Your Wedding Doesn't Have to Look Editorial to Be Photographed Beautifully
There’s a weird amount of pressure right now for weddings to look like editorial productions.
Perfectly styled tables. Elaborate florals. A venue that looks like it belongs somewhere in the Italian countryside. Custom stationery. A champagne tower. A dress hanging in a perfectly designed getting-ready suite with absolutely nothing on the floor. And listen — I love beautiful things. I’m a photographer. Of course I do.
I love an interesting tablescape, a gorgeous dress, intentional florals, and a space that gives me something fun to work with. I will happily spend ten minutes moving around a room because I noticed the light hitting something perfectly.
But your wedding does not need to look like a magazine spread for your wedding photographs to be beautiful.
Because editorial wedding photography isn't necessarily about what your wedding looks like.
It's about how your photographer sees it.
Editorial Wedding Photography Is an Approach, Not an Aesthetic
When people hear the words editorial wedding photography, I think it's easy to picture a very specific kind of wedding. Luxury venue, dramatic florals, designer everything, immaculate details and a couple who somehow knows exactly what to do with their hands at all times. But that's an aesthetic.
An editorial approach to photography is different.
It's about composition, light, movement, framing and noticing what can turn an ordinary moment into an interesting photograph. It's knowing when something needs a little direction and when the best thing I can possibly do is leave it alone.
Sometimes that means intentionally creating a portrait that feels like it could live in a magazine. Other times, it's seeing someone standing in a random pocket of good light and realizing there's a photograph there before the moment disappears.
Your wedding doesn't have to provide the perfect backdrop for every image. That's part of my job.
Beautiful Wedding Photography Isn't Reserved for a Certain Kind of Wedding
This is something I wish more couples knew before they started planning. You do not need the most expensive venue in North Carolina. You don't need elaborate installations. Your florals don't have to cost more than your first car. You don't have to choose every detail based on whether it will photograph well.
And please, for the love of God, you do not need to redesign your entire wedding because Pinterest has convinced you that everyone suddenly needs seventeen varieties of taper candles.
The things that make photographs beautiful aren't always the things that make a wedding expensive. Beautiful light is beautiful light. Your grandmother laughing during cocktail hour doesn't care what the chairs look like. The way your partner looks at you during the ceremony isn't suddenly less meaningful because there's something in the background I wouldn't have chosen myself. And a packed dance floor with everyone you love will photograph better than a perfectly styled reception where nobody is having fun every single time.
My Job Is to Find What's Interesting
There is almost always something interesting to work with.
Maybe it's the light coming through a window. Maybe it's a weird little corner of the property. Maybe there's texture somewhere that photographs completely differently than you'd expect. Maybe the light is terrible and that's exactly when I pull out the flash.
This is one of the reasons I don't walk into wedding days with a giant predetermined shot list of photographs I need to recreate. I don't know what your wedding is going to give me yet.
I want to look around. I want to notice what's happening. I want to figure out what makes this place and this group of people visually interesting instead of trying to force your wedding into photographs I've already made somewhere else.
Sometimes the least exciting location ends up giving me one of my favorite photographs from an entire wedding day simply because the light, the people and the moment came together.
You don't have to see the photograph before it exists. That's what you hired me for.
You Also Don't Have to Be an Editorial Couple
While we're here, let's get rid of this one too!!
You do not have to know how to pose. You do not have to practice your model face. You do not have to spend your engagement session learning seventeen poses you'll recreate on your wedding day.
Most people I photograph aren't professional models. I don't expect them to suddenly become professional models because they put on wedding clothes.
When we're intentionally creating portraits, I'll give you direction. I might put you somewhere because I love the composition, fix a hand, ask you to move, or tell you where the light looks best. I want those photographs to feel intentional without making you feel like you're performing for me. Then I'll back off. Because some of the most editorial-looking photographs happen when we set the scene and then allow something real to happen inside of it.
Documentary and Editorial Wedding Photography Can Exist Together
This is where my approach to wedding photography really lives.
I don't think you have to choose between gorgeous, intentional portraits and photographs that actually feel like your wedding. I want both.
We'll make the portrait of you in your dress where everything is intentional — the light, composition, posture and framing. And then I'll photograph you five minutes later trying not to cry when your dad walks into the room.
I'll photograph the details you spent months choosing, and I'll photograph what the room looks like once your favorite people have actually filled it. We'll make the photograph you want framed in your house, but I'll also be watching the people behind me while we're making it.
That's what I mean when I describe my work as documentary wedding photography with an editorial eye. The documentary side preserves what happened. The editorial side influences how I see it. And... neither requires your wedding to look a certain way. <3
The Photographs That Feel Expensive Aren't Always About Expensive Things
There are absolutely things that make my photographer brain happy. Interesting architecture. Good light. Texture. Movement. Clothing with beautiful structure or detail. Thoughtful florals. A reception space with a little moodiness. But what makes a photograph feel elevated isn't necessarily the price tag attached to what's inside the frame. It's intentionality.
It's knowing where to stand. What to include. What to leave out. When to use natural light and when flash is going to make something infinitely more interesting. When to compose something perfectly and when a photograph actually needs to feel a little imperfect.
That's the difference between documenting what something looked like and actually making a photograph out of it. And that can happen anywhere.
Your Wedding Should Be Designed for You, Not Your Photographer
If there's one thing I want couples to take away from this, it's this:
Please don't spend your entire wedding planning process asking yourself whether something will look good in photographs.
Choose the venue you genuinely like. Wear the thing that makes you feel incredible. Pick flowers because you love them. Use the weird family heirloom. Choose the colors you're obsessed with. Serve the food you actually want to eat. Invite the people you can't imagine celebrating without.
Let your wedding look like your life, not a styled shoot.
There are absolutely decisions we can make together that will help your photographs — especially when we're talking about timeline and lighting — but you shouldn't have to build an editorial wedding for me to create editorial photographs.
You bring me the people, the personality, and the day you've actually been excited to have. I'll find the photographs.
Looking for Documentary Wedding Photography With an Editorial Eye?
If you've been scrolling through wedding photography wondering whether your own wedding is "editorial enough," I hope you stop worrying about that.
It doesn't need to be.
I want the perfectly composed portrait.
But I also want your mom crying in the background, your friends being ridiculous at cocktail hour, your dress getting a little dirty, the weird interaction you didn't even know happened, and whatever your dance floor looks like once everyone has forgotten I'm there.
Your wedding doesn't have to look like a magazine.
It should look like you.
And that's a lot more interesting to photograph.
