Wedding Photos: Candid Photos are Important to Tell the Rest of the Story

Formal wedding photos are a wonderful way to commemorate a wedding and remember the special day in a couple's lives. Formal, posed photos involve people posing for the camera and giving their best smiles to present a happy, perfect picture where everyone is hopefully smiling, with perfect hair, lipstick, no wrinkles in their clothes, and so on. These photos are often framed and displayed around not only the bride and grooms home, but also in the homes of the parents of the bride and groom, as well as other family members. Members of the wedding party are sometimes given framed photos of the group as a whole, to be displayed in their own homes. While these photos are wonderful reminders of a wonderful day, candid wedding photos fill in the blanks and can tell "the rest of the story"...as commentator Paul Harvey used to say!

There are many events and scenes that play out throughout the day that the photographer may see, but the bride, groom, and guests may not notice because as you can imagine, they are distracted by the momentum of the day. Or the guests may not take pictures of people they don't know, but the bride and groom would love to have to remember the day by.

When my husband and I got married in 2010, I had first wanted to hire a formal photographer just to take a few posed, formal photos of my husband and I, and our families. It was not the first marriage for either of us, so I didn't think we needed an expensive array of photos of the whole day. Plus, we wanted to use the money we might have used to pay for a full day of coverage to be able to do some extra special things to make the day more memorable for our guests. But I did want formal photos to remember the day by. And also having three teens, I thought it would be nice to have pictures of all of them dressed up and looking their best at the same time!

What we eventually decided on was to have my husband's brother, who is a wonderful photographer, take pictures during the ceremony and reception. This gracious man, David Hellier, not only took formal photos, from a list we compiled but caught all of the goings on throughout the day. Many of the candid photos he took will always be special to us, including those of my husband's Uncle John, who came up with relatives from Florida at 89 just to attend the wedding and died a few months later. The pictures of him blowing bubbles after the ceremony will always be priceless to both my husband and I. I also had my daughter as a backup and she took pictures with my camera since she is an aspiring photographer herself. There were many photos that captured a "look of love" that formal photos would never reveal as in those formal photos the bride and groom are looking out toward the camera, not at each other. Remembering those candid moments brings warm feelings to both my husband and I each time we look back at our wedding pictures.

When it comes to your wedding day, it is a special treat to have not only formal photos, but candid wedding photos as well, so you can remember the joy of certain moments, and of people that made your day extra special with their presence.

If hiring a formal photographer is not in your budget for the whole day, it's also possible to hire a photography student from a nearby college to take pictures for the day. This option is usually at a less expensive rate than a professional photographer. If that's not possible, my advice would be to make sure a friend or family member who you know is a great amateur photographer, promises to take care of candid shots, so you know you will have those taken care of as well as formal photos.

And as an extra precaution, there are always the disposable wedding cameras that you can buy to leave on reception tables and encourage guests to take candid shots. You never know who may capture your favorite photo of the day, just by being where the photographer can not.

Enjoy your special day, but have those candid photographers on hand to capture special memories that you may not see as a bride or groom, but will cherish for years to come! Formal portraits are always nice, but candid photos brings out people's real personality, and helps you to remember the joy of your special day!