Not Your Average Wedding Photo Shoot

Alternative Wedding Photo Shoot Ideas

Wedding photos do not have to start and end on your wedding day.

It’s a given that you’ll be hiring a photographer for your wedding day. Consider adding a few extra shoots to document to this beautiful chapter of your life. Here are some extra-fun wedding photo shoot ideas to commemorate your nuptials!

Engagement Session

We don’t think of the engagement session as one to “consider” – we believe it’s mandatory! Every photographer offers a great deal to add on an engagement photo shoot to a wedding package. It’s a chance to get to know your photographer, to get comfortable in front of the camera, and also, to have some professional photos that you can use for your wedding website, save-the-dates, or holiday cards. Have fun with them! We love seeing snaps of couples in formal attire, or even clad in themed clothing (such as their favorite sporting wear and even the surf boards or bikes to go with them) or favorite spot like a place they love to have coffee or music hall. 

Boudoir

You wouldn’t be alone if you have a stigma in your head about what boudoir means. But we’d like to officially invite you to take a fresh look at this unique photo shoot that is all about you – your personality, your sensuality and your confidence! Local photographers like Barlow Boudoir are anything but intimidating, and are there to allow you to express yourself. Whether that’s fun, flirty and fully clothed, or straight-up steamy. We’ve never heard anyone say they regretted doing a boudoir session with one of our recommended pros. Our feedback from engaged brides is that it’s a wonderful way to feel feminine and tastefully sensual without qualms. It can also be a spicy, special gift for your spouse. 

Rehearsal Dinner

If you can fit it into the budget, we think that having your wedding photographer for a couple of hours on your rehearsal dinner night is a great investment! It is not usually achievable for them to capture a great shot of each of your closest friends and family members on your wedding day, once the getting ready shots and formal portraits have passed. And while dancing shots are fun, they aren’t frame-worthy. So invite a photographer, and knock out some group photos on your wedding-eve! The one disclaimer here is that your photographer might not book this until closer to the date, depending on the season and day of the week – as it could be one of their days where they’d likely be able to book a full wedding day shoot. In that case, they might be able to guarantee an associate photographer for your rehearsal dinner day.

Honeymoon Portraits

This is the biggest splurge out of all of our wedding photo shoot ideas. But we are mega-fans of a honeymoon portrait session. This is especially fun if you are going somewhere exciting and photo-worthy (think: sunset kisses with the luscious backdrop of a pink and purple Hawaiian sky, or strolling hand and hand in front of the Eiffel Tower). Selfies are great, but no match for professional photography. It’s pretty easy to search for a local destination photographer online, see if they speak English (if needed) and even book them in advance to coincide with your best day.

Post Wedding Shoot aka New Nester Shoot

Whether you did the engagement session or not, we love the idea of a photo shoot after the wedding. It could be to celebrate a significant date – perhaps your one-month anniversary, or moving into your new house together! We love the intimate, in-home photo session for this one. Capture within some meaningful images, how sweet life was as newlyweds! In 30 years, you’ll love looking back on the duo that you were.

COVID-19 Porch Session 

All of your loved ones are stuck at home together. There’s no time like the present for couple or family portraits! Think about doing a safe social distance front porch photo session to commemorate this unique time in our lives.

Interested in doing one of these creative photo sessions? Contact one of our Heart of NC Wedding photographers.

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