Bridal sessions are so much fun for me!  Most wedding days are filled with hustle and bustle and there’s just never enough time to get a ton bridal shots.  I shot Meli & Brennan’s wedding earlier this spring and it was no exception so this why Meli and I decided that it would be great to wait until after the wedding to do her bridal session.  The wedding stress is gone and it’s a great time for brides to throw their dress back on one more time and have some  fun in it while getting so many of those shots that the wedding day timeline doesn’t permit.  We met up in downtown Jacksonville to shoot a few weeks ago to get some creative and fun shots.  She even brought her cute new puppy along to make an appearance which I loved. Enjoy!

XOXO

Dana

I’m finally able to share some of my favorite shots from Kerrie’s bridal session.  Yay!  As you can see, she’s a gorgeous bride and her gown is amazing.  We had a great time walking around in St Augustine and got some really cools shots.

Bridal sessions are really fun for me to shoot and I always love it when a bride wants to schedule a session before the wedding.  All too often, there’s not a lot of time on the wedding day to fit in more than a few minutes for bridal shots.  On top of that, there’s the nervous and excited energy to deal with on the wedding day which also makes it a little less than ideal to spend excessive amounts of time for the bridal session.  I always advise my brides to have a “trial run” with hair and makeup prior to the big day so why not kill two birds with one stone and throw that dress on and do your bridal session on the same day!  There’s nothing worse that being surprised in a bad way when it comes to your hair and makeup on the day of the wedding.  Trial runs are a good thing so make the most of it!

I’m planning to have Kerrie and Daniel’s wedding day blog up later this week so check back to see the latest.  Their wedding images are amazingly beautiful so I promise. . . . .  you will NOT want to miss out.

XOXO

Dana

Oh my goodness.  I’ve been holding on to these images for about a month now and I’ve done all I could do not to share them with anyone.  This is Tara’s bridal session.  Tara and Lee’s wedding was yesterday so now I don’t have to keep these a secret any longer.  Yay!

We met out at The Ribault Club on Fort George Island one evening in April.  I thought this would be a great place to shoot so we decided to go with the idea and see where it took us.

Tara has a natural beauty about her.  She is as kind and sweet as she is beautiful and I love that about her.  She was also up for just about anything I suggested which made the session turn out even better.  We had to battle the sand gnats but it was totally worth it.

Bridal sessions are not something I get requests for very often though.  Most couples opt for an engagement session which also has it’s benefits because I get to meet to work with the bride and groom prior to the wedding day.  However, I really think bridal sessions are a great add on to a wedding package because it can be used as a trial run for hair and makeup.  Plus, on most wedding days, there’s just not enough time to get the bride out for an hour or so and do some fun shots.  The wedding day tends to be way too stressful to manage to fit that in and I have yet to shoot a wedding that runs on time.  During a bridal shoot, the bride is more relaxed so the pictures really reflect that and it’s a great memory of how awesome she looked as a blushing bride.

I love bridal sessions so hopefully after posting these, more of my upcoming brides will see how cool it is to do a bridal shoot.  They can be done before or after the wedding.  Tara’s mom actually displayed some of their favorite shots at the wedding reception yesterday which was a great idea.

Here are some of my favorites.

Enjoy!

The lighting was gorgeous here!  I get super excited when it’s time to shoot and I can see that the light is working in my favor.  It’s almost like a magical moment that I wish would last for hours but it doesn’t so I had to work fast.

I love her blue eyes!  Gorgeous!

I saved the best for last.  I do believe this is quite possible my favorite image to date.