Bridal boudoir photography | A confidence-boosting experience
If you’re looking for a unique and special gift for your husband to be, a bridal boudoir shoot could be just the ticket.
Apart from the reaction you’ll get from your future spouse, a boudoir shoot is a great way to boost your self-confidence. It’s also a fun and empowering experience that can make you feel beautiful and sexy ahead of your wedding.
Of course, to get to that place of empowerment, you will need to summon the courage to actually book the shoot in the first place.
As with many things photographic, personal recommendations are a good starting point although if you’ve already booked your wedding photographer, it’s worth asking if they also do boudoir photography.
How does a bridal boudoir shoot work?
Probably the most daunting thing about having a boudoir photo shoot is the feeling of being exposed and vulnerable. Having a photographer that you trust is one part of the solution. And knowing what to expect is the other; I also really like it if you get involved in the planning process.
Here is an outline of what typically happens during a bridal boudoir shoot:
- Preparation:
For me as a photographer, the first thing I like to do is get a sense of what you like when it comes to bridal boudoir photography.
The easiest way to do that is for you to put together a Pinterest mood board. Here’s a link to my Pinterest board with some bridal boudoir ideas I’ve put together as an example.
If I’m photographing your wedding, we’ve probably already met so I’ll have a sense of how I need to adapt your mood board photography to work for you.
If I’m not photographing your wedding, I’ll ask you to send some recent unfiltered full-length selfies so I can basically do the same thing.
It also helps to understand how you want to use the images we going to create – whether it’s to create a photobook or a framed photo or some other memento.
- Location:
Once we know what we want to do, we then need to decide on the location. A bridal boudoir shoot can take place in a studio or at your home. If you’ve got enough space, I’d probably recommend shooting at your home as it’s more personal and you’ll feel more relaxed.
There’s also going to be the hire cost if it’s in a studio, although there may be some wedding props available, such as fabrics, fur, mirrors and furniture.
Whether it’s studio or home, you will need to provide your own clothing.
- Shooting:
With me, a bridal boudoir shoot will usually last for 2-3 hours. I tend to start by taking some documentary-style shots, and then move on to more posed shots using a technique called flow-posing. In amongst all of these pics, I’ll take some close-ups and some full-body shots.
- Editing:
After the shoot, I edit all the photos in my own personal style; this includes, colour balancing, contrast, sharpening, cropping, etc. I’ll also remove any blemishes or imperfections in Photoshop and prepare the photos for print.
- Delivery:
If we’re printing a book or any other type of photo gift, I’ll create an online gallery of all the images and you can choose the photos you’d like to include.
In terms of the number of photos you’re likely to get, you can probably expect to get between 10-15 final images.
Here are a couple of examples of photo gifts you can create (for your future husband) from your bridal boudoir shoot. All of the products are from Graphi Studio. The first is the Graphi Storybook.
The next images is the Graphi Reveal Box, which acts as a framed print but can hold a number of photos that you can rotate to show your preferred image framed on top, depending on how the mood takes you.
What do I need to prepare for the shoot?
Here are some tips for preparing for your bridal boudoir shoot:
- It’s a good idea to start by looking for props that complement or match your wedding colour scheme. That might be fabrics, cushions, fur, feathers, flowers, throws – the sky’s the limit.
- Pull together the accessories you’ve bought for the wedding (and wedding night), such as lingerie, silk robe, wedding shoes, veil, hair accessories, jewellery, garters, etc.
- I recommend you also have a couple of extra lingerie items you can use to add more variety to the shoot.
- Find props that belong to the groom, such as a shirt or jacket that can be worn by you during the session and other personal items that remind you of your groom that can appear in the background, e.g., a watch, tie, bottle of scotch.
- Bring a bottle of bubbly and two glasses and any items that you feel symbolize your love.
- Hair and makeup-wise, this could be an opportunity to have the trial run with your wedding MUA. Obviously, you need to complete that before the start of the boudoir shoot.
- Don’t forget to tell your photography about the parts of your body you like so they can focus on these in some of your shots.
- Remember, the goal is to mimic the bridal preparations that will take place on your wedding day in a really glamorous way.
Can you have a bridal boudoir shoot on the day of your wedding?
The short answer is ‘yes’ but you would need to add quite a lot of extra time to your bridal prep. I probably wouldn’t recommend it, because you’ll have other people with you in the room (and potentially in the background), you may not feel like doing the shoot on the day, plus it could mess up your hair or smudge your makeup.
If you’d like to speak to me about booking a bridal boudoir shoot, please use my contact form to get in touch. If you’ve booked me as your wedding photographer, I’ll be happy to give you preferential rates on a boudoir shoot, just drop me a text or an email to discuss rates and we can organise a date.
If you haven’t booked your wedding photographer yet, I’d love to hear from you. I cover weddings in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. You can see examples of my work by viewing my wedding gallery.