Pre wedding photo shoot?

Our photographer offered it but we felt the price was not worth it. It is only nice photos of you in a wood or somewhere pretty and we didn't think the pics would be used for anything so just went for the wedding package and spent the extra on the album we will now get at the end

We had one (but our photographer did offer a really good price for it). I’m really glad we did it - we aren’t big photo people and it was nice to meet our photographer and practise having our pictures taken. Put our mind at ease re spending so much money on a photographer too!


We’ve got a print of our favourite on the wall and are planning to use some of the other pics on our wedding website.

They never used to be "a thing" but it was a few years back during the banking crisis there was a sudden increase of new-to-wedding photography shooters popping up offering a pre shoot for free as a way of giving confidence to the couple that they could actually use a camera.

They have evolved since then but I don't do them. Some that do see it as an "added value" to increase potential bookings. Others have seen that they can be a useful extra source of income in off peak times.

In my opinion part of a wedding photographers art is to be able to put people at ease straight away without needing to practice. Its problematic to see just how it fits in with photographers who say say they shoot natural unposed (you know the drill ) but then also offer a pre shoot so you can practice posing.

If they have a full wedding diary they can be tricky to fit in, so may be done out of season and so have little relevance to the actual day, contrast the 3 of you in a wind swept park - a world away from the wedding day in summer surrounded by family and friends having fun whre you should not notice them photographing you a lot of the time. Or because the shoot is arranged then a nice day can be chosen, but you cannot choose the weather on your wedding day, so they may be able to get great shots whilst under no pressure in nice weather and bright light but fall down on the actual day.

Also now with covid the less mixing with other people before the wedding the better.

View quoted message Thank you for all of the feedback. I think we might just not done one as it will save £300-400

I'd say you'd be better off saving your money and having some professional photos done in a few years' time - no point in having two lots of pro photos taken so close together.

We haven’t bothered with this and I don’t think our photographer offered it to be honest. We thought it was an unnecessary add on. We aren’t having an album made either, I will create one myself using online company such as Snapfish.

View quoted message Thank you for all of the replies and advice it has been really helpful. We have decided not to do a pre shoot unless it’s already in the package of the photographer we pick.