What I Wear to Shoot Weddings
Today’s fun, quick post is both for wedding professionals and curious couples!
Sometimes potential clients will ask what I typically wear to weddings. They’ve either heard of or seen wedding photographers showing up in denim or old leggings and they obviously want to make sure that whoever they hire will appear presentable.
What someone is wearing shouldn’t be a full representation of their talents but it’s absolutely natural that we make snap judgements based off of physical first impressions. I think it’s important to not only look professional, clean and capable but to represent my brand in person on a wedding day.
The days are LONG and often extremely exhausting. I make clothing choices based off of what is most comfortable and functional while also representing my business positively. While I don’t usually wear all black, I try to base my outfits off of my brand style or blending in with the wedding style. I’d much rather get mistaken for a guest than look like a catering server.
So, what do I wear to shoot weddings?
My Favorite Shoes
I have basically three types of shoes that I wear to shoot weddings and which ones I choose depends a lot on the style of the wedding along with the weather. I love Tieks (yes, to me they are 1000000% worth the investment and they’re the only flats I can stand to wear all day and I’ve tried dozens of brands), Jack Rogers classic Jacks sandals and these Sam Edelman boots.
My Favorite Dress Pants
The only dress pants I’ll wear are these from BetaBrand. They’re so comfortable, they are high waisted so that I can bend over and not feel exposed, they encourage movement and they’re very resistant to wrinkle and pilling. I own the cropped version because I think they just look cleaner/more tailored.
My Favorite Dresses, Blouses, Sweaters and Jumpsuits
Listen, I don’t like waste, I prefer higher-end brands and I also don’t love wearing the same thing to multiple weddings. So, I buy most of my work dresses from ThredUp. This means instead of spending $149 on a J. Crew dress that I’ll wear twice all season, I instead spend $19 on a very lightly used thrifted designer dress. My favorite brands are J. Crew, Talbots, Ann Taylor, LOFT, Calvin Klein and Banana Republic. Another place I like to search for dresses and blouses is J. Crew Factory but I’ll wait until there is a sale. I will also occasionally wear Lilly Pulitzer to some of my weddings - but I’m careful about which weddings I do this to because I know that while Lilly is definitely a part of my brand personality, it can be too loud for some weddings.
My Apron
I get a lot of questions about my apron. Caity has one too and we both love ours. I use it to store my cell phone, a pen, timelines, family formal lists, bobby pins, chapstick, memory cards, an extra battery, etc. and then I don’t have to worry about if the outfit I chose for the day has pockets or not. I had mine custom branded with my logo crest. It’s from Oatmeal Lace and I adore it! I have the custom short half apron. Well worth the investment!
My Winter Coat
I finally splurged and bought an adult winter coat to wear to weddings instead of my college, knee-length, puffy parka. It is the cult classic, J. Crew Cocoon Coat and full disclosure, I did have mine custom tailored to fit my arms and (small) chest in a more flattering way.
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