What your day can look like on film
This romantic Raleigh, North Carolina wedding captured through 35mm film, showcases how film beautifully documents every part of a wedding day. From the invitation suite and getting ready to portraits, the ceremony, cocktail hour, and the reception, film provides depth within your wedding gallery. With a modern blush, peach, and orange color palette and timeless design, this celebration is perfect inspiration for couples dreaming of an editorial yet nostalgic wedding aesthetic.
Getting Ready and Details on Film
Starting the morning off with colorful wedding details, a classic wedding dress shot, and timeless bridal portraits.
Details
The invitations, heirloom jewelry, florals, and carefully chosen details all help tell the story of the day. Film captures these elements with a softness and depth that makes them feel both elegant and nostalgic. My favorite details were the custom matchbooks and the embroidered vow books!
Bridal Portraits
Morning bridal portraits before the ceremony
The Ceremony
The ceremony brought everyone together for the most meaningful part of the day. Photographing a ceremony on film is all about anticipating the smallest moments that disappear just as fast as they happen. Setting the scene with ceremony shots and guests arriving helps build the story of your wedding day.
Cocktail Hour
Cocktail hour is when the pace of the wedding day starts to shift. The formal portraits are finished, guests can relax, and everyone gets to enjoy being together. These in-between moments are a huge part of telling a complete wedding story.
From conversations with family and friends to drinks, florals, and little candid moments, film captured the relaxed atmosphere beautifully. I love including these photographs in a wedding gallery because they bring you back to what the day actually felt like.
I loved the retro details that the couple included throughout the day like the matchbooks, embroidered vow books, their guestbook banner, and the glass bottle sodas in the cooler for guests to drink during cocktail hour.
Portraits on 35mm Film
After the ceremony, the couple spent some time together for portraits before the reception. Their modern wedding design and warm color palette made such a beautiful backdrop for photographs, while the film added a softer, more nostalgic feel to the images.
These portraits are some of my favorite examples of how I love to photograph couples on film. Natural, romantic, and focused more on how the day felt than creating a perfectly posed image. The 35mm film tones worked beautifully with the blush, peach, and orange details throughout the wedding.
Reception details on film
The reception continued the modern, romantic feel of the day with warm lighting, beautiful florals, and pops of peach and orange throughout the space. Every detail felt intentional.
From the dinner table to the first dance and the celebration that followed, the reception photographs bring the entire wedding story together. Shooting these moments on 35mm film gave the images a timeless quality while still preserving the energy and emotion of the evening.
Reception on film
After dinner and the cake cutting, the evening opened up into dancing and time with family and friends. The sunset outside was one of the highlights of the evening, with soft pink, blue, and orange tones that looked almost like cotton candy behind the reception.
The dance floor filled up quickly, giving me plenty of candid moments to photograph on 35mm film. These photographs capture some of the less formal parts of the day with friends laughing, people dancing, and everyone enjoying the last few hours of the celebration.
