Perfect Wedding Posing Guide

Why Close to 40% of Brides Have REGRETS

Sadly, a lot of photographers don’t understand that it’s not just about the beautiful compositions, backdrops, or even moments. Though those are all important, it is an absolute necessity to be a master in the art of posing to ensure the bride & the groom look absolutely dazzling on the best day of their life.

There have been studies that show that close to 40% of brides had regrets when it came to their wedding photos. That’s way too many!

Some reasons couples gave are shocking..

1. “Our photographer got drunk, & you can see the photos in the gallery getting blurrier & blurrier as you scroll through.”

2. “He just really didn’t seem to know what he was doing! He didn’t guide us during the portrait session & we were just standing there awkwardly!”

3. “She only captured moments of my husband & I, but none of our close friends & loved ones. That was really disappointing.”

That’s only just a few.

One of our biggest goals is to make sure our couples are so excited with their photos, they share them eagerly! After seeing almost half of brides out there are extremely unhappy with the result they got from other so called professional photographers, we couldn’t help but love & be proud of what all of our couples have said about us.

Like Felicia & Cody who said, “Doug & Ashley were so fun to be around & made me feel so relaxed about taking photos. I didn’t have to worry about looking good! They were the best investment on my day! They were an important part of making my day perfect!”

In the next few sections, we are going to share with you as much value as we can in posing so you can look your best & have no regrets on your special day.

The X FACTOR

“I want candid, real moments at my wedding. I don’t want posed, stiff, or cheesy photos.”

We hear this a lot. In reality, 90% of wedding portraits are posed, but no one wants portraits that LOOK posed. Our couples favorite photos are the ones that look candid & authentic.

There are many ways to make sure they do, but just in case you have a photographer who doesn’t know what he’s doing, here’s our biggest TIP you can do.

It’s called the NOSE X-FACTOR

What’s that? Just imagine you have an imaginary line coming out of the tip of your nose & eyes.

When posing with your fiancé, you always want those imaginary lines crossing making an “X” Meaning, you want to try not to look directly into the eyes of each other for the portrait. Doing this too much will end up looking fake & cheesy. 

So we will have one person, (usually the groom or tallest person) turn their chin slightly to the side & down, while dropping their eyes down. This will give your photo a more CANDID & AUTHENTIC touch.

This gives the portrait a real sense of candid & will usually lead them in a really beautiful moment. We focus on putting our couples into the proper pose, then letting them have that REAL MOMENT while we capture it.

Invisible STRING

As humans in a loungy world, we tend to slouch quite a bit while at work or resting. Slouching is overly apparent in photos so MOST IMPORTANTLY, you want to make sure that your spine is straight, but NOT stiff & unnatural. We ask our couples to act as if there is a string on the back/top of their head pulled up. Have a straight spine and natural curve in your lower back.

2. Shoulders:
Push your shoulders 1 inch back. This will further bring confidence & beauty in your posture.

3. Deep breath
Take a deep breath before the picture is taken. Not overly huge. Taking a deep breath tightens your core & straightens your posture bringing a nice “S” curve to our bride & strength to grooms

4. Weight Distribution:
You want your weight distribution to be uneven or else your pose will look unnatural. There are two ways to do this. Either cross one leg over the other or put more weight on your back leg. Look at the photo below. Each of these techniques were used on this photo of Felicia.

Hands & EYES

Hand placement is always something couples ask us about! “I just don’t know what to do with my hands?” This is understandable considering we don’t typically think about where we keep our hands at different times during the day.

Hand placement is important, especially for the groom. Putting his hands in the wrong place is the difference between intimate photos & pregnancy photos.

Forearms, Hips, & Shoulders:

If your fiancé is standing behind you or facing you, their hands should rest lightly on your hips. From behind you its the difference between intimacy & pregnancy photos. From in front its the difference between intimate & grabbing @ss we were saying earlier, lightly on the hips.

Resting their hands lightly on your forearms or shoulders shows love & caring. Holding the wrist or grabbing mid-arm accidentally infers control & will look unnatural in your photos.

Eyes:

Where to look? While you definitely want amazing family photos & one or two for Grandma to print, you don’t want every photo with both of you looking at the camera like its Senior Prom. We also try not to have our couples look into each other’s eyes too much as this can be overdone & look cheesy if you’re not careful. Looking slightly away or down using the X factor we talked about earlier gives a natural & candid feel to your photos.