Congratulations on your engagement! This is a really exciting time in your life. It’s also probably going to be a bit stressful.
During this next year, I want to walk through this process with you. I’ll give you a 12 Month Guide to planning your wedding and explain things along the way. You can start from the beginning here (click). Come back to this blog each week for the next installment.
Week 20 – Destination Wedding
Hope you are making progress on choosing music for your reception! Today we’re going to address something that is typically a southern event, though it is starting to make appearances around the country now. We’re going to talk about bridal portraits.
Many brides wonder what the point of a bridal session it. There are many benefits to bridal portrait session. In the South, many brides want to display a photo of themselves as the reception site.
But for practical reasons this is considered a test run for your wedding day. This is a time when you will get to test out your hairstyle and makeup and see how comfortable your dress really is for an extended period of time. When you try your wedding dress on you’re in a store setting and you may wear it for 10 minutes. Sure you can bring it out of your closet and try it on a lot at home. But wouldn’t you like to know whether the boning is going to hurt your ribs after a while or if it’s going to be difficult to sit down for long periods of time? It’s best to find these things out before the wedding so that you can prepare for it and be comfortable on your wedding day.
Likewise, you will probably get your makeup done and your hair done in a way that you don’t normally wear it. These are things that make a wedding day special. You can arrange to do a mock-up of your hair style and your makeup for the bridal portrait session so that you know how everything will look all together on your wedding day.
A bridal session is also helpful to let you remember the little details you may have forgotten. Do you have the jewelry you need or the right undergarments? Did your bouquet overwhelm you or was it easy to handle? Do your shoes slip a lot, or sink in the mud? Once you have a bridal session, you can look at these tiny details and make sure that everything runs smoothly on your wedding day.
You can also get photos of you in your wedding dress at fun locations that wouldn’t be possible on your wedding day. The wedding day will be super busy. There may not be time to get photos in a place that’s important to you. Did you grow up riding horses? Perhaps you have a lot of important memories at your university that has this awesome and elegant banquet room. Maybe you even volunteered at a historical home. Get your bridal portraits at the horse farm, your university or the historical house that was so important to you.
And for heavens sake, don’t let all the effort go to waste! After the session, plan a date night or girls night so that you can enjoy the full effect of your hair and makeup. This way you’ll getting twice the enjoyment out of the application.
Didn’t this make you want to have a bridal session?
Next week we’ll look at finalizing the last few pieces of your wedding stationary!
Katelyn is a certified wedding planner. She is available for consultations.
She will even meet with you on Skype to help you work through part of your wedding planning.
Click here for more information.