6 Bridal Portrait Poses For Your Big Day

To all the brides dreaming of their picture-perfect (solo) moment— I got you. ✨

You’ve spent so much time and care on your dress, hair, and makeup, that yes, you’re worth taking some moments for note-worthy bridal portrait poses to remember forever!

What Makes Bridal Portraits Special?

I love taking bridal portraits because they feature how your style blends with your personality. There are so many different types of bridal portraits and poses for different styles of brides, like modern, timeless, boho, edgy, trendy, traditional, or sustainable!

6 Bridal Portraits Poses For Your Big Day

Your wedding photographer should have a variety of poses and prompts on hand to make you look and feel amazing… but it doesn’t hurt to have a few posing ideas in your head so that you feel prepared.

Here are a few bridal portrait poses that you can search for on Pinterest and share with your wedding photographer to help conceptualize your session!

1. The Look Back

The look-back is one of my go-to bridal portrait poses, as it gives off an air of confidence and poise. You can feel more editorial or candid, depending on how much you want to smile.

I direct my brides to angle away from me at a 45-degree angle. You don’t want to rotate away too much or you won’t be able to make eye contact with the camera.

Next, I’ll tell the bride to turn their head towards me and find my lens. You want to stand tall and raise your chin slightly. Now it’s time to try out a couple of different smiles!

To make this bridal portrait pose even more photogenic, I’ll also have my brides walk away from the camera until they hear me tell them to look back. At this point they look back at my camera while slowly walking away. It gives and editorial feel and allows for more natural movement!

2. The Veil Shot

Veils are a great way to create movement in outdoor bridal portrait poses – without you actually having to move around. It only takes a slight gust of wind for your veiling to float and dance around you. Sometimes, when mother nature isn’t working in our favour, I’ll have a bridesmaid or assistant toss the veil into the air so that it can softly fall within the frame. This helps capture some bridal portrait photos outdoors that look like they happened just by the wind!

Veils can also provide dimension to a close-up portrait when it’s draped over your face. It will soften the look of your skin while still providing texture to the image.

3. The Little Pea or Little Marble

This one sounds silly, I know, but it’s such a simple yet effective bridal portrait pose. It gives Sofia Richie energy, which is wedding goals.

I’ll tell my bride to either stand facing me directly or angle slightly to the side and pretend their holding a little pea or marble with both of their thumbs and index fingers. Combine this with great posture and you’ll be incredibly chic and elegant. 

You can alternate looking at the camera or side to side for variety.

4. The Elongated Leg

This is one of the many simple bridal portrait poses that are simple but so flattering. It creates beautiful lines and curves that show off your outfit and figure. 

When standing still you can achieve this pose by simply crossing one leg in front of the other. The front leg should reach forward slightly and your toe shoe be pointed. This will make your whole body appear longer. 

You can also incorporate walking into this pose. As you walk, exaggerate your steps by crossing your legs in front of one another. This will give you that same curvy effect while adding in movement!

5. The Hair Sweep

If you’re feeling stressed about what to do with your hands, I always recommend softly pretending to brush hair out of your face. You don’t want to approach this aggressively and risk ruining your hairdo – you just want your fingertips to slightly come in contact with the front pieces.

You can hold your chin up, make direct eye contact with the lens and slowly begin to sweep the hair off your face. I’ve made brides repeat this a few times so I can capture the perfect movement!

My favourite way to use this pose is by asking my bride to look down, begin the sweeping motion, and when I say so, look up at the camera. This way, I’m able to grab a natural feel portrait of them with some slight movement.

6. The Bouquet Shot

If you don’t feel comfortable looking directly at the camera for all of your bridal portrait poses, you can take a few moments to look down at the bouquet.

When doing this, you want to make sure you don’t only tilt your head down slightly, but focus more so on looking at them with your eyes. This helps keep your chin from condensing.

You can hold your bouquet in front of you at belly button height or down at one of your sides!

Things to Keep in Mind as a Bride Posing for Photos

Whether you’re a camera-shy bride or super excited to strike a pose, you should always feel comfortable and natural in front of the camera. I always give my brides these tips before we start the bridal portrait session.

Your Face

The key to great bridal portraits is that they should never look forced. I like to ask my brides to try out a range of smiles in their photos from full teeth to a Mona Lisa. After a few tries at it they usually find the place that they feel most comfortable.

I also direct my brides to look at the camera with a relaxed face for a more editorial feel. They don’t look angry or bored, just confident and calm.

The secret ingredient in a great smile and a great portrait is actually the eyes. Just like Tyra Banks says, you need to master the art of smizing. That is smiling with your eyes!

Your Movement

I always direct my brides to keep moving so that we can get the most variety out of their bridal portraits. This doesn’t require big movements, it’s all in the small adjustments that slowly make a pose feel more natural. 

They can move their hand from sweeping their hair to holding their opposite arm, or switch from looking at the camera to looking to the side. The more tiny changes you make the closer you get to natural-looking photos.

Your Hands & Arms

I find quite often that my brides worry about and overthink what they should be doing with their hands and how they can better place their arms to make them look better.

Instead of keeping your arms pressed to your sides, try holding your bouquet or gathering some of your dress into your hand as a prop. You can also pretend to adjust your earrings or necklace to keep them moving!

Ultimately, the best bridal portrait poses are going to be the ones you feel confident in!