Wedding Vendor Attire – Megan Noll Photography

“Is this outfit appropriate to wear to a wedding?”
“What do you wear to a wedding?”
“Do I have to wear all black?” 

Being in several wedding photographer forums, these types questions pop up often. I figured it was time we chatted about my approach to wedding vendor attire.

My first rule is simple – you don’t have to wear black, but you definitely can’t wear white. Maybe I was scarred by someone wearing white to my wedding (or the time in college when I wore white to someone else’s wedding because I didn’t know about that rule…eek), but this is a BIG no-no. I know different places online say it’s okay to do now, but it’s not. On the other end of the spectrum, I feel like wearing all black just screams “I’M A VENDOR”. Not to mention, black is way too hot to wear on those sweltering summer days.

Now that we’ve addressed colors, let’s talk about attire guidelines. Because phrases like ‘business causal”, and “black tie optional” can be really confusing (especially for women), I follow this one rule: I dress like a guest of the wedding would dress. In doing that, if I end up in pictures, I won’t stick out like a sore thumb. This also gives me a frame of reference for what is appropriate.

There is one caveat though – If you are doing weddings in a price range where people are dressing more casually to the wedding, I would follow the rule to “dress for the job you want, not the job you have”. Once, when I was first starting out, I hired a second shooter that showed up in jeans. Even though that was relatively appropriate for the types of weddings I was shooting, I was mortified.

Hope this helps navigate the stressful waters of dressing for a wedding!