Wedding accessory photos… brides and grooms usually either love them or hate them. There’s the shot of the bridal bouquet in a vase on a side table waiting for the moment when the buffed and puffed bride will grab it on her way to the foot of the aisle. And there are the many, many incarnations of wedding band photos, for example the loving heart photo or the rings in the hands of the bride and groom. There are photos of the bride’s earrings not yet in the lobes of the bride and photos of neckties hanging off of the backs of chairs in the groom’s dressing chamber. And, naturally, there are photos of shoes!
Shoes, more than any other wedding accessory, can tell a tale in wedding photographs because shoes (unlike earrings or the bridal bouquet) are to some extent utilitarian and they tend to be a very expressive piece of attire. Here are four examples of wedding photographs that show nothing but the shoes, yet convey a lot of information about the wedding itself and the bride and groom.
Rain on her wedding day? Or a bride by the bay? We can’t be sure of the circumstances that led to this photo taken by photographer Steve Holcroft without some digging, but it certainly invites a great deal of speculation. I can’t help but think of this bride as being playful, however. She didn’t have to wear wellies, after all. She could have gotten someone to carry her.
The bride wore All Stars in this photo taken by Shutterbug Mama, but the groom chose more formal footwear. Opposites attract, perhaps? In any case, it’s lovely that the groom was down with his fun loving bride wearing sneakers instead of traditionally feminine shoes.
Brrr, winter weddings can be chilly! Emily G Photography captured this shiver-inducing moment in time. Tromping around in snow boots was probably a lot of fun for this couple and something that will make their wedding photos that much more interesting in the years to come.
All right, so fishnets aren’t shoes, but I just can’t help but include a photograph that includes fishnets and platforms and what looks like work boots on the groom. Chelsea Elizabeth Photography snapped this shot of what strikes me as a very quirky couple who probably did their own thing on their wedding day… because oh yeah, what about that sweet dress?
To conclude, love them or hate them, when accessory photos are bad they’re terribly boring, but when they’re good they tell a story. That’s why I recommend that brides and grooms let their wedding photographers take the photos of the jewelry and the flowers. In this, the digital age, if the snapshots don’t turn out, newlyweds can reject them or delete them without costing the wedding photographer anything but a few moments of time.
I think it would be nice to fill the photo album with some cute or emotional accessory shots for example where there is only one large picture of the happy couple and the sides of the page look empty but you don’t want to take too much focus off the main photo.
I don’t have many accessory photos and only an ugly one of our shoes but in the end I’m happy about the shoes, the pictures don’t matter so much. 🙂
But that last photograph with the fishnets blew my mind and I want to stage a shot like that for myself now!
Oh dear, I think that last link got chewed up.
From my first wedding I had a nice photo of our rings laid on an invitation, with my bouquet at the top of the picture. I still like it–it’s artsy and yet has all the information from the invitation.
Nothing similar from the second wedding, but I don’t miss it.
@Johanna Great idea — being that I’ve only been married a few years, I can’t say how well my own accessory pics have held up. Perhaps in a few years I’ll be keen to look back and see what my hands looked like up close? But as filler in an album or photo book? Wonderful!
@mkb Fixed!
@Kai Jones I’ve gathered that for most people this is a I-can-take-it-or-leave-it shot. That’s part of why I recommend brides and grooms let the photog take it if there’s time. It might just come out beautifully!
I love this idea! It’s funny how footwear can reveal so much. I especially love the ones where the bride and groom chose to wear something a little unexpected.