. This could be printed on canvas for a traditional style, or framed with acrylic to create a modern wall feature.

Alternatively you could buy the images on a disc and design your wedding album yourself using one of the myriad of sites that let you plan your own layouts, specify the quality of the prints, and choose an album cover which they then create and send to you. If that seems like too much effort, you could just buy a digital photo frame and display all the images on that!

Another option which would be particularly suitable if you handmade much of your wedding, is to purchase prints of all the pictures you particularly like, and then create a scrapbook of your wedding day yourself. You could even stick in a few bits and bobs from the day – the bride and groom’s place cards, some confetti and (if you can spare it) even a bit of trim from your wedding dress.

Once you return from your honeymoon, perhaps you think the wedding organisation is all over? All you have to do is stick your wedding dress in a box and open all the presents? Well, not quite. Firstly your wedding gown, the dress of your dreams? It deserves a little more care and attention than just stuffing it in a box and putting it away. We’re hoping to cover the after care of your wedding dress in a future blog post, so for now suffice it to say that it needs to be properly cleaned and stored away if you want to keep it, otherwise you can always sell it on eBay after it has been cleaned.

Thank you cards can be simple cards bought from any stationery shop, but some wedding photographers offer thank you cards as part of their wedding packages, which means you can use one of your wedding photos for your thank you cards. The catch? You have to choose the shot you would like to use pretty quickly after you get back from your honeymoon to give them time to be printed and still get them out to your guests in good time.

Whether you have gone with a gift list that delivers all your gifts at once on a pre-decided date, or your guests have chosen personal presents and brought them to your wedding, they will need opening after the wedding, and not many people will have time to do that before they go on honeymoon. If you have gone down the gift list route, it is a good idea to give yourselves a break between the end of your honeymoon and the delivery date. When you get back from your holiday you will be busy enough unpacking your suitcases; you don’t need to be trying to unpack boxes as well.

Choosing your photographs will likely be a lengthy process, and one you should start as soon as possible. One tip from my wedding photographer is not to leave it until well after your first wedding anniversary (ahem…obviously she’s not talking about me and my husband!). The photographer will already have narrowed down the selection by getting rid of any shots that haven’t come out properly and can’t be saved by photoshop, but that could still leave you with hundreds to choose from. How many photographs you can choose will depend on your package, but will usually be less than 100. Once you have made your choice, the photographer will work out some layouts and then you get to make some more decisions!

Once you’ve done all that, it’s time to settle down and enjoy your married life together.

I know I speak for myself when I say many of us aren’t that comfortable in front of the camera. But guess what? On your wedding day, you’re going to be centre of attention and the subject of hundreds of photographs, so it’s a good idea to get used to the idea and practice your poses!

Perhaps it’s a no-brainer but one of the first things to remember is to RELAX. Start from the top and work down, finding areas of tension and letting them go: in your forehead, your jaw, your mouth, neck and shoulders, back and hands. Feeling stiff and awkward makes you stand and pose in often quite bizarre ways! You want to look yourself, so give yourself a little shake and a wiggle if you need to, then stand so that your weight is evenly distributed and you feel secure and confident.

Ask for a countdown from the photographer. Holding a fixed smile means that by the time the shutter clicks the realism of the expression is gone. Keep your face neutral and relaxed, or even close your eyes. Then, after a “three, two, one….” countdown, flash your best grin, full of feeling, and it will look fantastically natural and beautiful.

Practice makes perfect! If you feel you’re really unphotogenic, the truth is you’re probably just not comfortable and confident. Invest some time in front of the mirror – practice natural smiles (they start with your eyes, so think about your favourite things and get a twinkle in your eye!) and full-on laughs to see how your face moves. Remember to relax, and have a look at your face from as many angles as you can. Ask a friend to take a load of pictures with a digital camera so you can see exactly what your new poses look like, and then you can feel reassured knowing there are a few solid poses you can rely on.

Remember where you are – this is your special day, you’re dressed like a princess in a fabulous wedding dress, you’re marrying the person of your dreams and all your family and friends are there to support and show their love. If that doesn’t get you smiling then I don’t know what will!

Request some ‘candid’ photos throughout the day. This means that the photographer will be a bit sneaky and catch all those gorgeous moments between you, your partner and your guests – those head-thrown-back laughs, the intimate whispers, the admiring looks. And best of all, you don’t need to worry about posing because you won’t even know your photo is being taken!

Exclusive Wedding Photography Offer

The team at Rebecca Dawe Photography are offering a 12 x 10 framed photograph (worth £65) to brides who purchase their gown from the Wedding Dress Factory Outletand who book their photography with them. Rebecca and her team are highly experienced bridal photographers and are based in our building so why not consider booking an appointment with them when you visit us, or just pop in.