Why Day After Sessions are a MUST for Destination Weddings! - Kauai Destination Wedding
Richwood & Mercedes - 9/15/18
Kauai - Shipwreck Cove - Wedding & Day After Session
Wedding days are fast-paced. They are busy and jam-packed and a whole lot of fun as you celebrate your marriage with your closest friend and family. But to be completely honest - no matter how skilled of a timeline-builder I am - as a photographer, I am crazy lucky on a wedding day if I get a solid 30 minutes with my bride and groom for their portraits. And that’s okay, because being a wedding photographer means being able to create awesome work in a limited amount of time, sometimes in situations where a lot of things might be outside of your control.
But one of the most important things to me as a wedding photographer is to do everything I can so that photography doesn’t take over the day and doesn’t keep the bride and groom from actually being present and enjoying their wedding. So when I started trying out day-after sessions, I knew I had stumbled upon something wonderful.
Often times, the couples that seek me out for their wedding days aren't afraid of a little adventure. They aren’t afraid to hike over rocky cliffs or dip their toes in the ocean - yes, even in a wedding dress. Which is AWESOME because I’m 1000% down to do the same. That’s why I’ll be offering day-after sessions as we head into 2019!
So what are day after sessions?
They’re pretty much exactly what they sound like. They are photo sessions that take place the day after the wedding day. We head out - usually around sunset - the day after the wedding, put those wedding clothes back on, go somewhere beautiful, and create an experience for you two that allows you to reminisce about the best parts of the wedding weekend and look ahead into the marriage. These sessions are more intimate than most wedding day portraits, and are lower stress because we aren't on a strict timeline and we can plan for the absolute best light.
What are the pro’s of a day after session?
They allow us to take our time. We don’t have a dinner to get to or guests to greet! We can spend less time on your wedding day taking your bride & groom photos and feel safe because we have an opportunity to get more photos the following day. This means more time to party with your guests. (Just to be clear, we will still plan portrait time on the wedding day because there’s nothing like capturing the happiness of JUST getting married).
WAY less stress about getting the dress dirty! It’s true that we want the dress to look it’s best on your wedding day. So no way am I going to suggest running into the ocean on your wedding day to get an epic shot. But the day after, we feel less pressure to preserve the dress to the extent we would have previously. We’ll still try to keep it clean and safe, but chances are, by this time, your dress has already started to pick up dirt from the dance floor so we have some more flexibility to walk on a dirt trail or a sandy beach.
Freedom & Epic Locations. Most venues are pretty amazing, but we can now have the freedom to go wherever we want and capture an even more epic background. This is why I recommend day-after sessions especially for destination weddings. If you’re headed out to an epic destination, chances are there are a lot of amazing spots in the area. It gives us a chance to explore and capture more variety in your destination.
If you’re still looking at the screen like I’m a crazy person - “who could possibly want to take even more photos after an 8 hour wedding photography day??” - check out the images of Richwood & Mercedes’ day-after session for some epic shots in Kauai that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to get.
