Tips for a Fabulous Bridal Session ~ Wedding Weekly

Are you thinking about having a bridal session? Are you worried about getting your dress dirty before the big day? Confused about what to bring? Here are a few tips to make sure your bridal session leads to beautiful images.

-The most important thing in any bridal session is keeping the dress perfectly clean. Having a gown cleaned is expensive, but it won't be necessary if you take the right precautions. First, choose the right location. We chose the location for Jill's bridals because the pathway was paved and our 2nd choice had a dirty gravel pathway. We also brought a sheet for her to stand on in the grass and a towel for her to sit on. We even spread the sheet over the car seat. Basically, don't let the dress touch anything that could possibly be dirty.

-Bring a friend. Most likely your mom or maid of honor would jump at the chance to come to your bridal session, and having someone to carry your train and bouquet ensures that your dress doesn't drag on the ground while you're walking. This person also comes in handy with holding reflectors and carrying other things like your veil and shoes.

-Have a bouquet. Whether you order one from your florist or make your own, if you have a bouquet to hold, you'll always have something to do with your hands, so you will have a wider range of poses.

-Choose either your hair trial or makeup trial day for your bridal session. Since you're doing the trial anyway, you can put it to good use.

-Consider doing something different with your hair. I love simple loose curls for a bridal session. Many brides are concerned with their hair lasting all day, so they stray away from an all-down look. So it's a great choice for a bridal.

-If you plan to wear a veil on your wedding day, use it for at least some of your pictures. And it's best to save those pictures for last, so you don't have the difficult task of taking the veil out without messing up your hair.

-Wait until close to the wedding. As eager as you are to schedule your bridal session, hold off until your dress fittings are done, especially if your dress needs to be hemmed. You'll also want to have all of the accessories you'll wear on your wedding day, unless you want your bridal session to have a different look. You'll need to leave enough time for the photos to be processed and printed, but more than 5-6 weeks is just going to make it harder to keep your dress a secret.

Are you ready to book your bridal session?

Wedding Weekly ~ Using Your Engagement Pictures

Engagement pictures are a pretty typical practice for engaged couples, but their result isn't as typical. Sure a few pictures get sent to various relatives and a gorgeous print or two gets hung up on your walls, but then what?

An engaged couple might get anywhere from 30 to 100 pictures back from their engagement photographer. That's kind of overwhelming if you're just going to narrow it down to one or two.

In our case, Ryan and I were so in love with our engagement pictures that we started looking for more ways to use them. And we found a place for almost all of our favorites!

Here are some of my favorite ideas for using your engagement pictures:

Save the Date Cards - The most typical use of engagement photos.

Thank You Cards - Many people choose to wait and use a wedding photo for thank you cards, but if you want to get a jump start on writing yours, use an engagement photo!

Guest Book - This could be in the form of a photo album (leave plenty of space for guests to write!) or in a single print with a large mat for signing. You could even turn one of your photos into a puzzle and have guests  sign the back of individual pieces.

Decoration - Scatter frames around a bridal shower or your cake table.

Seating Cards - Use individual seating cards to make up an enlarged engagement photo.

Table Numbers - Some couples actually take pictures holding numbered signs, one for each table, while others incorporate them into the design afterwards.

Customized Favors - Depending on the favor you choose, you could easily incorporate a photo into the favor's tag or label.

While I love all of these ideas, I certainly wouldn't recommend them all. Not together at least. Your face would be plastered all over everything. Your friends and family love you, but not that much.

Photos taken at our wedding by Rebecca Franklin Photography.

Looking for more wedding tips and tricks? Check out some more wedding weekly posts!

Being Present

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time being present. I'm a planner by nature, so I'm always researching our next vacation or pinning pictures of my dream kitchen. And since getting a smart phone a few weeks ago (behind the times much?) I've found it increasingly tempting to check Instagram/Facebook/Twitter, etc.

As much as I love checking my Instagram feed, I find myself doing it while riding in the car with my husband. Why would I completely ignore the opportunity for an uninterrupted conversation with him just to see a couple snapshots of food?

Having a smartphone is showing me just how tied to technology I really am.

And then I saw this commercial. Oh boy.

I think the most alarming part of the commercial is that the group gathered around the cocktail table doesn't think they're missing out because they can see the pictures on their phones. But if they would just put down the phones and walk across the room, they could experience those moments first hand.

Now, I'm all for being able to see photos of your best friend's wedding quickly and easily. But I find it a bit much when the bride and groom have been tagged in a shot of their first kiss on Facebook before they've even made it to the end of the aisle.

The last thing that wedding guests should be doing at a wedding reception is flipping through pictures online. Save that for after the big event is over. Instead choose to be present and actually enjoy what's happening right now. Snap a few quick pictures if you want, but then put your camera or phone away and don't take the extra time for uploading and tagging.

And this applies for the rest of life too. My lunch break at work is a great time to check my social media feeds. But when my husband and I are together, I need to put down the phone and be present in that moment. My phone can wait. My relationship with those I love cannot.

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Wedding Weekly - Makeup, to Splurge or Save?

Hiring a makeup artist for my wedding was a last minute decision for me. All through the planning, I planned to save a little bit of money by doing my own makeup so our budget could have a little more flexibility in another area.

And then I realized, that I'm just not that good at makeup. I do an okay job, but I knew I wanted more than just okay makeup for my wedding day. After all, what good are the pictures if you don't love the way you look? 

So I decided it was worth the splurge. It's not like you get married every year. (And besides, professional makeup in the grand scheme of the entire wedding budget is really affordable!)

And it was one of the best decisions I made. I knew the morning of my wedding that I wasn't going to be a stressed bride leaning over the bathroom sink to get as close as possible to the mirror. I wouldn't have to worry about my eye lashes (we have a love/hate relationship) and I'd actually be wearing blush (at that point, I didn't own any).

It was so wonderful to have an expert on hand to worry about my eye shadow and make sure my foundation was blended in. And I was in love with my false eyelashes. If I knew how to put them on, I'd be tempted to wear them every day. They were gorgeous!

If you're on the fence about getting your makeup professionally done for your wedding day, at least meet with a makeup artist. And ask other brides who had their makeup done. I'm sure they'll agree with me: it's worth every penny!

Photography: Rebecca Franklin
Makeup: Kim, About Face MUA

Want more Tips for Brides?
Makeup: Splurge or Save?
How to be Inspired by Pinterest
Do I Really Need a Wedding Coordinator?
Because They Hired a Wedding Planner
Secret Jobs of a Wedding Planner
6 Things Wedding Guests Will Love
The Importance of the Stupid Wedding Decisions
10 Things That Should be on Your To Do List
Choosing Your Bridal Party
Taking Time Off
Wedding Day Emergency Kit

Wedding Weekly - Taking Time Off

Weddings mean mile-long to do lists, and many times brides (and grooms!) are rushing to pack these things in to their already busy weeks. And often the result is that engaged couples spend almost all of their time together doing wedding related tasks like discussing possible bands or shopping for wedding favors. And since just about every part of of wedding planning ultimately comes back to the budget, it can be stressful. 

When you find yourself needing a break from all the wedding talk (or sense your fiance is close to a breaking point), plan a wedding-free date night. It can be as simple as grabbing a cup of coffee, taking a walk around the neighborhood, or enjoying an ice cream cone. The actual activity doesn't really matter, as long as it has nothing to do with the wedding and wedding talk is not allowed. Anything from watching a movie to baking cookies together can be the time off that a couple needs in order to keep their love for each other (and their sanity).

Planning date nights every few weeks where no wedding plans are discussed can be a lifeline to brides and grooms. When Ryan and I were engaged, we relished activities that weren't wedding related, especially towards the end of our engagement. Whether it was a weekend trip for a job interview or painting our new apartment, we tried to escape the stress of the plans and lists and focus on each other. We also played tennis (which I'm terrible at) and attended friends' graduation parties. We tried to pull our focus away from the wedding and focus on the marriage.

So whether you just started planning your wedding or it's 3 weeks away, make time for an evening off. You won't regret it.

Want more Tips for Brides?
Makeup: Splurge or Save?
How to be Inspired by Pinterest
Do I Really Need a Wedding Coordinator?
Because They Hired a Wedding Planner
Secret Jobs of a Wedding Planner
6 Things Wedding Guests Will Love
The Importance of the Stupid Wedding Decisions
10 Things That Should be on Your To Do List
Choosing Your Bridal Party
Taking Time Off
Wedding Day Emergency Kit

Wedding Weekly ~ Finding Inspiration

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't know how I planned my wedding without Pinterest. It's such a great place to put together inspiration boards and keep your ideas in one place. {I love Pinterest so much that I talked about it last week!}

But I didn't have Pinterest when I was a bride. So I had to make my own inspiration boards with pictures I found. Because I'm incredibly visual, and if I couldn't picture how something was going to look, I wouldn't be confident in the decision. I was always scared that my wedding would be very mismatched and not cohesive at all.

Since I couldn't search Pinterest for my wedding ideas, I found most of my inspiration on wedding sites, like The Knot and Wedding Bee. Participating in forums and reading other bride's blogs leads to a variety of new ideas. Wedding blogs like Style Me Pretty and Green Wedding Shoes are also places that many brides find ideas and inspiration for their weddings.

Once a bride gets a vision for something specific like a tulip bouquet, searching Pinterest or Google Images will probably help her find a picture in the right color scheme for her inspiration board.

From romantic photography poses to dessert buffets, it's incredibly easy to find inspiration for your wedding. The downside? 

Almost as soon as a fresh, new idea hits the internet, it's been copied by dozens of brides. In 10 years, will we have weddings that look like they were created from the same Pinterest inspiration board? I sure hope not! Another downside to the wealth of wedding information online is that brides are bombarded with so many great wedding ideas that they have trouble choosing. (This was me!)

Collecting all your inspiration pictures into a single board is the best way to keep your ideas focused and make sure that your wedding vision is cohesive. When you put pictures of all of your wedding ideas in one place, you'll be able to see at a glance that calla lillies seem a little too formal for your casual backyard wedding or that you should find a few more ways to tie lace into your wedding day.

Happy pinning!

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