Bridal sessions tend to be a “Southern thing”, and were once very popular several years ago. I am so excited to see this trend coming back into mainstream wedding photography. I think it is a huge benefit to the bride-to-be (and her mom) for many reasons. It allows the bride to get into her dress (usually 1 week to several months) before her wedding to really get comfortable in her dress (and in getting photographed in her dress). She can have a trial run with her wedding day hair/make-up and we can spend a significantly longer amount of time getting portraits in her in her gown (usually for wall art for her home or her parent’s home). It allows us to completely control the time of day in which we photograph her (which is not always the case on wedding day), and we can take our time going to several locations throughout the bridal shoot to play and have fun/experiment with different lighting and backgrounds.
I was thrilled when our gorgeous bride-to-be wanted to create these bridal portraits before her St. Petersburg wedding at the Don Cesar on St. Petersburg Beach. It gave her the opportunity to don her classic Vera Wang wedding gown and Jimmy Choo shoes. We were able to create some images with natural light, backlight in the glow of the sun, and with flash for sunset. As an added bonus, it allowed her to feel truly comfortable and confident in front of the camera. I saw her relax and ease into herself, which really allowed us to create some stunning bridal portraits. A special thank you to Stephanie at FH Wedding and Events for putting together our bride’s bouquet on a moment’s notice. You are so very appreciated, Stephanie!
