Photo Shoot Ideas: In Mommy’s Wedding Dress

My husband keeps wondering if I will run out of ideas for photo shoots each week. I think it is more likely that my little one will stop letting me photograph her first. Right now she thinks pictures are so much fun, so I am taking every opportunity I get.

This photo shoot is one I have wanted to do for a long time. I was just waiting for her to be big enough that my wedding dress wouldn’t completely fall off of her. For this shoot, I set up inside, next to a big window for the best natural light. I used a white backdrop, dressed up my little one in my dress and snapped some pictures.

In order to shoot inside without flash, you are going to want a slower shutter speed and the largest aperture your lens can muster. The bigger the F-stop, the smaller your aperture is. So you want to shoot closer to F/1.8 instead of F/22. I shot at F/1.8 and 1/80 for these photos. Shooting in the best lit room in your house, and without a direct flash is key to getting good pictures. Be aware the larger your aperture, the smaller your depth of field, basically meaning a smaller area of sharp focus. If you want more detail in the photograph you can bump up your F-stop, but this will also let less light in the camera, so you will have to compensate with something else to get the light you need.

When I was looking for a wedding dress, I couldn’t find anything I liked. I went from store to store, never finding something I even felt like trying on. The style at the time was very full and very glittery, neither of which is really me. After weeks of looking, my mom pulled her wedding dress out of the back of her closet. She left it on the back of the couch and told me if I felt like it, I could put it on. I slipped into it, it fit perfectly, and it was exactly what I had wanted without even knowing it. It was old fashioned with long sleeves and lace detailing and it was perfect. I remember telling my husband that I was going to wear my mom’s dress and he raised any eyebrow. He wasn’t sure a dress from the 70s was going to be at all what I wanted, but when he saw it on our wedding day, he said over and over again how perfect it was.

I try not to hold out too much hope that one day my little girl will wear the dress too, so that is why I wanted to photograph her in it now. I want her to wear something that fits her personality, something that she will be happy in. Maybe it will be this dress for her, maybe another, all I know is wearing my mom’s dress was perfect for me.