Getting Your Cute Selves in Front of the Camera: Four Reasons for an Engagement Session

You’re freshly engaged (congratulations!) and find yourselves in that magic spot of imagining, anticipating and planning your wedding day.  This is such a special time in your relationship and we adore how an engagement session captures all the excitement of these fleeting moments. But more than that, it can prepare you for your wedding day in multiple ways.  Not sure if you really need that engagement session?  Consider these four advantages.

Let’s Get Acquainted

It seems simple, but one thing we love about an engagement session is just getting to spend some time with the couple.  Wedding photographers have a pretty unique role; unlike other vendors, we’ll be sticking close to you through most of your wedding.  We’re experts at folding into your family and friends and being discreet as needed, but we’ll still be spending eight to 10 hours of the day with you. Getting acquainted at the engagement session before your wedding will make us someone you’re already familiar and friendly with; that level of comfort should help you relax and make those wedding photos a breeze.

Build That Confidence

The camera loves you (really!)…but you’re not so sure you love the camera.  We get it!  Some couples feel a little anxious when a lens is pointed at them.  An engagement session is a great way for us to ease any fears that you might not be photogenic.  “I don’t know what to do with my hands!”  We can help…we know how to pose you in the most flattering ways.  We promise it’ll be easy and we promise the photos will be a gorgeous expression of you as a couple.  After a positive engagement session, we know you’ll be feeling so confident about how your wedding photos will turn out.

Let’s Practice

We are certainly capable of jumping into our role on your wedding day without photographing you beforehand, but it’s helpful for us to use your engagement session as something like a practice run.  Every couple is different; as photographers, we’re always mindful of a couple’s unique personalities and style.  Interacting with you at your engagement session will give us a good idea of how to best capture the two of you (and how much you adore each other!).  Some examples of things we can glean from an engagement session are if one of you has a preferred “good side” that you’d like us to favor, what your couple chemistry is like (calm? silly? affectionate?), what poses are most flattering and comfortable for you, and what fun tricks we can use to get you to smile your most authentic smiles.

The engagement session is great practice for you, too, to let go of any camera shyness and embrace being the focus of attention.  And you’ll be learning how we as your photographers function, like the pace at which we work and what types of directions we’ll give you.  It’s all great preparation for when we get to take your wedding day portraits.

Put Those Photos to Good Use

This is the most obvious and perhaps the best reason to have an engagement session: the pictures! After your session, you have stunning professional photos to keep and cherish.  They come in handy for personalizing your save-the-dates or invitations.  We love seeing couples incorporate them into their wedding decor, displayed on the gift or guestbook table.  You can order a little album of your photos that can be used as a guestbook – this is such a sweet way to make it your own!  After the wedding, that personalized guestbook is something lovely and meaningful that you can keep out on your coffee table.

Let’s Get Together!

We make our engagement sessions easy and fun for couples, almost like the two of you are just enjoying each other’s company and we’re tagging along to catch the cuteness.  It could be a stroll downtown, a sun-drenched walk in the park, a special stop like sharing a cupcake at your favorite bakery. We strive to make these photos an expression of you and your love for each other.  We know you’ll treasure them.  And more than that, you’ll walk away from the experience feeling comfortable around us as your photographers, feeling super prepared for your wedding day photos, and with renewed confidence that you really do look amazing when you step in front of the camera.