Our favorite part of any wedding day is the Romantic Shots. Having a half hour to an hour to capture the joy + love a couple shares on their wedding day is beyond amazing. Just the two of them and our lenses. A bit ago we had the honor of capturing Sarah + William’s amazing wedding in here in Dahlonega GA overlooking the blue ridge mountains. They are both amazingly sweet and absolutely loved and trusted us implicitly, we could not have been more blessed.

This relationship of love and trust is what allows us to capture the truest part of our couples hearts + souls on their gorgeous wedding day. And yes, this relationship requires a real investment on our end. We strive to get to know our couples from day one. I wrote a post called “ORGANIC WEDDING DAY PHOTOGRAPHY + ORGANIC RELATIONSHIPS” that gives insight on how we care for our clients and develop that relationship. Once we have this relationship established posing on the wedding day becomes a breeze for both our couples and for us.

Here are a few ways we pose a couple on their wedding day so it is Organic, Effortless, Natural and Beautiful.
1. We talk our clients through the shoot. As we head to the desired location for the romantic shots we talk our couples through the vision for this time. For instance I may say, “William, I would like you to think of something romantic or funny to whisper into Sarah’s ear once we get over to this location. It can be anything you want to say“. Then I will turn to Sarah and say, “I have asked William to think of something either romantic or funny to whisper into your ear, I would like you to respond to him and what he says. Have no worries about looking at the camera or posing for the camera. I will do all the hard work and capture the moment as it unfolds. You have free rein to react as you wish and to move freely. Trust me, you will look amazing.” 

Below is the photo, I started by placing the two of them belly button to belly button and had him pull her in to whisper that special something in her ear.

And because I told Sarah she had free rein to move as she wished these beautiful photos followed. Very organic and natural,  not forced or posed.

2. This brings me to tip #2, moving our clients into a pose. We always move our couple into a pose rather then positioning them in a “frozen” pose. Pre positioning couples in a pose can make them look stiff and very unnatural. What moving them into a pose means, is we will either have our couples face each other and explain what we would like to see happen, then capture them in the motion of getting into that pose, or we will start them apart from each other and have them walk into the desired final pose. In this photo we started with William and Sarah about 5 feet apart and asked them to walk toward each other, the share a kiss, all while Sarah swooshed her dress, then look into each others eyes.

Here Sarah’s expression is real, organic and true. The love she has for William is very clear and is in no way frozen or unnatural.

3. Positive reinforcement or as I love to call it “client love”. As we shoot our couples we constantly give affirmations, sounds of excitement and we make jokes (typically about Brandon’s beard or my clumsiness) really anything that makes our couples feel comfortable and relaxed. We have found that when we stay connected with our clients this way during the shoot we achieve gorgeous photos.