Relaxed Wedding Photography for Couples Who Hate Posing

“We're really awkward in photos.” If we had a pound for every enquiry that starts this way, we could photograph weddings for free. Here's the truth most couples don't hear: you're not awkward in photos. You're awkward at posing, which is a skill nobody should need on their own wedding day. The fix isn't learning to pose. It's choosing photography that doesn't require it.

Why posing feels terrible (and looks it)

Posing asks you to hold an expression while thinking about your hands, your chin, your stomach and where to look, all at once, in front of an audience. The result is what we call the “school photo” face: technically smiling, recognisably tense. Cameras are honest. If you felt stiff, the photo shows it, which is exactly why people who've only ever been posed believe they're unphotogenic. They've simply never been photographed any other way.

What relaxed photography replaces it with

Documentary wedding photography works from the opposite premise: the best version of you appears when you forget about the camera. So for most of the day, nothing is asked of you at all. You get married, hug people, laugh at the speeches, and the photographs come from those real moments, not staged recreations of them.

For the short portrait session most couples still want, we use prompts, not poses:

• “Walk to that tree and chat, and ignore me completely.”
• “Tell her what you whispered during the ceremony.”
• “Fix his buttonhole, take your time.”

Prompts give you something to do instead of something to hold. You react to each other rather than the lens, and the in-between moments (the laugh after the line, the glance on the walk) become the photographs. Ten to fifteen minutes of this is genuinely all it takes.

What about the group photos?

You can hate posing and still want a photo with your nan, and most couples do. We agree a short list of groupings beforehand (five or six is plenty), run them briskly during drinks, and keep them relaxed: people stood comfortably with people they love, not arranged by height like a sports team. Fifteen minutes, done, everyone back to the bar.

If you're nervous, do this

1. Book a pre-wedding shoot. An hour in a park, no occasion, no pressure, and by the end you'll understand how prompts work and the wedding day camera will hold no fear. It's included with our Signature and Prestige collections (or £300 to add to any other).
2. Tell your photographer you're camera-shy. A good one will change how they work; if they brush it off, that tells you something.
3. Look at full galleries, not highlights. Check that real couples (not models) look relaxed in image 250, not just image 5.
4. Schedule portraits at golden hour if you can. Soft light is flattering, the day has loosened up by then, and a glass of something helps too.

The reassurance bit (because it's true)

In several years of photographing weddings across London, Croydon and Surrey, we have never, not once, delivered a gallery to a couple who turned out to be as unphotogenic as they claimed. Wedding days generate real joy at industrial quantities; our job is simply to be standing in the right place when it happens. You bring the day. The photographs follow.

You can see what that looks like in our selected work, read more about how we photograph weddings, or, if you're weighing up budgets, our honest guide to what wedding photography costs in London.