Styled Bridal Portrait Shoot

This shoot was quite a last-minute idea. I knew I wanted to do a styled portrait shoot with bride & groom models at some point, but I figured it would have been later this year or further into my business journey! Rose came to Iowa around mid-January to visit her parents and was leaving at the beginning of February. She has the pastel-y style I like (although can’t pull off, unfortunately!) so I asked if I could borrow some dresses for that future styled shoot while she was here.

We were hanging out in her room sifting through the array of colors and fabrics when she mentioned she still had her wedding dress! Maybe this is a possibility, I thought. But I had a lot of doubts because we only had two weeks and I had my usual commitments on my plate like school and ministry; how could I plan and execute a styled portrait shoot along with everything else I had to do? I was already coordinating a styled shoot from the venue side so it was another shoot to add and this one I would actually be photographing.

Later that week, I was scrolling through Pinterest and, for fun, I looked up bridal portraits. I got into a rabbit hole of pinning bridal portrait ideas and an hour later, I was furiously messaging Rose and hashing out details for a last-minute styled portrait shoot, neglecting the half-finished assignment on my laptop! Despite my initial excitement, I had many doubts as to whether I could actually pull this off; I was already betting against myself that I would cancel.

Then it came to picking out a day, time, and place. I work at Ashton Hill Farm, a wedding and events venue in Cedar Rapids, so this seemed like the best place to shoot. I knew where all the light hit in the space and the best places to shoot inside from watching photographers on a client’s wedding day so I would definitely have an advantage shooting there! The day and time worked out as well because I was coordinating a styled shoot for a fellow photographer friend, Summer, as an Ashton Hill representative and the day was blocked off.

As the day got closer, my giddiness grew. Not only did I get to observe a real styled shoot, I was also going to do my very first styled portrait shoot! WITH A BRIDE MODEL! I’ve always wanted to get into wedding photography so this was my chance to try photographing a person in a wedding dress. Even though I didn’t have extravagant floral arrangements, rented linens, long tapered candles, or any place settings, I was ecstatic! I wanted to keep it simple and elegant, and that is exactly what I got!

I was nervous at first, but oh man. It. Was. Awesome. Rose and I had SO much fun!! In fact, I was afraid the photos were going to come out slightly blurry because I was laughing a lot while snapping away! We made an entire day of it, eating Jimmy John’s sandwiches (because that’s what we’ve had for lunch at every wedding we’ve been a part of; seriously), cracking jokes, making funny faces, climbing on chairs to get the shot, and helping out with the real styled shoot. We had such a blast that I didn’t feel drained by the end of the day like I thought I would!

Here are some of my favorite shots of the day!

Rose is training to be a florist so she arranged the bouquets and the floral hair pieces! We had few options and a small budget so she used flowers from Trader Joe’s; it’s hard to tell, right? ;)

Isn’t she absolutely gorgeous?! Her smile is so effortless too (although that could have also been us cracking jokes!).

My first time ever doing a ring shot with my DSLR! It’s harder than it looks getting that diamond in focus.

I LOVE the big windows! Give me all the natural light any day. Heart eyes all around *swoons*

Ashton Hill Farm has a loft area where the bridal party can hang out during cocktail hour and it’s so cool! It’s especially great for moodier or dramatic photos. I’ve also seen the bridal party use it as a space to get ready in!

We decided to mix it up and take photos in traditional Korean dresses called hanboks. The bright colors pop out against the white walls!

Rose actually has a shoe shot of her heels from her wedding day! She wanted to recreate it except with the hanbok shoes and have a side-by-side juxtaposition of the two (minus the hubs!).

We stepped outside to try and take some shots in the snow, but it didn’t last long; it was so cold! The wind was crazy blowing everywhere and the temperature dropped to single digits. We didn’t even last two minutes out there!

To end the shoot, I put on my hanbok and we pretended we were living in historical times; she’s the empress and I’m the handmaiden!

I had a genuinely fantastic time and loved being able to spend it with a close friend; it made the whole shoot so much more fun! Thanks a million to my friend Rose for putting her wedding dress back on two years later, making the floral arrangements, modeling for me, and believing in my business when I didn’t! #forevernumberonefan

Also, shout out to Megan who is the best boss ever for being super understanding when miscommunication happens over my first coordinating a styled shoot on the vendor side and allowing me to photograph in the space!! (for giving me a job too, I guess ;))