Posing for Photos Tutorial - Part 5

So no doubt, posing is hard. Even after 10 years of photo shoots, I forget to follow my own rules sometimes. I tend to get a squinty left eye when I smile, like this:


My left eye, not your left left. Confused?
If I don’t consciously widen my eye when I smile for photos, I get so frustrated! It turns into the only thing I see, even when it's invisible to everyone else.

A lot of us have these ticks that pop up when we pose for photos, and they're one of the reasons why we hate pictures of ourselves, but those selfsame photos are ones your friends LOVE. And then they post them on Facebook and you're forced to untag yourself in a fit of sadness!

Your photographer won’t automatically know that you care how you look when you sit, or that you tend to put your hand on your chest when you pose, or that you always show WAYYYY too many teeth if you smile like your mom taught you. If these are things that you know you do, however, make a little list and ask the photog to watch out for them. Not all people with good photographic vision are equally good at posing their subjects in fantastic positions. It’s a work in progress for you both.

Learning to identify the things you want to change in photos of yourself is another reason to go in your backyard and take a bunch of casual photos like I mentioned waaaaay back in Part 1 of the tutorial. With enough practice, you may be able to change the behavior completely and never need to worry about it again.

Good communication is also essential to getting pictures that make you look good to your own eyes. Don't spend $2,000 on a photographer and never tell her that you need help with a pose or to watch and make sure you aren't doing something silly with your hands.

Remember, you are the master of your body! It sounds funny to say, but it's the absolute truth.

I'm finishing the posing tutorial here with one simple word of advice. Don't be afraid to mess up. It's not easy to be in front of the camera, but no matter who you are, you are loved. Your family will adore your engagement and wedding photos, and the more you do to prepare yourself for them, the happier you will be. And if you get one or two back that you dislike, that's why your photographer is taking a million pics that day! It will all be OK.

A Dress Discussion & a Warm Reception

Dyeing Synthetic Fabrics

There are some wedding dresses that would make great "event" dresses, especially with a bit of color added. White can be a hard look to pull off, and there are a lot of brides out there who want to change their wedding dress look so they can get the most bang out of their buck, so to speak.

One simple way to do this is color. A white dress easily becomes pink, blue, or green with the right kind of dye. Then an expensive investment may get use for years to come!

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Growing Our Ceremony

I'm taking the view of our ceremony as an organic thing - a thing that needs nourishment and attention, lest it starve. I want our guests to feel like it was worth the entire drive from Denver because the ceremony is it, the moment the wedding is actually about.

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Dr. Light once went to a wedding where his speech to the couple lasted longer than the actual ceremony, which timed in at about three minutes. That is really, really short to me. It sounds like they didn't have anything beyond their vows. Maybe it's the way they wanted it, but that's a ceremony that sounds like it received no nourishment.

Growing a ceremony takes ideas.

1. An officiant's speech. The officiant has a lot of power in weddings. Their initial words can set the tone to the wedding - will it be serious? Religious? Romantic? Funny? I've seen variations to all of these and enjoyed each of them, so it's an aspect that's very important to me. One of Dr. Light's best friends is our officiant, and I'm so excited to have him marry us.

2. A reading or a song. This continues to set the tone. I'm really lucky - I have friends who play as a trio right now, and I fully intend on asking them to do us the honor of playing a piece during our ceremony. Nothing too long, but I hope it will help our guests feel the love we'll be experiencing up there on the stand.

3. A unity celebration. I'm not a huge fan of things like unity candles or the vases filled with sand because they're just extra "stuff" to me. Slipping on the rings is our statement of unity. We won't have on of these, but I felt it was worth mentioning.

It's cute, but not for us.
4. Writing our own vows. I have this little thought that including vows, we could each tell the other one why we love each other. It doesn't have to last a long time, but it's a perfect reflection of why we're there. "Dr. Light, I love you because you drink milk with dessert." Ok, maybe not that, but you get my drift.

How are you thinking of "growing your ceremony" without it seeming stagnant? What have you seen at other ceremonies that you want to incorporate into yours?

Meet the Dress

I've been kind of dragging my feet on officially presenting my dress. I ask that if you are an attending member of the wedding and want to remain "spoiler free," also refrain from clicking the link.

That being said, let's meet the dress!