This post is for fellow photographers who struggle with detail shots or anyone who’s curious in my journey of shooting weddings. I used to struggle with detail shots at weddings, specifically flat lays. I’m pretty good at general detail shots and they’re actually now some of my favorite things to shoot. It took me a while to figure out how to arrange things that looked clean and intentional for a flat lay. If you’re an Office fan, in one of the episodes Dwight says “Michael always says K-I-S-S: Keep It Simple Stupid, great advice, hurts my feelings every time” and I try to abide by that rule. I like to find a clean space on a hardwood floor a start there. I gather everything I’m going to use beforehand so I’m not walking back and forth, adding to the chaos of the wedding party getting ready.
The specific wedding was all DIY at the brides beautiful family home out in Moncks Corner. I’ve never seen such a well put together DIY wedding. I was so impressed. Everybody chipped in to make everything and the home was so full of love.
I remind the bride a few days before to bring a spare invite and I like to center everything around that. First I grab the most important things: Bouquet, rings, shoes and a flower or two from her centerpiece’s or bouquet. If the bride is wearing perfume and earrings I grab those as well. If they have any cute boxes or other things that are color coordinated to the wedding I will add those but I try and keep at like 7/8 things max. I find a wood or brick or neutral background to lay everything out straight up and down and tend to angle the flower a bit. I want to see a little bit of the flowers and shoes but really focus on the invite/rings. Then I like to shift things to a different position and get a different angle and in this case I added some other flowers from her centerpiece’s to get a different look.
Fun fact: I just ordered some fake peonies and eucalyptus I’m going to start using in flat lays. They’re such pretty touches and I think will work for almost every wedding. I also bought some pretty neutral colored ribbon. I’m ready for my next flat lay!
After I get a few shots of all the items together I’ll put focus on a couple of the things in the group shot. For instance, how cute is this box? And the colors of her wedding were to DIE for. And the font of her name? Etsy for the win!
One of the bridesmaids asked me if I wanted to incorporate this cutting board into a picture so again, I kept it simple, laid the rings and invite out and got the shot. I love the font of their names so much. I tried to center it best I could do the whole board is in the frame and serves as background for the whole image. Then I decided to get a tighter shot of this adorable ring box and name on the board!
Once I’ve got the majority of shots I’ll pull stuff away and take a full shot of just the shoes and bouquet and one or two other items so you can see just how beautiful they are. I also ended up doing one of just the flowers and shoes.
Once I’m done with that I move to the other ring shots. I already got one of them on the board and I’m the box but I like to get one close up and one pulled back a little bit in the brides bouquet. I almost always use her flowers for these because why wouldn’t I? It’s so pretty! It makes the best background for the ring shots and you can’t convince me otherwise. Sometimes it’s hard to get them to balance, especially if the brides ring is significantly smaller than the grooms. It takes patience but it’s always worth it.
Next up we have the wedding gown! For these I try and get a few angles and locations if possible. Don’t forget to bring a nice hanger if the bride doesn’t have one.
Dont forget to get a shot of the dress once the bride has it on. I like to do this near a window. No bouquet. Just the bride in her dress. It’s perfect.
The bride had some special jewelry tied on her bouquet from her grandmother that she incorporated so I had to make sure I got a picture of that when we did our formal shots outside! Big rule: always get a shot of the bride holding the bouquet towards the camera so the bouquet has its own moment. The pinks and greens are to die for!
Once I’m done with the brides stuff I move to the groom. They usually have way less stuff and sometimes I can’t even do an actual detail shot because they have hardly anything to work with but that’s okay. In this case the groom had a few things and his bowtie was awesome so I took a quick shot of his bowtie, shoes, suspenders, and socks.
Yes that is a tag in the sock I didn’t notice until just now and one of his shoes was very worn for some reason so I tried to shoot at an angle it didn’t show much. Sometimes you just have to adjust little things! This was everything he wore except for the boutonniere I forgot. Hey, I’m human and I forget things sometimes. I did end up getting a shot of it after I had already handed everything back to him to put on.
They also went all out on their gifts for the groomsmen and I was so impressed with that. What lucky groomsmen! They got their own personalized cups and bottle openers complete with little mini bottles. They also laid all of their bow ties socks and suspenders out for them so they were all in the same spot and easy to put on.
Fun Fact: None of the groomsmen nor anyone in the house knew how to tie a bow tie and YouTube was definitely involved LOL. 🤣
Once I got all of the bride and grooms detail shots done I started walking around and taking detail shots around the house of decor and what not. They had some of the cutest decor ever! Some of my favorite items included a wooden cutout of an H they wanted everyone to sign for decor for their home and a beautiful sign in the front of the home. Their was a sign in the little lantern and hay set up near the ceremony area that had ones of my favorite quotes on it. “I have found the one whom my soul loves.”
They had a sweet little guestbook area for guests to sign. They also had a card and gift station with sweet photos of the two of them when they were little. One of the photos was in a beanie that the bride used to wear everywhere and I thought that was so sweet. The COOLEST part about this table is their honeymoon/new home fund. The sign even had a barcode you could scan and it’d take you right to the page to contribute! How freaking cool? I don’t know why all newlyweds don’t do this. I’d much rather go on an awesome trip than accumulate a bunch of stuff although I’d be grateful either way.
And lastly…One word: CAKE 🤤
And thats it. I’ve learned when shooting details to just shoot everything I see and try and document as much as possible. Newlyweds often forget a lot of the details of their wedding due to the nerves and chaos that a wedding entails. It goes by so fast! It’s kind of crazy that a year of prep is all over in a matter of hours! My job is to document as much as possible so you can look back at these and remember it fondly. So if you’re a photographer like me just remember K-I-S-S and shoot on! If you made it this far just because you were curious, you’re awesome and thank you so much for the support! Can’t wait to share more from this wedding. Formal photos are coming soon!