By Vanessa Lill, Photographer at The Outlovers
Post-wedding photoshoots are becoming more and more common and with good reason.
Meeting with your wedding photographer in the days after your big celebration is a great opportunity to not only capture more wonderful images, but also for you and your new spouse to slow down, focus on each other and process the fact that you’re now MARRIED!
If you haven’t yet considered a post-wedding photoshoot, here are our top five reasons why I think you might want to:
1: Create A Moment in Time That Is Forever Yours and Yours Only
Weddings can be pretty hectic affairs!
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Before you know it, you and your new spouse are making your grand exit and can barely process what has just happened. It’s all over in the blink of an eye.
Planning a post-wedding photoshoot is the perfect way to slow things down a little: to create a special moment that is just about the two of you, taking time to revel in the fact that you’re now MARRIED.
It is a chance to create a little moment of intimacy, something that can be quite hard to come by on your wedding day, as you are constantly surrounded by friends and family.
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This is especially important if you have chosen not to do a ‘first look’: a post-wedding shoot provides an alternate – and equally special - way to set aside some time for just the two of you.
Take a bottle of champagne, perhaps a decadent little picnic and celebrate your newly-wed status!
You could even take a moment to share your vows a second time: intimately, just the two of you, really allowing those promises to sink in.
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2: Relieve Wedding Day Timeline Pressures
I may have mentioned this already, but weddings are HECTIC AFFAIRS!
Taking photos can take up a lot of available time, especially if you’ve got large bridal parties and big families to involve. Sometimes couples struggle to attend their own cocktail hour as their photographer needs that time to fit in portraits.
Don’t miss out on your own party!
By putting aside some time for a post-wedding photoshoot, you can free up a lot of time on your actual wedding day. That’s more time for you to relax, mingle with guests and feel truly present on your big day.  More importantly, that’s extra time to eat, dance, drink and be merry!
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3: Dress Up All Over Again!
Who doesn’t want to wear their wedding dress a second time (and a third and a fourth forevermore!)?  Let’s be honest, it’s probably the single most expensive item of clothing you’ll ever own: so, get the most out of it.
It can be so much fun getting dressed up again for your post-wedding photoshoot.  You may even find you enjoy it MORE the second time around. With the pressure to look ‘perfect’ gone, it can be quite liberating!
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I’ll let you in on a little secret: for my own post-wedding photoshoot, I didn’t even bother washing my hair, never mind styling it or putting make-up on. I was so happy to run wild and free, barefoot in the sand with the wind in my hair!
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4: Take Your Love on An Adventure!
Spending time with your photographer after your wedding allows you to go exploring and have a newly-wed adventure with your spouse.
It gives you the time to go somewhere that logistically wouldn’t be possible on your wedding day: to a remote desert, deep into the forest, to the top of a mountain, perhaps even off to foreign lands… Wherever speaks to you as a couple.
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You could make a whole day of it: heck, why not a whole weekend?!
This shoot afterwards is about you and you only. So, picture the most wildly romantic adventure you and your love would like to go on: now go DO IT.
5: EPIC Photos, Of Course!!!
It’s pretty obvious that any photoshoot should result in good photos!
But what is super special about an AFTER-wedding photoshoot is that it gives you the time to get those really EPIC shots you’ve dreamt of.
This could be your time to get those really grand, sweeping-landscape style shots, with you and your love in the midst of it all, ‘lost’ in the very heart of nature. Or perhaps more ‘artistic’ stylized shots. These kinds of images take a bit more time to compose and create than your standard wedding portraits so can’t always be achieved on your actual wedding day.
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If beautiful imagery is important to you as a couple, do yourself a favor and treat yourself to an after-wedding photoshoot in a dream location that makes your wild heart sing.
As you can see, post-wedding photoshoots are a wonderful idea for all newly-wed couples. Take the opportunity to go exploring, dress up again, capture beautiful images and really create a moment that is just about the two of you.
Make a special moment out of it: take a picnic, maybe some champagne and choose a location that you really feel excited about.
If you like the idea, chat to your wedding photographer about it: we’re pretty sure they’re going to be excited, too! And they’ll likely have a lot of ideas to inspire you if you need some help organizing it.
Have fun!
