After Wedding Photos

Getting photos back from a wedding are like Christmas morning for wedding planners! So, when I got my hands on Heather and John’s wedding photos from July, I was ecstatic, to say the least. I knew they were going to be ahhh-mazing because the wedding and the couple were just gorgeous, to begin with!  To my surprise, there was a little something extra in this batch…after wedding photos. What are after wedding photos? Exactly as it sounds, photos taken the day or days after your wedding. Whenever I have had couples do a photoshoot after their wedding they have turned out gorgeous, and it just brings a different element to their selection of wedding photos. Maybe it has something to do with the couples just letting loose and having fun!  They are not worried about their attire getting dirty, or their makeup or hair getting messed up, and they are free to do whatever. Like, run through the mud, jump in the water, or just trash that white wedding dress…anything is game!

I got to thinking and I was curious to know if this was a new trend or if it’s been happening all along and I had no idea. So, I went straight to the source, and asked Heather (who got married in July) and Kristian Irey, the talent behind these gorgeous photos for some feedback on After Wedding photos.

From the Bride’s perspective…

Heather and John decided to have this shoot because they were not able to take advantage of having engagement photos taken with Kristian since they lived out of state. Most of the photographers they looked at offered engagement photos with their wedding packages, as did Kristian so this was suggested to them as an alternative. They were pretty drained from the wedding day, so it was a blessing that they had a day in between to recover. Heather agreed that they probably were a bit more relaxed. And without the time crunch of trying to get back to the guests and start the reception, they were able to play around a little bit more, and get more pictures of going down to the Inlet. Initially, she thought she liked the idea of having more pictures of her in her dress but in the end, she preferred the pics of them in normal clothes from that shoot because it was obvious that the pics in her dress were not taken on the wedding day. All in all, she agreed that the after wedding pics turned out great and the only thing that she would have changed? Well if they had lived in Alaska, she thinks she would have preferred to do the engagement shoot instead of an after wedding shoot since that would have allowed them to get comfortable with the photographer before the actual day of the wedding.

From a photographer’s standpoint…

According to Kristian, wedding shoots are growing in popularity. Now that we’re are seeing so many more elopements these days, more and more couples want the aesthetic of the mountains or amazing scenery in their photos. Many people can’t forgo a wedding to elope, or want to, but also can’t fit in an entire shoot or escapade to the mountains, ocean, or wherever they have their heart set on, all in the same day of their wedding day. It’s a lot to add in on top of an already busy day. Doing an after wedding shoot gives them this opportunity to capture these photos.

Kristian says, if you decide to opt to do after wedding day photos, you’ll be getting the amazing scenery, and additionally the couple is usually far more relaxed. Actual wedding day portraits can be stressful to a couple since so much is going on, and we take SO many photos during the day. This allows for a more intimate and less stressful experience to document the couple together.  The only cons she sees would be if it’s not within your budget, and if you feel extremely overwhelmed about trying to get up for photos the very next day.

Pro tip from Kristian:

Consider doing it two days after if your photographer will allow. And do it later in the day, if you end up doing the actual day after, so you have the morning to decompress. 

And there you have it, my friends! Now let’s check out some of these ahhh-mazing photos captured by Kristian Irey Photography from the after wedding shoot for Heather and John! After seeing them, I’m pretty sure you’ll want to do one too!