Walt Disney Concert Hall Wedding Portraits: Suzie and Paul's Post-Wedding Session
A post-wedding portrait session at Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles: Frank Gehry's steel sails, the grand travertine staircase, the ivy garden, and a veil in the wind at blue hour.
Some backdrops are worth a second day. Suzie and Paul married in the spring, then came back out in the gown and tux for a post-wedding session at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Frank Gehry's stainless-steel landmark in downtown Los Angeles. With no ceremony to run and no timeline to beat, we had the whole building to play with.
This is the quiet secret of a post-wedding, or day-after, session: it takes the pressure off the wedding day and buys you an unhurried hour at a location you could never fully use between the ceremony and the reception. For a couple who loves dramatic portraits, it is one of the best decisions they can make.
The Grand Staircase
We started on the concert hall's sweeping travertine staircase, Suzie's beaded mermaid gown and long train pooling down the steps, Paul in a sharp black tuxedo behind her. The scale of the architecture does half the work, all a photographer has to do is place the couple and let the building frame them.
Steps like these are a gift for a gown with a train. We shoot from below to let the fabric run, and the whole frame turns editorial.
Steel and Reflection
The building's curved steel panels are a photographer's playground: they catch light, throw reflections, and glow at the edges. We used them for the most dramatic frames of the session, Suzie lit against a dark sweep of steel with her own reflection beside her, and the two of them mirrored in a polished panel.
Gehry's architecture rewards a team that knows how to light against metal, where the reflection helps and where it fights you. Downtown Los Angeles has no better canvas for it.
The Ivy Garden
Above the plaza, the concert hall hides a garden with ivy-covered walls and a stainless-steel rose fountain, a softer world a staircase away from all that metal. We photographed Suzie and Paul there against the greenery, and closed with a beauty portrait of Suzie in the warm garden light.
The contrast is what makes this location special: hard steel and soft ivy, minutes apart. A single session at Disney Hall can look like three.
Thinking About a Post-Wedding Session?
A day-after or post-wedding session is the antidote to a rushed wedding-day timeline: full hair and makeup, the gown and tux, and an unhurried hour at a location worthy of it. Walt Disney Concert Hall is one of the best in Los Angeles, and it shows up in real weddings too, like Caroline and Gerald's downtown day. Our guide to formal wedding photos covers how we plan portrait sessions like this one.
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