I was talking to some clients recently about their wedding day, and we got down to group shots and bride and groom portraits and how much time they felt they could allocate for these. Now, we’ll get on to group shots, I think there should be a whole other post for that bad boy, but they had some interesting thoughts surrounding their bride and groom portraits.

Evie (bride-to-be) is a wedding photographer. Photographs mean a lot to her but she also knows the drill – in that the drill doesn’t always go left foot right foot. Sometimes, despite everyone’s best, bestest efforts and a three-page project plan to hand, those actions (highlighted in red and bold) may not go so smoothly on the day and inevitably, timings get thrown off course. Who woulda thought that the car would break down on the way to the church, huh?

Just sometimes, this means that group shots are squeezed in and portraits are left with a sliver of the wedding day pie.

So, Evie has decided to have a post-wedding shoot the day after the wedding. She is going to have her hair done fancy, make-up impeccably applied and hell, she might even don that dress again. Andrew will do the boy thing of having a shower and shave and wear a suit (it’s so easy being a man, jeez). They have decided on a location that is special to them but was, unfortunately, too far away to be incorporated into their wedding day and will spend this half-day enjoying having their picture taken without the pressure of time keeping and Aunt Maude looking on.

I love the idea of a post-wedding shoot, it gives them (and photographers) the chance to be more creative and to have added control of where and when without wedding day constrictions. I blogged about Heather and Jeff’s post-wedding shoot here. See how they’re in the man-made stream thing? Crazy cats. Would they have done it on their actual wedding day? Probably not.

A post-wedding shoot may not be for everyone but I feel I need to stress this to brides everywhere, you get to wear that fab dress again, er big whoop anyone?

Disclaimer: this was not taken on a real wedding day