Wedding Photography Tips for Adventurous Couples

Welcome to week 5 of our wedding photography tips where we get even more specific. We’ve talked about weather, mountains, nature, and destinations which leads us to our finale where we tie it all together and talk about adventure. The thing is, if you’re an adventurous couple then most of our tips have been pretty easy to imagine. You’re not afraid to take on altitude and a chance of rain to make a few memories. You might enjoy these wedding photography tips for adventurous couples, like most of my tips they’re more about how to think rather than exactly what to do.

The main challenge of adding more adventure to your wedding is balancing all of your priorities. Personally as much as I love adventure, I also appreciate a little luxury. How do you balance going on a hike and getting your hair done? How do you have an adventure that the grandparents can participate in? This are the challenges to planning your adventure wedding, luckily the photography portion is easy.

Those epic shots we get where an adventure couple is on a mountain, chances are we had to hike the mountain to get there. We shoot a variety of venues and always try to create a nice environmental photo with whatever time we have. However, if those photos are a priority to you then we need to plan for it just like any other aspect of the day and solve some of the problems that go along with it. For example, when are you going to eat if we’re hiking at sunset and sunset equals dinnertime? What are your guests going to do while we’re taking photos?

Purpose

The thing to note is that it’s not just about the photos. Adventurous wedding portraits are also about the experience we have while creating the photos. Think about your favorite photo from a family vacation, it’s probably not your favorite because of the framing and composition. It’s probably your favorite because of the memories that go with it. Wanting great wedding photos is not just about Instagram, it’s about forever-gram… if that was a thing. It’s about preserving and immortalizing memories from a very important day. You’re getting married, you’re celebrating your commitment, and you will celebrate that day again every year. Walking out in nature, hand-in-hand with your new spouse while the sun sets on your wedding day is about the photos but it’s also about the experience.

Prioritize

The important thing to remember when making decisions is the why. If having sunset photos or hiking to a cool view is important to you, put a finger on the why and it will make it easier for you to stick to your priorities. Above I mentioned purpose, the reason wedding photos and specifically adventurous portraits are so important to many of the couples we work with. Many of the couples we meet that are getting married outside or on a mountaintop have a specific reason for making that their priority when planning there wedding. Name your priorities, put a finger on the why, and then rather than planning your wedding around what the industry is doing plan it around what is important to you. And budget accordingly.

Plan

We often hear people being worried about making their guests wait while they take pictures, which is a valid concern. We also know that couples don’t always want to miss happy hour. However, taking portraits, just like every other portion of the day, is something that can be planned for when putting together the timeline. It is also something that is likely to happen at almost every wedding so if it comes down to it, your guests with understand. There is a solution to most timing issues, I can’t tell you the one perfect timeline because yours will be different than someone else’s. Feel free to give me a call and we’ll talk through your one-of-a-kind wedding!

Those are our 3 P’s of photography tips for adventurous couples: Purpose, Prioritize, and Plan. It’s really an approach, more than anything. Thanks for stopping by for week 5 of our 5 week Wedding Photography Tip series! That concludes our photography tips as we head off to shoot some weddings and show you what we’re best at.

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