How to Prepare for your Engagement Session

Lets talk about engagement sessions. Personally, I love them! They are the perfect opportunity for us to get to know our couples! Typically our engagement sessions are about an hour or so, so we get so much time to chat and hangout. The good thing about engagement sessions is that is like practice for the wedding day! There is no pressure, this session is supposed to be fun and relaxed! On the wedding day, we may be a bit crunched for time, so this session allow us to take our time and just have fun, AND get you comfortable in front of the camera!

I always get a lot of questions about the engagement session. What to wear? When do we schedule it? Where should we go? I got you! Im going to outline a few things that should be considered when preparing for your engagement session!

WHAT DO I WEAR?

First and foremost, I always tell our couples to wear something they are comfortable in! And that may look different for everyone. If your clothes feel too loose or too tight, or make you self-conscious…forget about it! The better you FEEL at your session, the better you will look in photos! So make sure to choose an outfit that really suits you and your personal style! Depending on how long your session is, sometimes you may have the option to have more than one outfit! Its a good idea to have a couple different options for outfits. I recommend one casual and one dressy to give a bit of variety. However, if you have a shorter session, sticking to one outfit may be best.

WHEN TO SCHEDULE THE ENGAGEMENT SESSION

I recommend scheduling your engagement session 6-8 Months prior to your wedding. Typically that’s the time when save the dates go out, and most brides want to use their engagement session photos for their save the dates. This also allows for time in case you have to reschedule for some reason.

HOW TO PICK THE RIGHT LOCATION

One of the first questions I always ask our couples is, “Is there a specific place that holds importance for you guys” There may be a special place that you had your first date at, or a park you guys walk to all the time. I love being able to capture our couple in a place that means so much to them and their relationship! If there’s not a specific place, your photographer should have plenty of options for locations to choose from. Think about what type of vibe you want. Maybe you want more of a country vibe, or a city vibe. I really like to make sure our couples are picking locations that speak to them and their style. Also, dont be afraid to get creative! Maybe you really love ice cream, and you and your fiancé go on late night ice cream dates all the time! It would be so fun to start out at an ice cream parlor, and get some super fun photos! One of my favorite sessions was with one of our couples that love to spend time at home together and order pizza. So we did an in home engagement session, and they ordered their favorite pizza, and we got some amazing - intimate photos for them! Its all about making sure you are comfortable in your surroundings! So be sure to brainstorm ideas with your photographer, and get creative.

HOW TO PREP YOUR GROOM

One of the best ways we love to help our couples relax before a session, is to start out with a cocktail. ;) a little liquid courage if you know what I mean. lol We find that starting off in a way more relaxed setting with little instruction really helps take the edge of. HERE is an example of a session where we started off at a super cute cocktail bar before the session.

Another helpful thing you can do to prep your groom for your session is to pull up some blogs from your photographer and look through them together. This will give some sort of idea of what to expect.

The most important thing to know going into the session is that there is NO way you can mess up. There are ZERO expectations. The point is to have fun! Make sure to keep an open mind, and dont be too concerned with how you look. I KNOW…that’s crazy to say. But the more you go with the flow, and not focus on if you look weird, the more relaxed you will be and more fun you will have. Your photographer will not make you look bad, TRUST THEM! We make sure to get all the right angles, and capture all the realness and joy! I know sometimes engagement sessions can be intimidating, but my hopefully these tips can ease some of the worry.

We believe that the engagement session is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT parts of your wedding planning. You invest a pretty penny into your photographer, and this your chance to get to know them, and understand how they work. Other than your partner, there is one other person you will spend the entire day with, and that’s your photographer. We believe that the engagement session builds trust, and understanding. That is why our engagement sessions are totally FREE to all of our couples! If you would like to inquire with us, be sure to head over to our Inquiry page and send us an email! We would love to hear all about YOU and your wedding day!

Much love,

Veronica