Every wedding photographer and videographer has a different style and therefore different priorities when capturing a wedding day. When we’re shooting a wedding, we do our best to capture everything that we see; every detail, every reaction, and every special moment. Our main objective is to capture the day as it was so that you can look back on it forever and relive your happiest day.

Now, here’s a peek into our creative process… at weddings, we keep a running list in our heads of the “must-have” shots: the bride walking down the aisle, the groom’s reaction to her, family photos, bridal party portraits… things like that. But once we’ve captured these “must-haves”, we like to get a bit more creative and artistic. We like to zoom in on small details, and capture things from more unique perspectives.

SO, let’s talk a little bit more about what we capture after we’ve got the “must-have” photos. These are the 8 unique photos we capture at every wedding.

1. Ceremony Hands

We love to capture a few close-ups of you and your love holding hands during the wedding ceremony. There’s just something about looking back on those photos and seeing how you were holding hands as you were promising forever to each other. We get lots of photos and videos of your faces during the ceremony (of course!), so we like to get add some variety and get these intimate shots to remind you of how you held hands and united your lives together on this day.

2. Hugs with Family

We don’t walk, we RUN when we see either the bride or groom going in for a hug with a family member. There’s so much love at weddings – not only between the couple but also with friends and family! We are constantly looking around during weddings for special moments like these so that we can capture them for you. We love to see family members hug each other who haven't seen each other for a long time!

3. Walking Back Down the Aisle

Walking down the aisle shots are some of our absolute favourites. This is usually a very special and emotional moment for couples, whether or not they had a first look beforehand. When we ask couples at our pre-wedding coffee meeting if there is anything in particular that is important to them, it’s often the “walking down the aisle” shots. We always prioritize capturing this moment, but we ALSO prioritize capturing walking back down the aisle at the end of the wedding ceremony! These photos and videos turn out so great because the nerves and tears are gone, the happy music is playing, and the couple is nothing but smiles as they walk or dance their way back down the aisle after making it official!

4. The Cut Cake

The “cut cake” is a photo of the cake after it’s been cut; sometimes there’s a few crumbs on the table around it, sometimes it’s a little messy. But the story a photo like this tells is “the newlyweds just cut the cake and are now off dancing and partying with their friends and family.” A photo like this communicates the realness of the day and what happened. This is also a fun way for you to always remember the colour and flavour of the inside of your cake too, because you probably spent some time picking it out!

5. Bouquet Halo

One of our favourite shots to capture at weddings is the bouquet halo! This is just a name we came up with, but it’s a photo where the bridesmaids all hold their bouquets around the bride’s face (or bride and groom!) to create a circle of flowers around her! These always turn out so beautiful and they show off the flowers and the bride so well! The bridesmaids always get excited to contribute to this, so we usually will turn our cameras around and show them how it turned out – they often squeal with excitement when they see how beautiful their friend looks. <3

6. The Rings

When we're out doing bridal portraits with a couple, we often try to sneak in a few ring shots. We think it’s special to be able to look back on the first day you two wore your wedding rings! And you probably will have your nails done and be wearing some nice jewelry, so these close-up shots are great for capturing and remembering those details as well.

7. No Faces

Okay, this probably sounds very weird but let me explain. Sometimes during a wedding day, we will capture photos and video that crop people’s faces out. The reason for this is often that we hope to emphasize another part of the photo. For example, we might only capture the lower half a groom’s face so that the main focus of the photo is his colourful tie. Or we might just get a photo of the bride from the shoulders down to show off her beautiful bouquet and dress.

8. Messy Tables

Similar to the “cut cake”, we love capturing some a few raw, candid photos of the reception tables after everyone’s onto the dance floor. There might be some spilled wine, a sparkly clutch, an empty water bottle, a lipstick, a half-eaten piece of cake, some photobooth photos, etc. Just one photo like this tells such a story about the reception, the party, and what people were up to.

So there you have it! These are the 8 unique photos we capture at every wedding.

Are these shots our first priority? Not at all! We have a long list of “must-have” photos that come before these, but once we’ve gotten through that list these are the unique pictures we like to take!

Do we capture so much more than this? Yes! We try to capture everything we see, so we end wedding days with about 3,000-4,000 photos and 2-4 hours of video footage! These are just a few examples of “unique” shots we enjoy getting but there is so so much more captured too.

Do we take photo suggestions/requests from our couples? YES! If there’s something that is important to you, or something you don’t want captured, we’d love to hear that! If you have screenshots of poses you like or a wedding Pinterest board, we want to see it to understand your vision and what you like! Ultimately, we are here to serve YOU and give you wedding photos you LOVE. <3