I’m about to say something highly controversial that may or may not get my wedding photographer card revoked. But some things need to be said, and this is ab-so-lutely one of them:

Some of the most important photos in your gallery won’t have a single person in them. 

There, I said it.

I KNOW, I KNOW. Trust me, no one is more surprised by this out-of-pocket statement than the very woman who has dedicated her entire career to aggressively third-wheeling love stories and the humans who make them worth telling.

But after photographing hundreds of weddings, I am convinced that wedding details are one of the most underrated parts of an entire wedding gallery. 

Fair to say your eye got caught by these dreamy, moody photos of Meghan and Carter’s Colorado elopement? Eat your heart out, here’s even more.

Where Wedding Detail Photos Get Consistently, Egregiously, Violently Wronged

Somewhere between saying “DUHHHH, yes, I’ll marry you” and trying not to scream your “I do,” wedding detail photos got demoted to filler content. The warm-up act. The opening band. The thing photographers do while they’re twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the actual story to start.

(Which is ironic, because I don’t know a single wedding photographer worth their salt who’s standing around at 11am on your wedding morning thinking, “Guess I’ll photograph these rings until something interesting happens.” or “I should probably stretch my shutter finger now.”)

Pardon my candor, but the idea that wedding detail photos are somehow separate from the story is complete nonsense. In fact, that’s where the story starts.

Think of your wedding detail photos as the table of contents before the book begins.

Long before your first look. Long before your dad loses his composure. Long before your husband absolutely folds the second he sees you coming down the aisle.

The details are already foreshadowing what’s to come, dropping little hints about what matters most to the people at the center of it all (hey, hi, that’s you) before they’ve even entered the frame.

Once you start looking at them that way, you’ll find it hard to relegate them to “filler” ever again.

So, sue me.

First things first: your wedding detail photos are allowed to have a whole personality.

I think Pinterest miiiiight have ruined things for us. And before anyone comes for me, let me be clear: I love Pinterest. We thank her for her service.

But somewhere between the twelfth flat lay featuring silk ribbon that has nothing to do with anything and the nineteenth invitation suite styled on a piece of boring stone tile, I think a lot of couples started believing wedding detail photos were supposed to be impressive before they were allowed to be meaningful.

I don’t buy it.

Want to know what I find infinitely more interesting than a pair of high-ticket earrings? The pair of earrings your mom wore on her wedding day that she gave you two minutes before I arrived.

You know what I find more compelling than a luxury cologne bottle with a killer label design? The cologne he’s worn every single day since college because you once told him it smelled like home.

You know what I find more story-esque than an invitation suite that deserves to be hung in the Louvre? The note your dad slipped into your bridal suite that morning because he knew he couldn’t make it through a speech without crying.

THAT’S the good stuff. THAT’S the stuff that makes a gallery feel personal.

The best wedding detail photos never leave me thinking, “Wow, that’s gorgeous.” (Okay well, they DO, but they also leave me thinking, “Oh my gosh, I’m obsessed with these people.”)

If you found yourself SWOONING over these shots from Luke and Corbin’s destination wedding in Mexico, something tells me you’ll want to read the whole post dedicated to it.

A flat lay with a point? Now we’re talking.

Listen, I will style the heck out of an invitation suite. Give me beautiful paper, vintage stamps, silk ribbon, florals, a ring box, and approximately six minutes to myself, and I will be having the time of my ever-loving life. Artist Abby really comes out to play, creating something intentionally artistic before the rest of the day is left to chance.

But the reason I love photographing wedding details has very little to do with styling and everything to do with the fact that they’re little treasure chests full of context.

When I look at your wedding details, I’m not actually looking at paper or rings or ribbon.

I’m looking at decisions. Hundreds of them.

The colors you lost sleep over. The textures you chose to complement them. The vibe that you’ve been scheming since you were old enough to know what love even was. The experience you wanted your guests to have. The way you wanted your wedding day to feel.

You put a LOT of thought into every single element of your wedding day. It deserves to be documented.

Please don’t spend eight months planning your tablescape just for nobody to photograph it.

Can we pleaseeeee have a moment for reception details? Because I feel like they are criminally underappreciated.

Everyone talks about first look photos (myself included, with good reason) and golden hour portraits. Meanwhile your reception design is over here getting stiff-armed while it carries the weight of approximately fourteen Pinterest boards, seventeen vendor emails, and one very heated conversation about taper candle colors.

I mean, think about just how much thought you put into all of it: the florals, the menus, the place settings, the escort display, the custom signage, the candlelight, the champagne tower, the little details you hope your guests will notice over the course of the evening.

Each and every one of those details are actively creating the atmosphere of your wedding day because YOU put them there.

And atmosphere is part of the story, too.

I don’t just want you to remember what happened. I want you to remember what it felt like to walk into that room for the first time.

The most unsuspecting part? Half of these details won’t look like this for very long.

Ready for me to blow your mind? 

Most of the things I’m photographing on a wedding day only exist in that exact form for a matter of minutes.

The bouquet gets carried, and then thrown over your shoulder. The cake gets cut, with a kiss to seal the deal. The place cards get picked up by whichever family members shut down the dance floor, never to be seen again. The candles burn down to the last drop of wax. The reception space fills with the people who love you most. The florals lose petals as the day winds down. The handwritten vows get folded back into a suit pocket. The lipstick ends up on a champagne glass (and your soon-to-be husband’s cheek, of course). 

The details that seem small—or even, gasp, insignificant— are often some of the most temporary things on your entire wedding day.

Maybe that’s really why I care about them so dang much: I am tasked with photographing something before it disappears.

Before the chairs fill up. Before time starts speeding by. Before everybody (and I mean, everybody) starts crying. Before the dance floor opens and grandma surprises everyone by dropping it low. Before the flowers get loved to death by enthusiastic relatives. 

Before the evidence of all your planning turns into evidence of all your celebrating.

If that’s not the biggest privilege in the world, I don’t know what is.

A final word from your local wedding detail photos enthusiast:

Wait, maybe a few final words, starting with a little unsuspecting tip: Tell your florist to leave a few loose stems behind for your photographer.

I am so serious.

A couple extra blooms can make wedding detail photos feel infinitely more connected to the rest of your wedding day. It’s a tiny thing that makes a surprisingly big difference.

(Okay okay, I’ll step down from my soapbox now.)

If you take absolutely nothing else away from this passionate TED Talk on wedding detail photos, let it be this:

You can’t separate the details from the story. They tell it.

Or at the very least, they’re the opening paragraphs, the footnotes, the inside jokes, the little pieces of context that make the whole thing feel undeniably, unmistakably you.

So yes, I WILL absolutely continue losing my mind over wedding detail photos. I WILL continue photographing invitation suites like they’re fine art, reception spaces like they’re Monet’s studio, and handwritten notes like they’re priceless artifacts… if it’s the last thing I do.

At the end of the day, wedding detail photos were never (and will never be) filler.

They’ve just been misunderstood this whole time.