What to Wear Style Guide - Havilah Heger Photography

o get you the best experience.

Here’s the rundown:

I am so so stoked for our shoot together and am honoured to be the one capturing your memories! I don’t take any of this lightly and wanna make sure you have the best time at our shoot!

Man oh man. I know it can feel kind of daunting to pick what to wear for photos. Here are a few guidelines I’ve put together so you guys will feel good in your outfits, while still making sure the images are focused on your guys’ love, not what you’re wearing.

Ultimately, I want you guys to look like yourselves. Don’t feel like if you don’t follow these guidelines that your photos won’t turn out! The most important thing is that you guys feel and look like yourselves, so you can be as comfortable as possible! Feel free to go shopping for some new exciting clothes or bring stuff you normally wear, stuff that’s already in your closet that you love and feel yourselves in. As long as it represented what you guys are like right now, thats all that matters.

Here’s a few guidelines to help

if you’re feeling lost about what to wear :

First off, I always recommend bringing options. To get the best results, I’ll pick and pull from the options you bring for you guys to change into for each location we shoot at. This way I can make sure the outfits compliment the environment so that the focus is on you two, not on any distractions, which yes, can be your outfits. All you have to do is make sure you bring stuff that you feel like a million bucks in that we can pick and pull from!

Don’t bring your whole closet though. It will take too much time for me to go through everything and will take time away from your session. Most people bring about 3 or 4 pairs of bottoms and 4 or 5 tops each, then you can bring dresses, accessories, jackets and whatnot as well. Also, just know that depending on where we are shooting, you’ll most likely be changing in the back of the car on the side of the road. If you aren’t down with that, that’s totally fine and you can just bring one outfit! Just make sure to text me a few photos of the outfit options you have and we can pick it out together beforehand.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Think about the conditions and locations we are going to be shooting in and plan around it. If we are going to be hiking around the mountains, bring shoes with good grip and you won’t twist your ankles in. If we are shooting on a sandy beach, it would look weird if you’re wearing shoes. If it’s freezing cold outside, bring lots of layers and warm clothes with wool socks and boots. If it’s going to be hot, bring clothes that can breathe more so you don’t have sweaty pit stains in the photos. Be as comfortable as you can be!

PATTERNS

Avoid big, loud, chunky, crazy patterns. The smaller or more subtle, the better! If the pattern is too loud, it will distract from your faces. I usually try to avoid pairing too many patterns together because, you guessed it, it makes the photos feel a little hectic and distracting from your faces and the location. Also, be sure to iron your clothes before so there’s not huge wrinkles distracting from your faces either!

PROPS

When I think “props”, my mind flashes through all of the cringe-worthy photos I’ve seen of cheesy colourful things. But props don’t have to be cheesy! Props could be a dominos pizza picnic, a motorcycle, your cats/dogs (please bring your dog!!), blankets, a truck/car, a campfire, a bouquet, a paddle board, etc. If you have props you wanna incorporate, let me know and we can make sure to incorporate them in a non-cheesy way!

IN-HOME SESSIONS

All of the above applies, but for in home sessions I say the more skin showing the better! That doesn’t mean you have to be showing a TON of skin haha, I’m just saying the photos will look a lot more comfortable and intimate than if you’re in lots of heavy layers! Cause let’s be real, most of us walk around without pants on at home anyways. I recommend bringing options of tank tops, shorts, sweaters, and jeans to mix and match! Anything that will show some skin is perfect! Or if you wanna just wear a sweater with undies for a few or have your bae be shirtless, then heck yes to that. That’s not weird I promise haha

If you have anymore questions, don’t hesitate to let me know! If you’re still freakin out about what to wear feel free to shoot me a pic or two of what you’re thinking, or we can create a little Pinterest board together! But overall, just wear what you’re comfortable in and feel like you in. A pair of Vans you’ve had since 8th grade? Great. A sweater you wore for basically a month straight? Awesome. A hat that you know your mom hates? Perfect. You do you, and I promise the photos will turn out amazing.