DIY Bride Takes Her Own Wedding Pictures — Melts the Internet’s Heart
When Liisa Luts and her husband were planning their wedding, they decided they wanted a day as simple and laid-back as they are. For Luts that meant skipping the pro photographer — and not even asking a friend with a good camera to snap the key shots.
Instead, she wanted to just take her own pictures on the big day.
Luts’s husband-to-be liked the idea too. “We both agreed that it’s not about the photo series’ technical quality. It’s about the emotions and real moments.”
And what better way to capture those moments than from the perspective of the bride and groom?
Luts’s photo series encourages us to ask ourselves why we take wedding pictures. Is it to remember exactly what everything looked like? Or is it so you can relive your experience of a special day?
It may seem daunting to try to capture your own wedding on film, but Luts’s experience reminds us what we love most about weddings.
“The event was more about fun and family and friends being happy and enjoying good food and good talk. That’s why I wasn’t worried at all about getting all the right moments or about missing any.”
The refreshingly intimate series starts with a simple shot of Luts turning off the alarm on her phone. In her dimly lit bedroom, the date — her soon-to-be anniversary — glows back at her, telling a simple story: “Here we go.”
The series continues to show her letting in the cat, going for a run, making a simple breakfast, and finally meeting up with a few friends to get ready for her wedding. It’s the kind of casual, romantic Saturday we Pinterest about! The ceremony itself is captured in reflected selfies and the faces of well-wishers approaching the bride with outstretched arms. Finally, after a couple of bus rides and a night out with friends, Luts ends the series with a selfie of her and her husband falling asleep, a newly wedding-ringed hand covering her smiling face.
Luts and her husband run a small Tallinn, Estonia-based creative agency specializing in photography and videography, so — full disclosure — they know a little bit about what they’re doing. However, Luts decided to ditch her professional camera and chose an easy-to-use mirrorless FujiFilm X-T10 instead.
When Yahoo Makers asked her if she had any pro tips to share, she said simply, “Don’t worry so much about getting the right shot.” Luts doesn’t recommend taking sloppy pictures, just that “less worrying and more experimenting can only improve your outcome.”
Though Luts doesn’t have a favorite photo from her day — they work best as a series, she says — some do stand out. “For example, the one where my husband is still sleeping in bed in the morning and I point at him — ‘He’s the one.’”
When asked what her husband thought of the series, she said, “He is very happy with the outcome. He says that it’s more genuine and he likes the idea of being able to relive the day through my eyes.”
Some critics told Luts they missed certain key moments in her pictures: the exchange of rings or the first kiss. Her response? “There’s nothing to miss. I know it happened and I remember it, I don’t have to see these exact moments. They don’t change the fact that I’m happily married now and have a wonderful photo essay to relive the day.”
For Luts, what mattered most about her wedding day was the fact that she was getting married. “The wedding day will come to an end soon, but we still have a lot of married days ahead of us.”
Though Luts doesn’t have any specific pro tips to share, we have our own: For the optimal slideshow viewing experience, dry your eyes first.
Also on Yahoo Makers:
The DIY Bride’s Wedding Projects That Save Money Without Adding Stress
Photographer Shares the Powerful Bond Between Shelter Animals and Volunteers
Truth About Those ‘Perfect’ Instagrams Revealed In Photographer’s Uncropped Series
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