Show us your favorite engagement/wedding photo!
March 8, 2010 4:25 PM   Subscribe

My fiance and I would like to do some fun photos for our engagement photos and wedding day. Can you please help us find some great ideas by showing us your favorite fun wedding photos. See this and this for inspiration.

We have a lot of time to plan things and are looking for fun and interesting photos that we can try to imitate for our own special memories. When we try to express to our photographer that we want to do fun and silly things, he asks, "Like what?" And our answer is usually, "I dunno, cool stuff." Can you please help us get to a point where we have a more definite idea of what we want to do by showing us what you consider to be cool and fun engagement/wedding photos?

Thank you so much for all of your help!!
posted by 2legit2quit to Media & Arts (22 answers total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
Depends on your sense of humor, but for engagement photos you and your fiance could pose in front of your house, with your father on the porch holding a shotgun.
posted by amyms at 4:36 PM on March 8, 2010 [1 favorite]


Or if you're the groom-to-be, pose in front of your fiancee's house with her father on the porch.
posted by amyms at 4:38 PM on March 8, 2010


I often like wedding photos that have people in non-wedding environments and poses, like throwing nerdcore gang signs in front of a graffiti covered wall or the like, but I'm a bit odd.

For something a little classier, I totally dig this living photo wall set-up. Empty frames in pictures can either be cool or cheesy, but I thought their take was cool. I also like pictures with white boards and chalkboards for instant caption-y goodness.
posted by Diagonalize at 4:47 PM on March 8, 2010 [1 favorite]


Fun isn't in the photos; it's what you HAVE together. Staged silliness is tricky. I saw one wedding photo in which the groomsmen were rolling the bridesmaids in shopping carts. It was a beautiful photo because the photographer had The Talent but otherwise, it was kinda goofy. There is the classic "everyone jump at the same time" bridal party shot. It's fun, but no-one's best shot...
Why not go all out? Go to a costume store and rent out some different couples costumes- Sheik/genie, gangster/moll, find a grand piano...lounge on it in a vamp outfit and have him sit at the bench in tails, put on the wedding attire and drape yourselves with heavy-caliber armaments, switch wedding attire (he in the dress), be hippies in a meadow putting flowers in each other's hair, paint yourselves blue and adorn yourselves in gold and be Shiva and Kali for a shot. Etc.

Your photographer knows how to do interesting shots. (If not hire a better photographer).
You bring the fun.
posted by Jezebella at 5:06 PM on March 8, 2010


See my friends' photos here- I thought they came out well and captured their personalities.

I'd also check out Joanna Goddard's photos, as well as other engagement photo sets she posts on her blog (general wedding label) like this one, and her photographer's website.
posted by questionsandanchors at 5:13 PM on March 8, 2010


I love this one.
posted by ColdChef at 5:52 PM on March 8, 2010


This one.
posted by ColdChef at 5:58 PM on March 8, 2010


Neat concept.
posted by ColdChef at 6:01 PM on March 8, 2010


hah!
posted by ColdChef at 6:04 PM on March 8, 2010


Cute set.
posted by ColdChef at 6:07 PM on March 8, 2010


A nice gown for the groom and tux for the bride.
posted by dogwelder at 6:31 PM on March 8, 2010


There are some great photos here.
posted by peagood at 6:50 PM on March 8, 2010


Seconding Offbeat Bride!!!

They have lots of photos (see "wedding porn" section, "porn" not as in nudes but photos to drool over) and profiles of photographers -- PLUS tons of ideas for incorporating your personal interests, hobbies, and quirks into your celebration.
posted by SarahbytheSea at 6:52 PM on March 8, 2010


I've got a brief set of my wedding photos posted, and a lot of the sillier ones just happened quite naturally. After the ceremony, I got the notion to pretend to look up my wife's dress - the photographer picked up on it, and we just sort of went with it for a bit. On our way to the reception, we walked by a newsstand and decided to get a photo of us looking at wedding magazines.

A lot of the best photos, IMO, happen naturally. One other thing we did was take the El from our ceremony to the reception... so we ended up having the whole wedding party (and a ton of guests) ride the Red Line. Juxtaposing the fancy/formal of wedding attire against a not so fancy backdrop tends to be a good formula.

Also seconding Diagonalize's recommendation about the photo wall. We copied the concept for our wedding, and it was a pretty big hit at the reception. I'd say though that the photo wall is likely a better prop for your guests than for you two as a couple.
posted by avoision at 6:53 PM on March 8, 2010


These folks shoot wedding and engagement and I like a lot of their stuff.
posted by ersatzkat at 6:54 PM on March 8, 2010


Also, a good place can really make a wonderful photo. What sort of places strikes a chord with you two? A forest? A concert hall? A bowling alley?
posted by SarahbytheSea at 6:59 PM on March 8, 2010


Response by poster: The livin photo wall looks amazing, and I wouldn't mind building one for our wedding!! Also, I've looked through all of the items posted so far and they look great!! Keep the great stuff coming, I can't imagine how many future people this is going to help also!! You guys are great!
posted by 2legit2quit at 7:10 PM on March 8, 2010


http://michelletriccaweddings.com/

Lots of good stuff there particularly the cover page shot.
posted by thorny at 8:26 PM on March 8, 2010


We had our wedding at a Bed and Breakfast that had a nice frame from a broken mirror in one of the rooms. Someone picked it up and posed in the frame. Pretty soon we had half the guests with pictures in the frame. Similar to the Living wall but easier to implement.

We also walked across the street to a park to get some traditional pictures at a gazebo by a lake. On the way we jumped up on some monkey bars and got a nice spontaneous shot, one of the best pics of the day.
posted by Yorrick at 8:55 PM on March 8, 2010


If you're from an unusual place, or getting married in an unusual place, you can use the local customs/clothing in an creative way. For instance: my wife and I were married in a little fishing community on the east coast. My favorite pic is of her and I standing on the wharf. Both of us are wearing sou'wester rain caps, I'm holding a fishing rod, and she is lifting her gown so you can see she is wearing rubber boots.
This would also work for your careers/hobbies.
posted by Brodiggitty at 7:51 AM on March 9, 2010


I'm crazy for anything done by MangoRed. Costumes, beaches, umbrellas, beds, beautiful lights.
posted by coffeeflavored at 9:38 AM on March 9, 2010


Over a month later, but I ran across this and just had to recommend my favorites, http://www.theblogisfound.com/.

This is their engagement category. So many great photos. And check out the "Crazybooth" category for the most hysterical wedding photos ever.

Hire a good photographer - and by good I mean "someone who you have seen their work and get a chance to meet with ahead of time and feel that you can get along with" and ask THEM for recommendations as well. If they know you're looking for lots of fun shots, they might actually have some great ideas they've just been dying to try.
posted by kellygrape at 5:15 PM on April 11, 2010


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