Things to Consider When Planning Your Pre-wedding Shoot

“Titi, our friend is getting married in 2 months’ time o!”

Titi looked lost as her office colleague and bestie of 10 years gleefully updated her with the news.

“Which friend?”

It was Lara’s turn to look lost as she seemed to be wondering ‘Really, how can you not know?’

“Titi! Are you in this office at all?”

“No vex”, Titi shrugged, “Just tell me who it is”

Eyeing her friend playfully, Lara responded “You should be ashamed of yourself. Vivian is getting married joor”

“You lie!” Titi retorted

“Mtchew”, her friend hissed. “Because I lied about something like that yesterday, abi?” she questioned sarcastically.

“Are you for real?” Titi asked incredulously, eyes widening “And you’re saying it’s in two months’ time?”

Lara just stared at her, almost pityfully “You ehn! Where would your social life be without me sef?”

Still not totally convinced of what she’d just been told, Titi inquired skeptically “How come nah? I’ve not even seen any pre-wedding pix. Are you sure of this gist?”

“Okay, ma binu. I’m not sure of it. Infact, you know what? It’s not true. She’s not getting married” Lara flipped to sarcasm again.

“Go joor! But what I said is true, isn’t it?” Titi inquired playfully, while leaning towards Lara to further enhance the ‘amebo’ flow, “Abi have you seen any pre-wedding photos?”

“How can they seriously be getting married in 2 months’ time and not have their pre-wedding pictures yet?”, She finished

Lara scrunched her nose and mouth in one fluid movement and asked, flippantly “Na by force?”

The wires are supposed to be Prop? *lip sealed*

Okay, so these days I’m tempted to ask the same question. Na by Force?! It’s not that I don’t like the pre-wedding shoot concept. On the contrary, I totally dig it! (When that time comes, me sef will like to do pre-wedding photo, video and even documentary join). It’s the abuse of the concept that gets me like ‘Kilode!?’ I mean, you see some pictures where the couple just find one ugly looking tree or chair as prop and hang awkwardly around it or sum’n. Even their facial expressions get you going ‘Worisdis!’ And the extremely poor quality with which some of these pictures are produced? Gerrarahere mehn!

Instead of you ooh-ing and aah-ing over the pictures, you just quickly waka-pass. And personally, I believe whatever is worth doing is worth doing WELL. Besides, no be by force. A pre-wedding shoot is no pre-requisite for a successful marriage, is it?

Is there supposed to be a message here?

So before you jump on the train and release ‘pre-wedding photos’, before you announce to the world that you’ve done a ‘pre-wedding shoot’, maybe you should consider these:

How much RABA have you got?

Pardon me abeg, but “Raba” is one of my personal favourites currently. As it concerns us here though, did you know ‘Raba’ is a slang for ‘money’ ‘ego’ ‘cash’ ‘kudi’ ‘owo’ etc? First thing you think about is how much you want to budget for your pre-wedding shoot. Needless to say, this basically sets the tone for every other thing to be considered in executing your ideas. You’ll have to tailor your ideas to your budget. In other words, money is a KOKO…

No comments

Use a Professional

As much as your budget allows, please hire a professional. There are good photographers who are not necessarily expensive. That’s cool because you’ll usually find one that fits into your budget and can give you something good.

This is Bae! It's got Pro written all over

What do you want? An Announcement picture or a Story?

To avoid wasting precious time- yours and that of your photographer- biko, decide what it is you want right from the word ‘go’. Really, some couples do not want a pre-wedding shoot; they just want a ‘Mr & Mrs’ Picture. What’s worth doing is worth doing well, yea? So if you truly want a shoot, be ready for a SHOOT, not a Wait & Get. It would help if you could make up your mind on going the full nine yards or not. Sometimes though, this might depend on your budget.

Let your image tell a story

Liaise with your photographer every step of the way

This is especially for those ‘sabi-sabi’ couples; the ones who are bursting with ideas for their project. It’s easy to get carried away and to expect the photographer to give you what YOU want (afterall, you’re paying the dude, abi?) BUT fact still remains, he is the professional (that is, if you hired a professional) and you have to give him that. The best thing is to have thorough discussions where you table your ideas and he adds his professional input. Sometimes our imaginations run riot with concepts that are not realistic. It’s the professional’s job to point that out.

Another BAE kinda picture

Discuss looks and general grooming with the professional

There are rules! So don’t attempt doing it all. Your photographer will be able to tell you what looks go with the concepts you’re working with. You’ll be advised on what clothes, accessories, etc will work with the backgrounds you’re using. You’re allowed to input opinions, yes, but just make sure you’re working TOGETHER.

I LIKE!

On a lighter note:

Plix, Plix and Plix! If you’re just doing announcement picture, don’t come and be telling us dah you haf gone for pre-wedding shoot. If you wanna do it, make sense with it!

I came across some cool stuff on pre-wedding photos that are definitely worth a look HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

Peace!