5 Foundational Poses to Ensure You Look Flawless in Your Wedding Photos

Does this ring a bell… I don’t know how to pose! I’m not confident in front of a camera. We’re awkward when it comes to photos. Every photo I take it looks like I have 18 chins!! WHAT DO I DO WITH MY HANDS!!? This is all absolutely expected and honestly, totally normal. The fact is that none of my clients are models and know how to pose coming into their wedding day. That’s why I have some foundational poses to flatter every body and ensure that you look stunning on your wedding day!

In this guide I’ll be going through 5 of my foundational wedding poses for the most flattering images and breaking down each one for you. These can be used for every day use as well, so feel free to apply these to selfies, impromptu photos from your bestie, or mom.

I also want to mention that even though these are “Poses that I place you in, I only do this to ensure that you are photographed in the most flattering way possible. Then, once you are in the pose, I’ll have you two interact with each other through various prompts and cues to get those natural and candid looking photos that you are looking for, all while looking your absolute best for the camera.

The Belly-Button to Hip-Bone

This is my most flattering and go to pose for every single couple. It’s a timeless look and can be super romantic and intimate, while also being very playful. I’ll break it down for you.

For the guys, it’s pretty simple, your shoulders are square to the camera, feet shoulder width apart, one hand in your pocket, and the other wrapped around your girl, pulling her in tight. Your weight will be shifted to the leg that is closest to her so that you are leaning into her instead of away. Variations on this pose come from moving the hands and the head placement around.

For the ladies it’s always a little more complicated. Your belly-button will got to his hip bone so that you are facing in towards the camera. This does 1 main thing and that’s shorten your waist line. Next you’ll open your shoulder back towards the camera a little bit, further emphasizing that hourglass figure. The leg that is closest to me, will bend at the knee slightly, giving you better posture and rounding out the hips if your dress is more form fitting. Now for the hands, the back hand will go around his waist so that you have more support while posing, and the front hand can go in multiple places, but typically will be touching him on the chest, jacket, or face. Variations for you will come with different head placements, hand positions, or holding the bouquet.

This is the pose that you’ll be in for most of the posed formals as well because it’s the most flattering.

Belly-to-Belly

For this pose you are both facing each other, belly’s touching. Guys will keep the same feet posture at shoulder width apart, now both hands are wrapped around your girl. We can change things up by having you hold hands, snuggle, do the “almost kiss”, or you can even grab her booty for some cute shots!

Brides this one is pretty easy for you as well. We still want to ensure that the front knee is popped a bit for the most flattering figure, and it will be on the outside of his legs. Not trying to knee him in the groin or anything. Your hands can be wrapped around him, hugging or embracing him, grabbing on to his jacket, or up around his neck.

Open Pose

The open pose is a great pose for walking shots and have a more casual feel to them than other poses. The key to this pose is that you look at each other instead of at the camera. This allows for the photo to seem like a moment that just happened to be captured, or a candid moment on the day.

Brides, you’ll either hold on to his hand with both of yours, or you can hold your dress in one hand and let him “escort” you. Sometimes I’ll position you shoulder to shoulder and other times you’ll have space between you. Another great alternative is for him to have his arm around your shoulder while you hold that hand, and lean in towards each other like putting your heads together.

The last main thing for the brides with this pose is that you want to have your legs crossed so that your hips create a “V” shape down to your knees, making you look absolutely stunning.

Guys, this is another simple shoulder width apart kind of pose for you. pretty simple.

Big Spoon / Little Spoon

This is basically a standing up version of you spooning with each other. I got real creative on the names of these poses.

Big spoon is with the groom standing behind the bride, and little spoon will happen when the elevation allows for the bride to be behind the groom and not completely hidden. However I do have a variation of the little spoon that I love to do. I’ll get there in a minute.

Big spoon for the bride is pretty straight forward, you’ll stand at roughly a 45 degree angle to the camera (don’t worry I’ll help you with that), popping the front knee, turning the shoulders toward the camera, and arching the back. Your hands and head placement will depend on what he’s doing with his hands.

For the groom, you’ll stand right behind her as close as you can get to her. The natural tendency is for your hands to down and around her waist with your hands ending up on her stomach. This will draw attention to her stomach and will also look like a maternity pose, which is jumping the gun a little. Instead take your hand furthest from the camera and wrap around her shoulders. We also don’t want to be seemingly grabbing her chest in a photo, so she will typically hold your hand with hers. Your other hand can be on her waist, keeping her close to you.

Now the Little Spoon is really simple and is more of a fun pose that we can do sometimes. You can bear hug your groom from behind and create some really great reactions from him or be more sweet and whisper in his ear. Guys you are angled 45 degrees from the camera and jacket is unbuttoned, hands in your pockets and just reacting to the moment.

My Little Spoon variation is called Split the Chest. This is where the bride is standing behind the groom slightly and let’s his arm split her chest as she is wrapped around his arm. We still want to make sure the knee is popped and posture looks great for this pose.

Flying “V”

This is a bit more advanced of a pose, but looks AMAZING when executed right.

Your shoulders will be together and you will be facing away from the camera (your backs are towards me). You will “close” the shoulders that are not touching in so that you form a “V”. You guys will hold hands in the middle with the grooms arm on the back so that the brides arm is mostly covered from the angle of the camera. The grooms feet position are the same as before, shoulder width apart and his other hand is in the pocket. Ladies, your knee is still going to be popped as if you were facing the camera so that your hips are positioned in the most flattering way.

Both of you will be looking at each other, or the bride will be looking over her shoulder that is connected to her groom. Lots of variations on this pose that all look amazing.