MAking Plans
Awesome sauce! Now that you’ve decided what is most important to you and you’ve dug deep into researching your dream spot, it’s time to make some plans and start booking things! The goal of this isn’t to finalize every single nitty-gritty detail, but to get the most important things into place.
since you have some locations to think about, or maybe you’re already set on where you’d like to shoot, let’s chat about how to make your experience even more special! We’re going on a date after all.
Pro Tips
For most public areas, shooting on a weekday will mean more seclusion than a weekend.
2. If we end up exploring and shooting in the mountains, national park, state park, or any where that’s pretty secluded I highly recommend downloading an offline map of the area from Google Maps beforehand just in case we don’t have cell service so we’re able to drive back home. It’s better to be safe and prepared!
Picnics
If we set out to camp or travel to a nearby state spark, let’s enjoy a picnic by throwing down a few comfy blankets and make a small bonfire with beers in hand.
Road trips
If you spend the majority of your time together with your hair whipping in the wind on the back of a motorcycle, you should definitely bring the bike along for your shoot! Or if you’re both travelers and have a van, we could easily turn the back of your van into a lounge scene with blankets and pull over by the cliffside on a coast. If you don’t own a van but that’s been dream to road trip in one, there are some companies that will let you rent for however long you need it! Voyager Campervans or Outdoorsy are both great places to start and they serve in different states.
Food
Who doesn’t love stuffing their faces? Haha! If we have an in-home session, let’s bake cookies, pizza, make pancakes or waffles! Or maybe you’re both foodies and love a certain type of cuisine? We can go to your favorite restaurant or fast food joint for a quick bite to eat (Whataburger lovers?) If you both met at a bar, let’s hit up a snazzy place for some drinks!
Explore
If you’re down for a new adventure to explore or maybe you’re wanting to revisit a location that’s sentimental to you both, here are some tools that I use to find stunning, secluded, off-the-beaten path spots:
1.GOOGLE
Always a good place to start any search, just know the top several pages of search results of your first few searches will likely not be secluded spots. If it’s easy to find, it means a lot of people have found it already.
2.SOCIAL MEDIA
(Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest) a good place to start to find cool general areas, but not usually a good way to find secluded areas. If you do find a popular spot, let’s look into shooting during a weekday or going during off-season. A good trick to see how touristy or busy a place might be is to search the location on Instagram — if you find thousands of photos tagged at that spot, you’ll want to think about finding somewhere more secluded (or go at a very non-peak time of day/year). You want to avoid crowded areas so your ceremony will feel secluded and intimate.
3.GOOGLE MAPS + GOOGLE STREET VIEW
4.GOOGLE EARTH PRO
5.HIKING + TRAIL SITES: All Trails + National Parks
6.TRAVEL GUIDE: Lonely Planet
