How to Stay Warm During Your Elopement

Planning Resources

Feb 8

Written By Cass | Wedding & Elopement Photographer

How To Stay Warm During Your Outdoor Photo Session

Whether it’s for your wedding, elopement or portrait session, these are some top tips to staying warm!

Okay, so we all know how unpredictable and long cold a winter can be. BUT, I think a lot of us aren’t willing to give up going outside all together for 5 months out of the year. So how do you stay warm outdoors? Better yet, how the heck do you stay warm when you’re outside getting your photos taken for your winter wedding or engagement photos?

Well, below are some tips for staying warm while exploring outside for your photos in the cold temps. These tips apply to anyone opting for a winter wedding, elopement or engagement photos to revel in the beauty of a fresh snowfall, frozen waterfall or fun winter adventure!

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What to wear for your outdoor winter photos

Wear layers

Are you wearing a dress? Make it long and don't be afraid to wear some cute thermal leggings underneath. Also, with a long dress, keep those toes warm with some wool socks and cute boots! Even if your not going the dress route, wearing good quality base layers under your pants and shirt can really help keep your body heat in and reduce freezing from sweating!

What I wear:

Leg base: Under Armor ColdGear UA Base 3.0 leggings I wear these under my hiking pants or jeans, depending on just how cold it is and how much hiking we will be doing.

If you want them to be less noticeable under your dress I recommend opting for some skin colored/nude/white leggings or fleece lined leggings for extra warmth.

Top base: I have a couple of my favorite vintage thermal shirts, but I think the Under Armor ColdGear Base 3.0 Crew shirts would be great or a Merino Smartwool base layer would be a great non synthetic option.

Socks: Darn Tough are my go to’s, but any midweight to heavyweight Merino Smartwool socks should keep your feet nice an toasty! Pro tip- more doesn’t always mean warmer either, I know as a kid we all doubled or tripled up our socks to go play in the snow, but this isn’t always the best thing to do, if you double layer two tight socks or make your boots too tight, you run the risk of slowing the circulation to your feet and actually making them colder. So I recommend getting the socks for the occasion and always testing them in the boots you want to wear to ensure its a good fit.

Boots: These are essential y’all! I know, I hear ya- you want to look cute tho and winter boots aren’t always that sexy. But hear me out, you don’t want to risk slipping and breaking your bum on the ice, or frostbite or even just being uncomfortable during your wedding or engagement photos. So my advice is to wear the warm boots with good traction and bring the cute shoes for when you get to the spot your getting photos taken. Super bonus is if you can get both cute and warm boots like Danner Boots - I have the Women’s Mountain 600 and even tho they aren’t an official winter boot, they keep my feet nice and warm in the winter. My biggest advice is to make sure they are waterproof, sturdy, warm and have good traction.

Jacket: I LOVE my Arc’teryx Cerium SV Hoody (SV=severe weather), but I do think its a little overkill to be honest, I end up sweating in that thing and thats not ideal for staying warm, so my recommendation would be the Arc’teryx Cerium LT Hoody (LT= lightweight). Or if you are looking for something in a different style or a synthetic fill option check out one of my favorite brands Fjällräven, their parkas are so warm and beautiful!

Mid-layer: Pack extra mid layers just in case, or for the walk back to the vehicle! Wool is perfect for this, especially a big chunky sweater or fleece zip up. After being out in the cold for awhile, you may find yourself chilling more over time, so having another layer to pop on can make all the difference! I love my North Face Arcata Fleece Hoodie, but it’s been discontinued unfortunately but this North Face Fleece Hoodie looks like a great mid layer as well.

Hat: My trusty Carhartt beanie is almost always on my head, lol! But really this is more of a personal preference, if you choose to wear a hat during your photos, just make sure it looks good with your attire! If you’re not wearing a hat, make sure you have a hood on your jacket or some way of keeping your ears warm like ear muffs, winter headband, holding hand warmers over your ears - whatever it takes to keep those babies warm!

Gloves: This should be #1 really, so why I’ve listed it last is because I don’t actually have a super great recommendation on a pair of gloves. This is something that is hard to find the perfect pair as a photographer (need to be able to use my touch screen on my camera, hit the shutter, change dials, etc.) BUT, for y’all I just recommend going with something really warm and easy to put on and take off- you will be doing that a lot during your photos. Also, pro tip for folks wearing rings- make sure your gloves or mittens don’t get caught on your ring when you take them off - the last thing you want to do is loose your wedding ring in the snow when you take your glove off (just typing this out gives me all the anxiety.)

Hand and body warmers

These little rectangle bits of science are literal lifesavers in the winter! Keep them in your gloves, stick them to the inside of your hat, stick them to your back, under your dress, inside your suite coat, maybe even shove a couple in your boots! I never go outdoors in the winter without them!

Single use body warmers
Single use variety pack warmers
Reusable hand warmers

Pro tip: crack them open about 20 minutes before the shoot and start using them BEFORE you get cold!

Warm accessories

If you are getting married in the winter and have a lot of skin showing from your dress, bring a matching shawl, blanket, poncho, sweater, scarf, or super cute jacket that adds to the look of your wedding. (and stick some warmers all over the inside of it to keep ya extra warm)!

Heated jacket or vest: a few of my couples have brought these with to their elopements and engagement shoots to keep them warm and I am left wishing I had one! From what I understand they are battery operated with a power bank built into the jacket that literally warms it up like a heated blanket of sorts to keep ya nice and warm outdoors. I don’t have one of these yet, but here is a heated vest, heated hand pouch and heated gloves you can check out to see if that’s something you might want to bring along on your winter adventure.

The winter essentials

Gloves, hats and scarves are still a must! Yep, I am mentioning these again, that’s how important they are. Even if they are ugly, you can toss them off every 10 minutes for photos if you must, but trust me, your gonna want to have them regardless!

Ice traction

I always recommend bringing along some sort of boot traction for winter adventures, whether its yaktrax, Microspikes or Snow Cleats; it’s important to have some sort of solid traction when traversing on ice and snow!

Traversing Deep Snow

If you’re planning on walking around on snowy, not groomed trails, then I recommend grabbing yourselves some snowshoes to make traversing a lot easier.

Keep the snow out of your boots

A game changer winter accessory to help keep you warm is undoubtably leg gaiters for over your boots to keep the snow out! There is a short leg gaiter or a long leg gaiter, depending on your needs.

Bonus - Drink warm liquids

Fill a Thermos, Yeti or other insulated mug full of your favorite hot liquid… whether it's coffee, cocoa or tea! My best advice is to sip on it frequently while you are outside to keep you warm, but you could also do a little hot cocoa break to warm you up (Plus its a cute photo op!).

Keep it moving

Plan some fun winter activities to keep ya both moving and warm while you’re outside.

Winter activity ideas

Bonfire
This can be a great option to stay warm and snuggly during your wedding or engagement photos. Make sure you choose a location that allows fires, has a designated fire ring, that’s accessible in the winter, bring a shovel to dig out the snow and don’t forget the marshmallows and a blanket to sit on!

Play in the snow
Don’t be afraid to have fun! Throw snow at each other, roll around in it, make a snow man! Whatever, just be your true selves together

Snowshoeing
This can be a super great way to get around in the deep snow and as an added bonus of keeping ya warm while you’re trekking around.

Other great winter adventure ideas are:

Snowmobiling
Cross country skiing
Ice fishing
Ice skating
Ice climbing
Downhill skiing

Have a backup plan

When relying on mother nature to be an integral part of your day its ALWAYS good to have a backup plan, or two.

Indoor option
When all else fails and you’re just too dang cold or maybe its dangerous to be outside for too long, plan for an indoor backup plan. This can look like a coffee shop, mall, restaurant, bar, etc. (just make sure to get permission ahead of time). Other possible options are renting a cozy cabin or airbnb to have as a backup option or heck, you could start the day photographing outdoors and end the day indoors all snuggly in your cabin!

Different location
Are you planning on doing your photos up on a mountain or way up North? Consider adding a backup location at lower elevation or somewhere generally warmer in case the weather is just too harsh. Also worth noting, typically if you are near a large body of water the wind cuts harder and thus feels a lot colder, so even choosing a location inland or in a dense forest can really help mitigate the cold temps.

Other random tips

Glasses
If you’re a glasses wearer like me, consider popping in your contacts for the shoot. With cold weather brings the dreaded glasses fog up, and if you two are getting all face to face, your glasses are gonna totally fogged out!

Warm up breaks
When the cold really sets in, and your even the slightest bit uncomfortable during your photos, please tell me! We all have different comfort levels when it comes to temperature. I want you two to have fun, not be frozen and miserable! We can take as many cuddle in the car with the heat blasting breaks as needed!