Your wedding day is a day that will forever be marked with a heart and celebrated with raised toasts, for years to come. While you will forever be reminiscing back on this magical day, thanks to your memories, photographs help massively too. Photographs on your wedding day are little snippets of moments that you forever get to keep tangibly, look back at, and relive those magical moments. This explains why so much care is taken by those wedding photographers to get that perfect shot, as it will help commemorate your special moments in the best of frames. 

It’s no secret that wedding photographers have a long and stirring relationship with sunsets and golden hours. When the sun sinks into the horizon, lighting up the land in the most glorious golden tone. The sky fills up with a swirl of magical hues, and every blade of grass and every leaf wears a golden veil which makes everything look magical. For an hour or so, the earth is her prettiest self, and capturing a couple in love in this beautiful light seems to be a sure-shot formula for a photograph that will take your breath away. The last rays of sunshine for the day cast a warm golden glow on to the couple, which is strikingly flattering and translates beautifully on camera. However, you can play off the drama of the sunset in a few different ways. Let us look into sunset photo ideas, and how you can use the magical golden hour to the best of your advantage. 

Cityscapes: The piercing tall skyscrapers and the stunning cityscapes make our city weddings beautiful but add a sunset to the mix, and you will be pleasantly surprised at the drama it stirs up. The tall glass buildings reflect the golden glow and the sun peek-a-boos from behind, painting a pretty picture for your special day. There is a0 different juxtaposition that is created by the marvel of nature and something man-made which is eternally alluring. Let your wedding photographer capture the magic of the environment in dramatic shots, enabling your urban wedding vibe to live on for decades to come. If you are getting married in a busy city square, take advantage of the hotel rooftops to capture the picturesque view of the sun setting over your city wedding.

Meadows: The first image which props up in the mind when talking about a sunset photo session is a lush meadow filled with wildflowers or tall grasses, and it is every bit as magical as one would imagine. Catching the sunset in a rolling grassland comes out beautiful in pictures, adding every bit whimsy to your wedding day. It sure makes you and your partner feel like you are miles away from blaring horns and neon city lights. Whether it is wheat or just a sunflower field, your wedding photo session in a picturesque meadow in the enchanting golden hours is sure to grace your photo album proudly. This is also perfect for an engagement photo session. 

Mountains: As if the gorgeous golden sunlight of the setting sun is not enough, we have the majestic mountains too, and the effect together is something out of the postcards. If you are getting married in a location which is surrounded by towering mountains, whether it is the earthy rocky mountains, or the lush green mountains or a snowy paradise, capturing the drama of the backdrop in perfect frames as the sun showers the beautiful sunlight before it goes down for the day is a wonderful idea. Let the snowy mountain light up with the pinky glow of the sunset, let the rocky structures look majestic and dramatic with you and your sweetheart posing by it!

Beachy sunsets: You know what amplifies the watercolor skies and the golden glow of a sunset? Waterbodies, of course! Think of sharing a moment with your sweetheart amidst the pristine beaches which look as beautiful as ever, along with the magical moment spun by the sun melting into the water on the horizon. The atmosphere is beautiful on its own and looks exceptional when captured in the lens at the golden hour. We know it is up for debate but the most beautiful of sunsets can be witnessed by the water, with laps of water hitting our feet and sand dunes under them. If your wedding location has a water body nearby, whether it is a sandy beach, a moody rock one, a lake, or a pond, make sure to take advantage of the water to capture memories to last a lifetime. 

Sandy desert: If you are planning a warm-weather desert wedding, let the silky sand dunes do all the talking for you. Desert sunsets are precious, with its vast open spaces and rough terrains, with the sun looking like butter melting into crepes! A wedding in the desert must feature a smoldering couple portrait in the dry tough terrain of the deserts. There are tons of possibilities in the desert and your wispy white wedding dress will be stunning against the sunset hues, we promise. If the desert of your choice is not particularly sandy and is rockier, it will still work wonderfully in your wedding pictures. If there is an abundance of cactuses, all the better.

Greenery: If you are more of nature's baby, getting married as you are surrounded by towering trees and lush greenery might be fitting! While the canopy of beautiful trees and the symphony of chirping birds set the stage for a perfect wedding, as the day comes to an end, the golden sunray will filter in through the overhanging branches and leaves overhead, creating a magical experience for you and your partner to soak in and your wedding photographer to capture. Sunset in enchanting woods, or in and around greenery can be an incredibly memorable experience, something that you will treasure for years to come. 

Ambient lighting: While the lighting in a sunset photo session is second to nothing, and is really nature’s gift to photographers, there are several other ways you can add secondary modes of lighting without taking away the magic of a beaming sunset. If you are in the tail end of a sunset photo session and are losing daylight slowly but surely, adding candles, lanterns or fairy lights to the mix can help the sunset rays bounce off in the most flattering way. Not only does it emit a totally whimsical vibe with the candles in the open outdoors, but it also takes your twilight session to a different level altogether, leaving behind a romantic feel-good vibe. 

Walking away into the horizon: There is something timelessly romantic about a couple walking into the horizon as the sun sets in the distance. It is a pictorial depiction of “happily-ever-after”, and hence, it is universally appealing. Any version of the couple in love walking away from the camera into the burning sunset shows how the couple is heading off into the promised happiness of their married life and is cinematic, dramatic, and eternally romantic. So if you are thinking of doing a sunset photoshoot at your wedding, don't miss this important addition. 

Centered sun: What is even a sunset photo session if there isn’t at least one picture featuring a centered sun. One of the most popular ways of incorporating a sunset in your sunset photographs is to position the subject against the setting sun in the center. There is something about a photograph with the beaming sun in the background and the couple posing against it which makes it a textbook sunset picture, and heartwarmingly romantic and classic at the same time. Not only does it pay an ode to symmetry, but also something about the composition of these pictures is cinematic and unfailing and works every single time. 

Mid-celebration: The sun is a mix of pinks and purples and oranges, the fairy lights are just turned on, and the celebration of your wedding reception is just coming alive. There is still light left to the day, and there is magic and love in the air. A wedding ceremony or wedding reception caught in the most poetic hours of that special day is sure to come out looking stunning. Whether it is a candid portrait of you and your partner exchanging a quiet moment amidst the blur, or of you swaying to your favorite tune, a mid-celebration picture in the sunset speaks volumes about the couple and ends up looking precious. So let your wedding photographer capture you and your partner in the middle of the activities, and you will love looking back at the moment stolen from the blur of the day. 

Silhouettes: Where there is light, there is the shadow, and what can be a more poetic interpretation of that than a silhouette shot of the couple against the setting sun and the burning sky! When you are at the end of your sunset photo sessions and the daylight is slipping away and the shadows are getting inkier by the minute, let your wedding photographer capture the dramatic play of light and dark in some stunning silhouette captures. It is a forever classic when it comes to wedding portraits and will look fresh and romantic, even after years roll away. While it doesn't fall squarely into sunset pictures, it is closely related to it, and looks just as stunning! 

City landmarks: Every city has monuments and iconic landmarks, however, with the addition of twilight sunlight, it takes on a different vibe altogether. If you are hosting a city wedding, adding the city’s famous landmarks washed in the soft light of sunset is something that can add tons of character to your city wedding. Whether it is New York City’s infamous Brooklyn Bridge or the Millennium Park in Chicago, each of their city attractions can add a burst of personality to your sunset pictures.

The Props and Quirks: It is the little details that make a sunset wedding portrait stand out among millions of others. It is about the added drama and the props which we bring to the mix which helps it be memorable. Wedding dresses with clean and classic lines, the long flowy veil which sways theatrically behind, etc. are just some of the ways. You can also add quaint wooden signs or balloons or water baubles to the mix to add more character to the session. After decades, it is the little additions and the unique quirks which will help it stay memorable. 

Destination made better: If you are running away with your sweetheart to a destination which you have been daydreaming about forever, capturing the destination’s cityscape in the soft dreamy sunset rays will only elevate your experience further, enabling you to look back at your exotic wedding destination for eons to come. Whether it is the glittering Eiffel Tower in the romantic Paris at sunset or the magical gorgeous sunset on a rooftop in Santorini, Greece, sunsets get a few times better when it is by your favorite person and in your favorite city. Let your professional wedding photographer capture the picture-perfect landscapes drunk in the sunset to capture timeless memories to cherish forever. 

Everybody loves sunsets and a couple of sunset photographs on a wedding day seem to be a given. Of course, you want to be photographed against the dramatic golden glow of a setting sun! Whether you are watching the sunlight warm up the shimmering water bodies around you or you are witnessing it reflect off of majestic snowy mountains, the sky in the sunset and the magic it weaves are hard to beat. It is a beautiful way to put an end to your perfect wedding day, it is timeless and forever romantic. The setting sun provides plenty of opportunities when it comes to getting the perfect shot, whether it is hazy romantic shots of you and your partner in a beautiful meadow or the perfect silhouette shots against the riotous sky. We hope this article helped you to explore the different ways you can experiment with nature’s most aesthetic lighting for photography- the sunset, and gave you some ideas!