Winter Wedding Tips

Here are some tips for couples who are thinking of having a winter wedding – or if you are a photographer hired for one. They should help to make the day more comfortable & to ensure you get lots of great photos. We learned some valuable lessons during a January winter wedding we photographed in Prince George, BC. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day with a fresh snowfall just in time for the wedding, but the week before it was a slushy mess. Looking back on the day there were a quite a few things that helped make it a success, inspiring us to write this blog post to share some of the tips & planning that may help you to have a beautiful winter wedding day of your own!

 

Winter Wedding Tips For the Bride & Groom:

• Our bride’s wedding dress was  the perfect length… It was an inch above ground level, and did not have a train. If it was any longer it would have been dragging in the snow and could have gotten wet, dirty, or icy before the ceremony & reception. It also had pockets! 

• Depending on the temperature,  the bride might even want to wear pants & boots under her dress, and the groom may consider a second layer as well (they can always change out of them once things head back indoors).

• A fur capelet and gloves are also great additions to help keep the bride warm.

• The bride & groom can each bring a large winter coat to wear between photos for a quick warm up if they start to get cold (but be careful of the veil when the bride takes her coat off and on).

• Don’t forget to get something for your bridesmaids to wear… Colette chose cute matching sweater-knit shawls. Long dresses also help a bit to keep the cold wind away.

• Leave lots of buffer room in the timeline, as travelling on winter roads can take longer, and even walking in the snow is a bit slower than usual.

• Consider having a First Look session – in the winter, it gets dark very early. With the timing of their 4:00pm wedding ceremony it was completely dark by the time the ceremony was over. Since they wanted some beautiful outdoor winter wedding photos, the best option was to have a first look session. And when talking to the couple after the wedding they were both very happy they chose to do one.

Winter Wedding Tips For the Photographers:

• It may be a good idea to wear snowpants & winter boots- Dan wore his snowpants and was able to go off the trail without worrying how deep the snow was, and could kneel down if needed.

• Make sure to go indoors at least half an hour before the ceremony so your camera’s can warm up – our lenses fogged up as soon as we got inside. Luckily the ceremony didn’t start right away or it could have been trouble.

• Pre-planning goes a long way – especially in the winter. Plan out the shots and locations you want to get done ahead of time, so you can move through them quickly so everyone can get back to the vehicles where it’s warm.

• Plan a backup location (or two) in case of bad weather. Things worked out perfectly for us on this day – we even got a nice snowfall the night before. But we did have a few locations in mind in case the weather turned bad on the wedding day.

You can click here to see the photos from their winter wedding day. They had a small intimate wedding at the Prince George Civic Center, with lots of great personal touches to suit their winter theme.

If you have any winter wedding tips or experiences to share please leave a comment below. We would love to hear from you!

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Northern Pixel Photography – Bridal Expo Booth 2014

This was our third year with a booth at the Storybook Wedding Bridal Expo in Prince George BC.  This year we wanted to also put some more emphasis on our Styled Portrait Sessions, so we decided to get a double booth to have some extra room. We divided our booth in half with our Wedding Albums and info on one side, and our collection of Vintage Dresses & styled session info on the other side. A larger booth also meant we had to construct a larger wall this time.  We had purchased a spare door during construction of our initial booth a few years back so it was easy enough to expand. The vintage photo frames were inspired by a song on The Voice a couple seasons ago. We saw an artist singing into vintage mirrors and knew we wanted to try something similar. So we started collecting vintage frames at garage sales throughout the summer. We actually found the giant centerpiece frame just before Christmas when Dan went into him mom’s basement to bring up the Christmas tree. He found it right there in front of the tree, which was perfect timing as we planned to order the photos over the holidays. Here are a few photos of our booth: Some of our collection of vintage dresses available for styled sessions. We have lots of themes and ideas in mind, and are looking forward to another busy summer. The red dress just to the right of center on the rack is the one Sandra is wearing in the candle-light night session we photographed on the dock at Tyhee Lake in Smithers. Our collection of Luxury Flushmount Sample Albums… These albums are hand bound, and are available in 12″x12″ or 10″x10″, with an option to purchase 6″x6″ identical duplicate mini albums, with 40 different colors to choose from in Japanese Linen or Deluxe Italian Leather: A closer view of our wall with some of our favourite photos taken in 2013. The photo on the top left is from our styled candle-light night session at Tyhee Lake in Smithers BC. The centerpiece photo is the beautiful bride Jaclyn, who we met last year at the Storybook Bridal Expo. It was our first wedding of the year, and the weather cleared off just in time for their bridal party & newlywed couple photos at an amazing farm. The two photos on the right are from Peter & Marissa’s wedding at the family berry farm near Prince George. Next to them on the bottom row center is one of our favourites from Desirae & Karl’s engagement session along the Bulkley River in Telkwa BC. The other bottom center photo is a styled session in the lilacs with one of our favourite models – the beautiful Vikki. The photo in the oval frame on the bottom left is from Billie & Nick’s beautiful wedding day at Huble Farm just north of Prince George BC. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth to say hi. We really enjoy meeting everyone and hearing about the wedding plans and locations of all the brides-to-be. This year was especially enjoyable for us since we could show off the dresses and start planning some more styled sessions. If you would like to be notified of future posts – including all of the upcoming weddings and styled sessions – you can follow our blog or like us on Facebook. And if you missed the Bridal Expo you can click below to fill out a contact form, and we will get back to you right away to create a styled session or discuss your wedding plans. Talk to you soon! ———————————————————————— Our Website: http://northernpixel.zenfolio.com Like Us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/northernpixel Northern Pixel Contact Form: http://northernpixel.zenfolio.com/contactform ——————————————————————————