Yes, whenever we photograph a wedding at San Francisco city hall and the bride has the right kind of dress, we ask her to spin! Is this some sort of joke we play on our poor unsuspecting brides? No, not at all. Asking a bride to spin for the camera is just another way of displaying the wedding dress that she probably spent months trying to find. The perfect wedding gown not only looks good on the rack, but also when in motion. We love to place the bride in one of our favorite photo spots at SF City Hall and have her twirl for the camera. It’s fun for the bride and creates magical photos for their wedding album. Let’s talk about this in more detail and show some examples. Here is one great bridal spin at a recent San Francisco city hall wedding.
Benefits of a Wedding Dress that Spins Beautifully
Since this particular blog post is being written by a San Francisco city hall wedding photographer you will not be surprised to learn that I feel that capturing amazing pictures is one huge benefit. Of course there are many others that we can discuss that go well beyond photography. Certainly, the one that many people think of is how good a wedding dress works for dancing at the Reception Party. This is actually a common issue that bridal dress shops will discuss with their clientele when trying to sell a new gown. How well does the wedding dress work for dancing? This can be important, especially for those newlyweds that really want to put on a great first dance for their guests at the wedding reception. These days, it is not uncommon to see couples do choreographed dance routines at the reception as a way to entertain their guests. If the dress moves well and spins nicely all the better! Please read the article highlighted above to learn more about how to choose the perfect wedding gown for dancing and twirling.
In addition to the obvious dance benefit, there is all the very important aspect of how the dress looks when in full movement. Brides always look at their wedding dress in a stationary position, sitting on the rack or on a mannequin. Often times the first thing a bride will do when trying on a dress for her SF City Hall wedding is to slightly twist back and forth. This natural tendency really shows how the dress will move when the bride walks in it or changes directions. A great wedding dress should look amazing when it moves and when it is stationary. We feel that having the bride spin in the dress will capture these attributes for the camera. When the bride sees her wedding pictures it will give her positive affirmation that she said yes to the best dress possible.
Groom Involved In Spinning Bride Wedding Pictures
What about the Groom during their SF City Hall wedding photography photoshoot? Should he spin too? Probably not, but he can certainly help. One other option for having our City Hall bride spin is to have the groom hold her hand up high so it looks more like a dance move. To make this great wedding pictures, we ask the groom to hold the hand of the bride while facing her. The bride is instructed to hold her hand above her head and spin like a top as the groom holds her in place. Each time she twirls, we have her smile at her groom when he comes into view. Here is a sample picture:
Beautiful Natural Light as Bride Spins for Photos
As you will see from the next pictures, the spot we usually choose to have our San Francisco city hall brides spin for the camera has wonderful natural light. The best thing is that the light comes in from behind and so it will frequently cause the brides dress and veil to glow from the backlighting. I set my camera on a rapid fire mode to capture each angle of the twirling bride and use no flash. My camera can shoot at 12 frames per second so this helps catch every angle of our spinning bride. Sometimes the back of the dress can be the best angle, even though we cannot see the bride’s face. To keep our city hall bride from getting dizzy, we ask her to focus on one spot after each revolution. This ballet technique is called “Spotting” and can be very effective in keeping the bride in one place during her twirl.
Creating a Spiral Spin at SF City Hall Wedding
To add another dimension to our spinning bride images we can position her hands at different levels. Generally we will put one of her hands holding her wedding dress train higher and the other one lower. This technique can be a little more challenging for the bride to remain stable during her twirl so the spotting technique discussed above is important for her to do. We never make our brides do anything type of spinning they do not want to do and constantly check-in with her to make sure she is not feeling dizzy or light headed. We also give her adequate rest and don’t request too many spins at one time. The whole idea of this is to capture creative and dynamic photos of the bride with her dress. Our spin photo session also usually results in laughter and fun from both newlyweds! Here is an example of a spiral bridal spin as discussed above.
Alternative and Fun Bridal Twirling Wedding Photography
There are many fun variations we have used when creating these spinning bride pictures for our San Francisco city hall couples. Here are a few ideas we have used in the past that have made our newlyweds very happy and created more memories.
- Bride and flower girl (or other attendant) spinning side-by-side
- Bride spinning with Groom watching and laughing
- LGBTQ dual brides spinning in tandem side-by-side
- Groom spinning instead (yes we did that once!)
- Other dancing and twirling photos that show the wedding dress in movement
Final Thoughts on Twirling Bride Photos at City Hall
One thing not mentioned in this blog post so far is the usefulness of working with our city hall wedding couples in a fun and non-stressful way. Often times when we first start a SF City Hall wedding photography session, our couples can be a little nervous or uncertain. Going right into more fun and interactive dynamic posing such as this tends to be an ice breaker and improves everyone’s demeanor. We want our newlyweds to enjoy their city hall photo tour and feel that our bride spin shots help!