A Washington wedding photographer’s best tips and tricks to getting amazing detail photos!
We’ve all seen the perfectly curated wedding detail photos with the ribbons, cute ring boxes, and all the little details, right? Yeah, they’re all over instagram and honestly can be some of my favorite photos from a wedding day. Each little detail of a wedding day helps construct the overall feeling of a wedding day, so having them all captured together can set the perfect tone for your wedding gallery. Looking back at your photos, you’ll be able to remember what each detail represented at the time, as long as you choose them carefully. Here’s an example of a typical detail photo that includes all the details of the day!
Today, I am going to give you a guide to choosing and preparing the perfect details for your wedding day. First on the list is:
1. Determine the aesthetic or emotion you want your wedding to encompass.
Determining the emotion(s) or aesthetic you want to feel when you experience your wedding is an important part of getting the details aligned & feeling like they all fit together. If you want your wedding to feel romantic, but your invites are 80s themed and feel more like they would emanate an excited upbeat emotion, and your bouquet is blush and light blue, the detail photos with you get from those will not feel aligned to your wedding day, and won’t set the same tone as the rest of your day. Examples from two different weddings below!
There are so many emotions to choose from such as romantic, excitement, love, wonder, tranquility, happiness, comfort, and so many more.
Blush & Blue Bouquet: Peg the Flower Girl
Purple Carnation Bouquet: Bloom and Blueprint
2. Choose wedding colors that align with the vibes you want.
Your wedding colors play a large part in the aesthetic that your wedding day brings. For example, in the choices above, a blush and light blue bouquet would give a more comforting and romantic emotion vs. a bright, bold, or neon invite with an 80s theme (think hot pink, bright blue, bright orange, etc.) might give off more of a upbeat and excited feeling. If you are unsure of what colors you want, scroll through pinterest and search “wedding details” and start pinning anything that draws your attention. When you look through that board you created, your preferred wedding colors will become clear to you.
3. Choose design elements that have a theme with one another.
Since we’ve stuck with the same example as above, let’s continue with it. If you love the 80s themed invites and want to incorporate that into your wedding, maybe choose a bouquet and decor that better aligns with that such as a bouquet with purple carnations and other bright colors (like the one below) vs. a bouquet with blush, white, and light blue roses. remember this throughout choosing your wedding details with things like your programs, perfume bottle, shoes, tie, jewelry, ring boxes, etc.
4. Be as simple or extravagant as you want.
There’s something special a simple detail photo with just the program and rings like the top photo, but a more extensive detail photo like the bottom one can include anything you want to remember from your wedding day. I think the perfect detail photo set includes a combination of both.
If you want a specific background or fabric as the base of your detail photos, make sure to also include that for your photographer. If you are okay with trusting your photographer’s vision (I promise to make your detail photos stunning if you trust me!), you can rely on some details that they bring to your wedding such as ribbons, velvet ring boxes, fabrics, and other small details that can be used to enhance your photos.
5. Most importantly: have everything ready for your photographer as soon as they arrive.
The best way to keep all your details together is either put them all in a small tote or in your shoe box with your shoes; and don’t forget about your partner’s details! Keep them all together so your photographer doesn’t have to go to several locations to get them all together.
Here’s a checklist of items that you can include in your detail box:
- Rings
- Ring box if you have a special one
- Shoes
- Hat
- Jewelry
- Invite suite & envelope
- Programs
- Vow books
- Perfume
- Watch
- Handkerchief
- Garder
- Tie
- Cufflinks
- Cologne
- Dress Hanger
- Anything else that represents your wedding day
- Flowers (bouquet, boutonniere, or scraps)
Pro tip: Make sure your florist knows that you need your flowers to be delivered when your photographer shows up (or sooner) so they can include them for the detail photos. AND if they can include a few stems or scraps of your flowers, those make the perfect detail photo addition!
If you have taken away nothing else from this post, I hope that it has at least given you some inspiration for your wedding day details. Scroll for a few more gorgeous detail photos to use for inspiration! If you love what you see, head to my main website to find out more information about working with me!
Right?! That’s such a tricky one, but it can be so helpful for getting amazing detail photos!
I loved how you included something on what you should have ready for your photographer for your detail box. I also never thought about when flowers should arrive on your wedding day
I love all your tips, and getting inside your brain on how all these things come together! A great resource for brides to be!
So glad you find this helpful! Thank you!
The little details like ribbons and velvet boxes or personal mementos add such a fun touch to detail shots. I used scrap fabric from my bridesmaids dresses to perfectly match my colors instead of trying to find ribbon that matched.
That worked so well for your wedding details! I love that idea too!