This has got to be hands down my most requested post!! I’ve gotten at least 15 emails from readers asking me to write about / show what I wear on a wedding day, so here it is!!

I have chosen to always wear a dress when photographing a wedding! I think it’s super classy, and I honestly do not want to look like a vendor! I want to fit in with all the guests. Some photographers chose to wear all black + pants, but that look is just not for me! I’m a colorful person anyway, so why wouldn’t I wear clothes that match that while I’m working??

I also ALWAYS wear shorts under my dresses! There shouldn’t be any reason for my dress to fly up, but if it does I want to make sure I’m covered ;) I try to make sure my dresses are plenty long enough, so I’m not pulling and tugging all day long! Photographing weddings is hard work, and there’s no reason to make it more stressful by constantly worrying about what you’re wearing!!

SHOES SHOES SHOES!! It is incredibly important to wear the right kind of shoes. And always make sure you wear them for a full day BEFORE a wedding day!! You definitely need to make sure they’re comfortable, because you’ll be standing for 12 hours in them! One time I wore a pair of flats that had a little piece sticking up along the back, and I thought they’d be fine because they were flats. But by the end of the wedding, both of my heels were covered in blood, and needless to say the shoes were ruined! Not a very pretty picture, but please wear comfortable shoes!! Never wear heels!! I did that for part of the day when photographing my sister’s wedding, and after 2 hours my feet were killing me. I thought I might fall over during the ceremony!! Not good ;)

I have several different ‘wedding day’ shoes. Typically I’ll wear flats, but in the spring/summer sometimes I’ll wear boots! Boots are especially awesome if you know you’ll be somewhere muddy! I have these flats in both nude & black, and between those two colors, I pretty much am covered!! Nude goes with everything :) The thing I love about these shoes is #1 they are CRAZY comfortable!! Not even joking. They have this amazing padding on the bottom, and for the first 8 or so hours you’ll feel like you’re walking on air!! After hour 8, NO SHOES would ever feel comfortable ;) Aaaaaand #2 they wipe off super easy. Sometimes I’ll step in mud, or whatever else, and I just take a paper towel to these babies and they’re good to go for the next wedding! Plus they have that awesome elastic around the edge, which means no rubbing!

There are a few different things that I look for when buying a new ‘wedding dress’… Haha!

• NOT WHITE. Everyone knows not to wear white to a wedding, but as the photographer {there can be a lot of eyes on you, of people waiting for you to mess up!} I want to absolutely make sure that there is no similarity at all. So I try to even stick away from wearing beige, or anything too light.
• POCKETS!! This is not a necessity, because I have many wedding dresses without pockets! But if I find a dress that I like, and it DOES have pockets, you can bet your boots than I’m buying it!! :) It’s so much easier when a dress has pockets, because then I can slip my phone + my ExpoDisc in and never worry about losing it!
• A dress that hides sweat. Sure, it sounds gross, but wedding days {especially in the summer!!} get SO HOT. And typically here on the East Coast, they are crazy humid! 
• It has to be modest! I’m definitely not super conservative or anything, but there is no reason for my boobs or butt to be hanging out {yes, I went there. Just being real here}. Especially not in a professional setting!! I never want to be worrying about bending down too low, because I need to be focusing on the wedding day!! On that same note, I always try to make sure that the dresses I buy aren’t too flouncy, because you never know when there might be a huge wind gust! Haha!! 
• BONUS: I will almost always wear a cardigan, even in the summer! I know, you’re calling me crazy. But I have a good reason!! Wearing a light cardigan keeps me from getting sunburnt, and also when the sun isn’t hitting your skin directly, it keeps you cooler. I have a really nice black one that goes with all my dresses {I know, black is awful in the heat. But it’s pretty light!!}, so I’ll typically bring it along to all my weddings! Plus sometimes it really cools off in the evening, and it’s nice to have something to throw on at the reception!

I get a lot of my dresses from Target {I kind of expect to have to replenish them every wedding season :)}, because they usually have a pretty good selection that meet my qualifications! I have some dresses from ModCloth, LOFT, and a few Old Navy. I try not to spend TOO much money on them, just because I enjoy buying lots of dresses ;) Sometimes I’ll splurge and get them from New York & CO {my favorite!!}, and LOFT when I just know I can’t live without it ;)

This dress is from New York & CO, and it’s one of my favorites! It’s got some awesome leather details, and it’s so flowy {but not TOO flowy ;)}!

 

This dress is from LOFT, and it’s awesome! AND it has pockets!! It’s sleeveless, super comfy!

 

This dress is from ModCloth, and it’s actually my bridesmaids dress from Jenny’s wedding! This one I can be a little on the fence about, because it is beige. But it has a bit of a pink skirt underneath, so I’m definitely not completely against it! It’s a little fancier than what I would typically wear, so it just depends on the wedding!!

 

This dress is from Target, and it’s a short sleeve scoop neck! 

So there you go my friends!! I hope that answered a lot of your questions :) Let me know if I missed something! And I’d love to know from you photographers what you favorite dress to wear to weddings is!! <3