In today’s continuation of Wedding Photography Week, I thought I might address nerves. Most of us haven’t been schooled by our handlers in the fine art of mugging for the paparazzi because most of us haven’t spent all that much time being shadowed by professional photographers. Consequently, some brides and grooms find the notion of being followed around for six or more hours by hired photographers slightly disconcerting. And that’s on top of the usual worries that many people have about looking not quite right – or worse, just plain wrong – in photographs.

By Chris Hanley Photography

For some, the answer is to grin and bear it. For others, it’s to duck their photographer for as much of the wedding as possible. Others try to pose every time they see the photographer’s lens and end up looking awkward as a result. And still others do nothing, but spend what seems like the rest of their lives groaning over wedding photos they feel do not do them justice. (I was in the latter two camps, but I later assembled a wonderful album full of truly candid shots and reconciled myself to the fact that this is just what I look like.) With all this in mind, I’m curious to know what you’re doing or what you did to prepare for your wedding photos and whether you’re feeling nervous about your wedding photos in general.

Oh, other things I want to know: Do you like how you look in most photos? (I sure don’t like how I photograph!) Did you choose your wedding photographer based on her or his ability to make regular folks look amazing? (I sure wish I had!)

Well, hello, Monday! It’s still, yes, still Wedding Photography Week. Mainly because there are still lots of wedding photos and wedding photography tips I feel like sharing with you. As of next week, we’ll be back to the regularly scheduled programming here at Manolo for the Brides, in case you were starting to worry I’d gone snap happy.

To kick off the second week of all wedding photos, all the time – and don’t forget, you’re welcome to send in your wedding photos whether you’re a bride, groom, or photog – I wanted to talk a little bit about wedding photo TMIs. I’m not so much referring to sassy boudoir photography in the bridal chamber, but more to pictures like this:

Photo by Stacey Kane

And these two:

Wish I had a source for this one!

By Kathryn Brittain

Lest you think brides are having all the wedding photo TMI, grooms and their groomsmen sometimes get in on the action:

By Tim McPain

Whether or not you decide to let your wedding photographer take any TMI wedding photos is up to you – maybe you say no way, maybe you have some taken and keep them in a non-public album, or maybe you proudly show off your bride on the toilet pics and don’t care who sees them. Whatever the case, make sure your wedding photographer knows your preferences with regard to these kinds of photos AHEAD OF TIME. It’s totally normal and okay to say things like “Please don’t shoot until I’m dressed” and “Please don’t follow us into the bathroom” and “I’d rather none of my wedding photos be embarrassing so keep it clean there, dogg.”

Have you given your photog any particularly restrictions (or did you, once upon a time, for our post-wedding readership)?

Last week, Tony Romo and Candace Crawford tied the knot, as pretty much everyone with an internet connection or a television knows.

I didn’t even know who they were, since I follow neither professional football nor beauty pageants. I had to Google their names to find out what the fuss was about. All the same, I wish them all happiness, as I do every couple who gets married.

The details are easily found from the dress to the menu (short ribs and a pizza bar), to… well, pretty much anything you could want to know and probably several things you don’t.

All well and good. Happy famous couple gets married, people want details.

And then along comes this cesspool of nastiness of an article.

Yes, apparently it’s worth the time of Chris Chase at the Yahoo sports blog Shutdown Corner to be offended that the happy couple chose to register at Macy’s and Crate & Barrel! What’s more, they had the crust to register for a gravy boat that cost a mere six dollars! Gasp! Horror!

As if forcing people to make the trip to Dallas on a three-day weekend wasn’t bad enough, the Romos then ask folks to buy them various home knick-knacks that they’ll never use and easily could have afforded for themselves? I suppose you have to get a rich guy something when he gets married, I just never figured it would be a six-dollar gravy boat.

How does Chase know that Tony and Candace won’t use that gravy boat? Maybe they like gravy with everyday meals. And what do you want to bet that had they registered for a six hundred dollar gravy boat it would have come in for equal disdain from the same source?

Look, I don’t care how rich or how poor you are. I don’t care whether you’re famous, infamous, or utterly unknown: register for what you would like to receive. If your family and friends are strapped for cash on a good day, be sensitive to that by including some inexpensive items, but don’t base your entire registry on the fact that your closest associates have money to burn.

And if you want a gravy boat – no matter how expensive or thrifty-minded it may be – go ahead and register for it. The fact that it’s on the list doesn’t obligate anyone to give it to you, nor is it a reasonable cause for annoyance on the part of someone you probably wouldn’t invite if you thought of it.

In fact, Chris Chase? I’ll make you a deal: you stick to talking about sports, I’ll cover the wedding beat, and then nobody will have to deal with my ignorance of football or yours of proper wedding etiquette.

Naturally, this being Wedding Photography Week, this edition of LOVE/HATE has to do with photos! Specifically, wedding photographs that are taken in such a way as to… actually, I’m not quite sure how you’d explain what’s happening here. Which I assume is happening on purpose.

Nice pair, er, pears!

The other assumption that I would charitably make is that the couple in question was the sort that would be okay with having a snap in their wedding album that was a play on the whole perfect pear thing. Perfect pear, perfect pair. You see? Or maybe it was just an accident? What do you think of cutesy wedding photos that are vaguely naughty?

In today’s Wedding Photography Week post, I’d love to hear about your outdoor wedding photos. And I don’t mean posed shots in the scenic gardens next to some reception venue’s parking lot, but rather brides and grooms hitting the streets in their wedding finery along with willing wedding photographers. Which is SO something I wish I’d done, but we weren’t nearby anywhere worth running around. I want to know how many of you went gallivanting in gowns or plan to!

By Craig Williams Photography

Also by Craig Williams Photography

Now, the only problem with taking your wedding photos to the street is that it requires some planning. You have to find the time to do it – as in, you need to schedule the time before your ceremony or before the reception if there will be a longish break after the ceremony. You need to have a destination in mind and some way to get there and back to your venue. There should be a contingency plan in place in case of weather, and you should have a reasonably good idea that you won’t end up being questioned by Homeland Security for taking photographs in your chosen location. And so on.

But don’t forget that you’ll still have your wedding gear for a while after the wedding – and if a tux rental is involved, it can be extended – so you don’t have to take your walkin’ around photos on your wedding day. You can even do what Rain and Peter did, and take your walkin’ around photos on your honeymoon! Easy? Maybe not, but it sure beats rushing around on your wedding day to stage outdoor wedding photos designed specifically to make it look like you’re not actually rushing around, no?.

Is that Dick Cheney under there?

Whether you’re taking photos indoors or outdoors, you run the risk of seeing a couple of wedding photobombs in your collection of wedding photos. Especially if the bomber is particularly crafty or just not all that obvious, you could even end up with wedding photobombs in your otherwise pretty wedding album! While I’m guessing a guest’s huge grin or, yes, a horse isn’t what you imagined you’d find among your wedding pics, it’s better to laugh about it than to cry about it. Even when a bomber interferes with an otherwise perfect picture. And there’s always Photoshop, right? Until it happens to you (and also when it happens to you) my advice is to have a chuckle at wedding photobombs because they’re all part of the fun.

HEY, GUYS!

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