Photographer: Angela Hubbard
This couple was simply brimming with joy and love as they celebrated their wedding. Feeling comfortable with Angela, they were free to express themselves fully.
Build Comfort
To ensure couples are comfortable on their wedding day, Angela Hubbard does an engagement portrait with each couple. This is a gift she provides with each of her packages. “It’s important for me to get to know my clients beforehand—especially the groom, since the guys are usually the ones who are more resistant to be being photographed,” Angela notes. “After the fun of the engagement session, they don’t feel any pressure at all. By the time the wedding comes around, I’m just a friend with a fancy camera. I can just blend in as part of the entourage.”
She also likes the utility and sentimentality of pre-wedding images. “Then they can use those portraits for their wedding invitations, save-the-dates, Christmas cards or give them to their family as a less-formal alternative to the shots in their wedding attire. You’d be surprised—a lot of couples don’t have images of themselves like that,” she notes.
In addition to providing comfortable transportation for the wedding party, the white van the couple rented for their event served as a perfect prop for casual roadside images.
For their pre-ceremony portraits, the groom met the bride at the beach—and beamed as she made her appearance. Energetic portraits like this helped document a special time they spent together before the more public parts of the day.
Build Confidence
Another element of putting couples at ease is letting them know everything is handled. Angela scouts out locations for the family, couple, and bride/groom portraits that will be taken after the ceremony. Since these are outdoor sessions, she carefully tracks the weather in the days leading up to the wedding and is prepared to offer the couple alternate locations with overhead cover in the event of rain.
She also has each couple provide a list of people they want to make sure are included in her coverage of the day. “One of my biggest challenges is knowing who’s important to them,” says Angela. “I don’t want anyone to be forgotten. If they have out-of-town guests, I want them to have a picture to send after the wedding.”
Knowing there’s nothing they need to manage or worry about in terms of their photography, couples can relax and enjoy every moment of their special day.
Time of Day Sets the Stage
Understanding the couple’s schedule for the day is critical to planning their photography. For the couple above, who planned a sunset service at the beach, getting some nice daylight portraits meant seeing each other before the ceremony.
