Our favorite wedding photography photos

We have the best couples, we really do. They are some kickass, funny AF, humans and we build a genuine relationship with them. This makes things so much more fun on elopement day! When we are photographing, we aim for a combination of candid, all the laughter and emotional photos, to the more romantic and editorial images. Feeling like BFFs really brings to life couples in photos, which is why these are our favorite wedding photography photos.

Our favorite wedding photography photos show the adventure!

We are obsessed with our couples who choose an adventure elopement. Those who go into their big day, ready to have BIG fun. We don’t play small over here. So it should come as no surprise that our favorite wedding photography photos capture the epicness. We take a fair amount of landscape portraits to capture the magnitude of the wedding day scenery and to bring a sense of adventure. My pro tip while taking these photos is to make sure the horizon line is NOT cutting through their heads/necks. 

Some of my favorite ways to capture landscape photos, while also highlighting the newlyweds, are having the couple walk away and then turn and look at me or one partner looking at me while the spouse gives them a kiss on the cheek. When taking these photos, it helps to pose the couple together or with a little bit of space between them. I ask them think about their lives in the next 10 years and I get such beautiful, pensive photos. I can tell the couple is really thinking about the question and the photos are top notch.

Advertures and Inclusivity

Capturing activities in outdoor wedding pictures is a favorite challenge. We have had a good amount of boat adventures which are always a BLAST! No one has a bad time on boat. For these, I ask the bride or groom to swing their legs over their spouse and lean toward each other while debating if vampires or werewolves are superior. I’ll bring the champagne, my couples will pop it! I have yet to find an activity that doesn’t work with a champagne pop. Toast on the back of a boat, in a helicopter, or getting ready to ride ATVs. 

I’m always on the lookout for how my couples are interacting because we shouldn’t assume the roles in their relationship. I want them to have an equal share with equal holdings, equal cuddles, and equal time being held. Don’t fit your couples into that box of one holding more than the other. You can use prompts that are equal in terms of the “support and cuddle” roles.

The GENUINE laughing photos

“Give me a laugh,” give me a fucking kit kat break. I don’t want the photos where someone told you to laugh. It looks forced and stale. Because it is. Now I love REAL laughing photos. Those moments when your eyes soften and crinkle at each other, they make my happy human heart burst. How we cultivate these moments of laughter and emotion is by using thought provoking prompts. My faves today are asking the groom to draw a shape with their nose on the bride’s cheek. Then having their partner try to guess it! One I have been on a rampage using is having one partner whisper to the other what their favorite breakfast cereal is, as sexy as possible. Let’s have a good time! It’s your wedding day!

Raw emotion makes for some of our favorite wedding photography photos

We like to use sweet, emotional prompts to help the couple to soak in their wedding day moments. We want them to remember more of their day than they ever thought possible. These prompts are meant to center the couple and remind them why they are here in the first place. We will ask the couple to get nice and snuggly, nose to nose, sync their breathing. Close their eyes. Remember back to the moment they got engaged. During these prompts, I use my best Kourtney Kardashian Barker ASMR voice.

Another pose I use for our favorite wedding photography photos is having one partner snuggle into the other. I’ll ask the secondary partner to look at me and show me how much they love their spouse (!!) with their eyes. I see people get really caught up in what the mouth looks like, but it’s really the eyes that bring it all together. Which is why in serial killer documentaries they always put a black line through the eyes, the eyes are the dead giveaway. Not that anyone is a serial killer over here. Anyway, when does You premiere again?

Get that sexy ass moving

Wedding day is meant to be an adventure, so you bet your ass we’re going to get to exploring! We are constantly moving with our couples so they don’t feel stiff. The dip is tried and true, we love those. Bonus points if you give that peach a squeeze. We also love a good twirl while the other partner holds the bouquet. A little gender role reversal makes photos interesting.

Some of my absolute favorite photos are the leading photos. I’ll have one partner lead the other in one direction and look back at them. They’ll be a step ahead. I recommend taking this same photo from different angles, in front, behind, above. The photo just looks so different every time. Also, I may be a photographer geek for this, but by slowing down my shutter speed to 1/15, I am able to get a blurred effect on the photo and that, that’s pretty fucking cool. 

The Ceremony Site

This is more directed to full weddings, but we love photographing couples with their ceremony arch or in their reception area. Not only can it be so helpful for publication, this is the spot where they will commit themselves to each other in front of all their friends and family. Taking a moment alone here, with just each other, is a quiet magic. We aren’t the only ones that feel this way! Brides magazine lists the ceremony site as one of the 30 Wedding Photos Every Couple Should Take. Their take, “Ask your photographer to take a landscape shot of the place where it all happens. You’ve invested a lot of time, effort, and money into making the ceremony space beautiful, so you’ll want to remember exactly what it looked like.” Swwwwooooon.

How do you present wedding photos to clients?

First, we always send sneak peaks! Which is as much for the couple as it is for ourselves. I am absolutely riding a photography high after a shoot and just bursting to edit the photos and send them over. It makes the couple so happy and then makes me happy all over again for them! 

Next, we send over digital galleries to our couples. I make sure these albums have enough variety of photos while also making sure that these are quality. No eyes half closed, tongue falling out, wild limbs over here! 

Our Favorite Wedding Photography Photos on Social Media

Then, I will post to my social media pages. I love tags and reshares of your best day ever! Something I get asked is how do you write a caption for wedding photos, and the answer is pretty simple – I write the truth. I feel like couples really relate to hearing about the honest adventure over a Taylor Swift lyric. Don’t get me wrong, I love those too but there is a time and a place. 

An example of this is for Kelsey and RJ’s Helicopter Wedding. I posted:

We’ll never EVER get over this helicopter wedding in Montana! Our immediate thoughts are: coolest wedding everrrr! Two full days in Montana, helicoptering (yes, it’s a word), hiking, and laughing non-stop! Plan A, B, and C’s were happening but that’s why Jake and I make these plans … so our lovely couples can just show up and enjoy their wedding days! Ahem, @wildmontanawedding

Overall, just a really cool day for anyone who loves new places, loves to experience new things, love mountains and just wants to get married without all the fuss… buuuuut also wants to feel taken care of!

For real though, we couldn’t have asked for a more truly wonderful couple! K&RJ are just next level! We wish they lived closer because we’d be hitting up hikes (and helicopters) allllll the time! 🥰

The idea behind sharing what actually happened is to showcase the experience. THIS IS NOT A WEDDING PHOTOSHOOT. THIS IS A WEDDING WITH PHOTOS!! If I would have just posted, I like shiny things, but I’d marry you with paper rings, while cute, it would do this couple and their epic adventure a disservice. You have a wedding worth telling. Let us tell it. Check out more of my couples on our Instagram!

Let Us Capture Your Story!

Honey, You Need an Album. Today. Not Some Day. 

Last, I love to make custom albums for our couples! This is the one thing I wish all couples added to their elopement package. I think there is this perception that creating a wedding album is something couples should do themselves. While they absolutely CAN, they are also probably capable of taking wedding photos themselves. Does not mean they should. After designing countless albums, I have perfected the process of quality albums that will look good for decades and the art of storytelling from page to page. Also, time slips away from couples. For my own wedding book it took YEARS for me to put it together. You always think you have time to do things for yourself, let me take this one thing away from your to do list and give back an album that you will cherish forever.

So, Vampire or Werewolf?

Whether you’re Team Jacob or Team Edward, I can promise you we will have the best time ever together. This is your wedding day, your adventure elopement, your love story. Let’s make sure you have an unforgettable time and photos you’ll want hung on every wall of your space. Tell me all about yourself here and I will get to planning for you!

If you are looking for more examples of our favorite wedding photography photos check out our Best of 2023 Elopement & Wedding Photography. We truly are so grateful and so exhilarated by our AMAZING couples, they really are the best. Every time we look at these images, we get a profound sense of purpose. These couples are going against the stream of society and doing what THEY dream of, and we think that’s fucking awesome.