How to Get the Most Out of Working With a Candid Wedding Photographer

If you’re drawn to candid or documentary-style wedding photography, it probably means you care more about feeling than formality and that maybe you don’t want to be performing for a camera all day. You don’t like the idea of being totally self aware when it's portrait time. You just want to be yourself and let your photographer capture things as they are.

As a candid wedding photographer, I can promise you, the less you worry about “doing it right,” the more your photos will remind you of how you felt on your wedding day.

Here are a few tips to help you make the most of it.

1. Trust Your Photographer (Truly, This Is 90% of It)

Candid photography is built on permission. This includes your permission to be human, to let go of what we’ve all been told is “perfect”.

That means that it’s ok if your tie is crooked or if the strap of your dress is draping down your shoulder (it’s chic!).

The more you trust your photographer and release the idea of performing for the camera, the more natural your experience will be.

2. Let Moments Actually Happen

Some of the most powerful photos are the ones you don’t plan, the ones you didn’t put on your shot list. Build a little breathing room into your timeline so these moments can unfold without rushing.

Feel like cruising around in a boat after your ceremony? I’ll stow away behind the captain to document it.

3. Feel What You Feel (All of It Counts)

There’s no pressure to be blissful all day. If you cry, laugh, feel bored or a little sick to your stomach, that’s all part of your story.

Your emotions are not obstacles to good photos. They are the photos.

4. Locations matter, but so does the light. Oh, and movement too.

Do I love a stunning backdrop? Of course.

Will I ask you to stand and look at me for a photo? Yes.

But what really gets me excited is some light.

Interesting light, soft light, warm light, direct light.

And what’s more fun is when you can move through all of that light?

Don’t be afraid to take 10 minutes to let that hot sun slap you right in your face or to run through that meadow as the sun dips below the horizon.

You’ll be so glad you did.

5. Choose a Timeline That Feels Like You

Documentary-style photography works best when your day is built around your actual energy, not the internet’s idea of a wedding.

So get ready together. Walk down the aisle together. Skip the first dance. Ditch portrait hour. Sneak away and cut your cake when no one’s looking.

There are no rules here so do what makes you happy.

6. Your guests are interesting. Your things are interesting.

Energy shows up in photos. It really does.

So let your guests be who they are. Trust that parts of you show up in other people and in the inanimate objects you’ve gathered for your day, the decor, the food, the fashion, the piles of random things left under the table.

I’m there to notice and document the ways that these things can tell your story.

7. You Don’t Need to Be Good at Photos

Truly.

Candid photography doesn’t require you to know what to do with your hands or how to tilt your chin. If anything, the less you think about the camera, the better.

Mostly, just be who you are.

Together, you are interesting and worth being photographed.

Candid wedding photography isn’t about perfection, it’s about truth. It documents the messy, emotional, glittering reality of your wedding day. If you let yourself be present, the photos will take care of themselves.

If you’re planning a wedding and want images that feel like real memories, not performances, you’re already halfway there.