If you don’t know me, I would love to take a moment to introduce myself! My name is Cassidy Drury and I am a wedding photographer based in Kansas City who is utterly obsessed with all things timeless, elegant, and romantic. I have spent the better half of my career perfecting the oh-so-romantic style that so many brides and grooms are looking for on their wedding day.
If you’re anything like me, you appreciate artistic imagery that will speak to many generations and stand the test of time. And today, I want to let you in on a little secret on how I achieve this style: it’s not just magic and it’s not just the camera!
Communicating, planning, and curating with my couples is so very important to me. Being able to collaborate with my couples allows me to give them the necessary styling tips to achieve the look they are longing for. Normally, this is information I keep under lock and key (that might be a slight exaggeration) but in this blog post, I’m going to spill the beans on 3 ways you can get the timeless luxury look in your engagement pictures.
Back to Art School – Color Basics
Stay with me a moment – think back to Third Grade? Maybe First? Possibly even Kindergarten? Whenever it was that you and I learned about the very famous, one and only, COLOR WHEEL! This rainbow of a circle is more than just learning the colors of your crayons, it’s the basics of styling anything and everything that has to do with color. And I’m serious! Your interior designer is thinking about it. Your make-up artist knows it. And most definitely, it is something your photographer has on the top of their mind.
I’ll try to keep this simple: complementary colors and analogous colors are the two topics we’re going to worry about. Complementary colors are colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel (red and green, orange and blue, yellow and pink) Analogous colors are color sets that are next to each other on the color wheel (red/orange/yellow, yellow/green/blue, blue/purple/pink, etc) But I want you to think BEYOND the classic ROYGBIV. Think beyond that classic royal blue. Beyond the stop sign red. These are the basics, but it applies to every single color in the world (which apparently scientists estimate there are 10 million different colors).
When you go to pick your outfits, think about the main colors that your photo locations feature. Here in Kansas City, I love shooting at The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, so we’ll use that as an example. The building features a warmer toned stone (to keep things simple, we’ll just define this as yellow). If we are to apply our knowledge of color theory, we would want to pick out outfits that are either complimentary (cool tones such as pale blue, navy blue, etc) or outfits that are analogous (warmer tones such as peach, blush pink, etc)
The Art of Luxury Fabrics & Style
There’s one thing that the camera doesn’t do well – lie! Cameras can definitely pick up the difference between a $5 shirt made with cheap fabric and a $200 shirt made with the finest linen. Fabric that is made thoughtfully and intentionally not only photographs differently, but it moves differently.
Allow me to be the person to stress the importance of dressing fashionably for your engagement photos. Most likely, these will be the photos you use for your save the dates, you’ll share all over social media, and the images that go into your guest book. This is a once in a lifetime experience for the two of you and I encourage you to dress up for the occasion.
When in doubt, always opt for the more formal look. Don’t be afraid to get that stunning gown and pair it with a suit and bowtie. You have my full permission to dress up for your engagement photos. A quick note – one of the quickest ways to dress DOWN a look is your shoes! Make sure you are picking out the proper footwear for your engagement session. If you need to, bring a second pair of shoes to change into while walking around the photo location.
Go for the Dazzling Accessories!
There is nothing like the perfect pair of earrings to accompany your already stunning dress. Accessories can turn, what might appear to be at first glance, a basic black boat neck dress into a timeless silhouette paired with elevated touches. One of my favorite accessories – watches! I’m a sucker for beautiful mens and womens watches. Men never seem to forget them, but women, not so much. It’s rare that I see females wearing a watch to finish off their outfit. So allow this to be a sign to not forget the watch!
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