I shot my pre-wedding photos
(Note: All pictures in this piece are clicked by me unless mentioned otherwise.)
Pre-wedding photoshoots have become the norm now. Every couple(well, almost every couple) spends a good chunk of time and money doing them. It is a nice way to starting the celebrations. I personally love the creativity some shoots have.
When we decided to tie the knot in 2018 (way before we even started planning our 2020 wedding), we knew we wanted to plan a wedding that spent cash on the most critical things. Pre-wedding shoot wasn't one of them.
I love taking pictures, and I wanted to take good creative pictures of us. So the idea of pre-wedding shoot transformed into a project.
Location, Location, Location! — maybe
I asked myself what is the most important element of a good photo — Memory. I wanted to take our pictures in places where we made memories and will make memories. The places I chose were:
- Terrace of his home- This is where we became “We” and confessed our love to each other all those years ago. The place holds a special place in our hearts. (Read more about the day here)
2. Places we traveled to — We traveled to at least two places every year. I ensured I took our pictures during these trips. We love traveling and are our happiest discovering new places together. It shows in the photographs. We also attended weddings together, so we captured our best-dressed selves.
3. Capture the ordinary — The good thing about doing your own shoot is you can make any moment “album-worthy”. All you need is creativity. We kept taking pictures while we worked and chilled. Few of them made it into our pre-wedding collection. This one is one of my favourites, taken by my brother.
How to Pose 101
To be honest, both of us are weird posers. We get all awkward posing and pictures come out bleh. So, these photo sessions by ourselves served as practice for when we would have to pose for our wedding.
We follow the simple rule of being candid. We kept talking to each other, making each other laugh and it resulted in awesome pictures everywhere.
It also helps to look into each other’s eyes to get dreamy shots. Alternatively, you can be stupid with your partner, that works too :D
How were these pictures used?
I printed out the best pictures from my collection of a few years and printed them. I used some of them on my Instagram but we also used them for:
- Decorating our Mehendi ceremony venue- Mehendi was in an open garden during the day. Our friends used the prints and hung them around the trees all around. It looked wonderful and fit perfectly with the colorful theme.
2. Our ‘Save the Date’ card — My brother (a designer by profession) created a minimal yet elegant ‘Save The Date’ using a picture we took on our trip to Kaas Plateau (plateau of flowers). We shared it digitally with all our friends and family.
3. Home Decor — The prints are now a part of our home decor. Prints are high quality and I can arrange them on the walls any way I fancy, with scotch tape.
The pictures I took are definitely not at the same level as some professional pre-wedding shoots but it was the most fun project I have done till now. An added bonus was that we were able to save around 75k-90k by not spending on pre-wedding shoots and using it in other important elements our budget-friendly (under INR 12 lakhs), destination wedding (by the beach, in Goa). But more on that in another post.
We planned our wedding by ourselves and this shoot over two years was a fun yet crucial part of the process. I loved the challenge it posed — Finding a setup location stable enough to hold my camera ( at the start I didn't have a tripod!), posing and getting Mr. Photogenic to pose with me, envisioning the shot, and then trying to get it exactly right. Oh, and the workout I got running to and from my camera to see how the shot came out was incredible (my camera does not connect to my phone).
The happiness I felt while capturing our togetherness was so fulfilling. It is those things that I can look back at and think “I did this by myself and I am proud of it!”.
It is also important that you have a supportive partner in all this and I want to thank mine. He was supportive and patient through the numerous resets, poses, and instructions of “smile now” and “make a serious face now”. He waited patiently with a smile on his face as I ran back to get in position (sometimes he had company while he waited).
In the end, I would just say that it takes a lot of effort to take this kinda project but if you enjoy it, the effort comes effortlessly. You keep making memories while capturing them. It’s a win-win!