Even though wedding portraits are posed... no one wants portraits that look posed. The more candid and authentic your portraits look the better.
Now there are tons of ways to ensure this... but just in case you have a photographer who doesn't know what he's doing, here's one of the main tips you can do.
I call it the NOSE X-FACTOR. So what is it? Imagine you have an imaginary line coming out of the tip of your nose and eyes. When posing with your fiance you always want those imaginary lines crossing making an X. Meaning you never want to look directly in the eyes of each other for the portrait. Why? It looks cheesy and fake. So Instead of having my couples look at each other in the eyes, I'll have one of them turn their chin slightly to the side and down, and drop their eyes down. This gives the portrait a more candid and authentic touch.
Notice how the imaginary lines do not cross and make an X. There is no "Nose X-Factor". The truth is couples don't actually do this which is why it makes the portraits "look" posed... but photographers make couples do this all the time. I did not take the cheesy photo! I took the nice one :)
The Nose X-Factor gives the portrait a sense of candid. As if I caught them in a real beautiful moment. Couple this with some intentional body posing and you get a captivating photo.
But what about posing the head, eyes, and hands? Stay tuned!