This is the quiet moment the dress has been waiting for.
Before the bride slips into its layers, before the first look tears, before it swishes down the aisle and spins across the dance floor, I give the gown its own portrait session. At Finley Creek Vineyard, that means stealing it outside to the stone patio while everyone is still sipping coffee and finishing hair and makeup inside, hanging it from the permanent string lights that crisscross above the fireplace, and letting the morning sun filter through the trees and kiss every inch of lace and tulle.
There is something so special about photographing a wedding dress alone. It has lived in a garment bag for months, survived alterations and steamer sessions. For ten minutes, it gets to be the star, swaying gently in the breeze with the vineyard stretched out behind it and the brick fireplace. I shoot wide to show the scale of the day that is coming and tight to capture the hand-beaded bodice that took someone hours to create.
I always ask my brides for a pretty hanger (or I bring one) because this image ends up being one of the most often included photos in the wedding album. Years from now it will hang in a closet, and someone will pull it out and say, “This was the dress she wore when she married Dad.”
When the bride finally steps into the dress an hour later, I love knowing I have already given her dress its own love story, its own moment to breathe and be seen exactly as you dreamed it. Because on your wedding day, every detail deserves to feel like the main character, even if only for a few quiet minutes.
Captured with the Nikon Z9 and a 35mm prime lens in natural light.
ISO 125, f/7.1, 1/200
Edited to look like film.
Location: 795 US-421, Zionsville, IN 46077.