Amsterdam Honeymoon Photoshoot

A wedding dress on a canal bridge draws smiles, the odd cheer from a passing boat and plenty of bicycle bells. Most couples enjoy that; a few find it distracting, which is the main reason to choose an early slot.

• Change at your hotel. There is nowhere sensible to change on the street, so start or finish the session within walking distance of your room. Many canal-belt hotels are a few minutes from a bridge that works.
• Pick flat, quiet streets for long trains. The Brouwersgracht and the small canals of the western Jordaan are flat and calm early in the day. The arched bridges on the Reguliersgracht suit shorter frames rather than a long walk in a train.
• Cobbles mark hems. A clip or bustle, and a dark towel for sitting on a step or quay edge, save a lot of worry.
• Stay out of the red lanes. Cycle paths run along most canals. A train spread across one is a hazard for you and for the cyclists.
• Expect wind on the Amstel. Veils fly on the open water by the Magere Brug, which looks lovely in one frame and is hard work for twenty minutes.

A popular split is half the session in wedding clothes near the hotel, a quick change, then a second half in the outfits you are actually travelling in.

Honeymoon itineraries are tight, and the first day is usually lost to trains, check-in and sleep. Book for day two or three, and keep a second possible slot free in case of rain.

Choose the area by where you are staying rather than by a landmark across town:

Jet lag decides the time of day more than you might expect. Couples flying in from Asia often wake early anyway, which makes a sunrise slot easy. From the Americas, an evening session usually suits the body clock better.

Want the windmills or the tulip fields too? Those are separate sessions with travel time: see windmill photos at Zaandam or, in April, the tulip field photoshoot.

Most honeymoons land between May and September, when Amsterdam's evenings are long. In June, sunset is close to 22:00, so you can have dinner first and meet the photographer around 20:30. Summer days are also the busiest on the famous bridges, which is the case for a weekday sunrise instead.

Autumn honeymooners get yellow canal elms from late October into mid-November and sunrise at a civilised hour. In winter the sun sets around 16:30, the Magere Brug is lit by about 17:00, and a short session that runs from low afternoon sun into blue hour gives two looks in one hour.

Two dates to plan around: King's Day on 27 April, when the canals become a party, and the Pride canal parade weekend in early August. Both are great to see and difficult to photograph quietly. Our guide to the best time for a photoshoot in Amsterdam goes month by month.

Amsterdam rain mostly arrives as showers. Photographers watch the radar and will often move the start by half an hour or an hour rather than cancel. If it is properly wet, the vaulted passage under the Rijksmuseum (a busy cycle route, so poses are short) and a café interior, with the owner's permission, keep the session going. A clear umbrella photographs far better than a black one.

Because a honeymoon stay is short, ask how rescheduling works when you accept the quote and give the photographer a second slot if you have one.

The usual local courtesies apply: front steps and houseboats belong to residents, drones are not part of a city session because of Schiphol's airspace, and an ordinary handheld session does not need a permit. If you plan something bigger, such as a florist's set-up on a bridge, the photographer checks with the municipality first.