“Golden Hour” is a term you’ve probably heard before if you’re planning your wedding and have already booked and met with your photographer or videographer. If you aren’t at that point in the planning process yet, here’s the scoop:

Golden Hour is a term used by photographers/videographers/planners to describe the hour prior to the sun setting. The light is beautiful and glowy and perfect for those stunning wedding day portraits most brides dream of.

While this time of day truly delivers some of the most beautiful light, to me, using Golden Hour as an opportunity to sneak out for some pics with your beloved actually serves an even bigger purpose.

Your wedding day is going to FLY by. You will hear this roughly 9,234,123 times a day between now and the time the day actually arrives, but you will not have any idea what people actually mean when they tell you “it happens so fast” until it is actually happening and is actually flying by. You may feel obligated to spend time with the guests at your wedding, but I PROMISE you that no one will really be upset with you for sneaking out for a moment. Especially if your planner is good at building your timeline so that it’s the least noticeable that you are gone (*hint* I’m really good at this).

Golden Hour gives you a chance to DECOMPRESS and spend some moments with your spouse ALONE (ok with a photog/videog/coordinator in tow). This is the first chance you’ll likely have to actually look at each other and go “WHOA THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED AND WE ARE ACTUALLY MARRIED” without being interrupted by Aunt Marge for a cell phone family portrait, or your Dad wanting you to meet his boss, or your groomsmen wanting you to take a shot.

Golden Hour is the most magical time of a wedding day for my clients to actually soak it all in and I encourage them to do so. We’ve had photos wrap fairly quickly at times and I always tell my clients to just take a little walk or to just take some deep breaths and BE with their new husband/wife. Taking even a minute to just be still is important. Sometimes with all the planning and visualizing and all the excitement, couples forget to account for the incredible amount of emotions and people involved in these days and don’t realize that they may not have planned an actual moment to sit back and go WHOA. Golden Hour is the perfect opportunity for that.

Don’t underestimate the importance of Golden Hour beyond the photos.

And now…an overshare of Ryan and Darian’s amazing Golden Hour portraits by Heather Bruening Photography in the upper vineyards of Chankaska Creek Ranch & Winery.

XOXO, Amber