Lately I’ve been seeing a few disgruntled commentators on different wedding blogs about “Styled Photo Shoots”. I just wanted to provide a little insight into these shoots from my perspective as a vendor, bride, and blogger.

“Styled” photo shoots, or as I like to call them, “Inspiration Shoots”, are done by wedding vendors because they want to showcase their work. Often times some vendors aren’t able to fully utilize their expertise and talents for weddings and events because of client budget restrictions. And so, photo shoots were born. Personally, I want to see cool decor, flowers, special details- mainly I want to get inspiration from the shoots. The element about these inspiration shoots that I think might be disappointing some is that they may not actually be *attainable* for a bride to replicate. This is sometimes the truth. I can attest that there are lots of vendors that strive to keep their shoots “budget friendly”. However there are also some that put their absolute all into a shoot to show the best of their ability, using the very best flowers, linens, decor, etc. Another reason vendors do photo shoots is because the same types of weddings keep popping up all over. I know that’s one of my personal reasons for doing them- I’m sick of feeling like I’m seeing the same wedding on every single blog. A good way to curb this “plateau” is to enable brides to see new and different styles and designs that can be incorporated into their weddings, which is easily done with inspiration shoots!

As a bride, I looked at these photo shoots as inspiration for my own wedding. I loved seeing different versions of table numbers, paper products, color schemes, etc. Yes, sometimes I could care less about the dress, or I would lust after something that I couldn’t have for my wedding (or didn’t fit with the style of my wedding), or I would find a new favorite color scheme, but overall, they were inspiring. Isn’t that what the majority of brides are looking for when reading wedding blogs anyways-inspiration? (Note: Except if you read {ELD}! You’re looking for advice, tips, and insight too!)

Inspiration shoots are also really helpful in visualizing certain wedding styles. A the editor of {ELD}, I accept inspiration shoots that are styled based a particular word in the Wedding Style Dictionary. In doing this, I’m able to convey to you all what various wedding styles look like, as well as hopefully provide wonderful inspiration at the same time! With these Style Dictionary shoots, vendors have been instructed to make sure elements can be replicated by brides in some way, or easily attained. So no worries wondering {ELD} readers- the Style Dictionary Shoots are totally *safe*!

Any other questions, comments, or thoughts about Styled/Inspiration photo shoots?