Wedding Wednesday: The Bridal Portrait

Last week I went home to Richmond for my bridal portrait.  I didn't realize until recently that this may be a bit of a regional (ie southern) thing.  Based on some very informal internet research, google searches for "bridal portrait" do seem to take you straight to photography studios in the Carolinas and Texas.  (And yes, I did spend a big chunk of time this morning looking at all the pictures I could find.)  If you are a reader from another part of the country I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

When I arrived in Virginia I was able to look at my veil for the first time and....it was wrong.   In fact, it was six inches longer on one side than the other.  A little stressful, especially since my portrait was in two days.  However, we took it back and the lady who made it  (at Couture by Lk Design) very quickly reworked everything and the final product was beautiful.  Even with that snafu, I would highly recommend hiring a good seamstress to make the veil.  We had a lot of control over the quality of the material and probably saved about $400 in the process.  Now, at the end of wedding planning, you are thinking about $400 in one of two ways:  either you are "hemorrhaging so much money" (in the immortal words of Farrell) that it seems completely inconsequential or you are becoming irrationally angry about any and all money expenditures ("No, I will not pay $0.50 per envelope for you to print my return address on my bridesmaids brunch invitations").  So anyway, a big thumbs up to not buying the veil at a dress shop.  Especially since another vendor told me she had seen a bride that morning who had received the wrong veil from a dress shop.  Then the shop called her a liar, even though the veil clearly didn't match the dress.  Basically, you can't avoid these sorts of problems no matter how organized/particular/bridezilla you are.  So you might as well save $400.

On to the portrait.  I am not a person who likes to be photographed.  If you are like me, I recommend a studio portrait where they tell you exactly how to stand, down to physically moving your foot into place for you- thank you, Wendell Powell Studio.  (The alternative is a sort of free shoot where the bride runs around in cowboy boots, bouncing soccer balls off her head has more of an opportunity to showcase her personality.)   The portrait was one of the more awkward things I have ever done, and I often wondered if there was any way the various contortionist-like positions would look natural, but guess what?  The results are great!  Apparently all those directions guarantee a good outcome.  Even the ones where the photographer told me I looked stressed.

So that's what's going on, besides yet another groom clothing switch.  But that is a whole different story.  (Also, why does blogger no longer have spell check???).