Do you remember sitting in your childhood living room, flipping through old photo albums from your parent’s wedding day? Maybe even your grandparent’s wedding day? They were worn leather album covers with handwritten titles. 4×6 prints stuck in plastic sleeves that stuck together as you turned the pages. An entire day of memories summed up in just 25 photos.
Fast forward to 2025 and the landscape of wedding photography has changed drastically. Weddings are not just celebrations anymore. Instead, they have become entire productions. Society has gotten swallowed whole by trends and photography can feel like it is simply for likes and comments. The memories that they hold feel like an afterthought.
What if we turned back the clock on wedding photography? What if your online photo gallery felt like those prints in your parent’s photo album? Better yet, what if you took those photos and created something tangible – your own album for your children and grandchildren to flip through one day?
Let’s bring back humanity to wedding photography.
Prioritize connection over trends.
Truth over faking it for the photo.
Real emotion over staged moments.
As a documentary wedding photographer in Maine, I have been to over a hundred weddings in the past decade. I have seen all the trends come and go. I’ve been to weddings that felt more like a photoshoot, and I’ve been to weddings where no one even noticed a camera was there, simply living in the moment.
So how do we change things?
Find a photographer that you resonate with and who shares your view on what you want your wedding photography experience to be.
Consider what is most important to you on your wedding day. There is no right or wrong answer. Make choices that resonate with you as a couple, not just because it’s how things “should be” done.
Allow space for imperfection. It can be easy to fall subject to feeling like everything must go a certain way and if it doesn’t fit that narrative, then it equals failure.
Let go of the pressure to perform. Say yes to things that light you up and forget the rest.
