Whether you are recently engaged, have been engaged for years, or not yet engaged, an engagement photo session takes the same format. We will choose a nice outdoor photography location and we will spend around an hour taking photos of you and your partner. We will teach you how to look good in front of the camera and also give posing tips and tricks that may be helpful.
#1 – Get used to the Camera
The engagement photography session allows couples like you a trial-run at how it feels to be together in front of a camera. Even if you are used to having your photo taken on your own, having your photo taken as a couple is an entirely different experience.
To get the most natural photos possible during an engagement photoshoot, we encourage couples to be comfortable with each other. This usually involves getting in nice and close and trying your best to imagine we are not there, and it’s just you and your partner. We appreciate this isn’t an easy thing to do at first, but slowly you will get used to the camera, and start to forget it’s even there.
It’s from this moment on that the photos really start looking natural and we can capture some genuine moments of emotion that happen without any prompting whatsoever. The pre-wedding photography session allows you this opportunity to become more comfortable in front of the camera as a couple before your wedding day. And by the time of your wedding day, you’ll be ten times more relaxed around us and the camera and know exactly what to expect on your wedding day!
#2 – Know what to expect
Whilst the majority of our wedding photography coverage is candid and hands-off, the ‘getting ready’ portraits are a little different.
For this short portion of the day, we will get more involved, giving direction on things like location, posing, and lighting. This will ensure you get the best variety of photos in as short a period of time as possible. We are aware that your wedding day should be to enjoy with your friends and family, and not a long photoshoot that keeps you away from them. We won’t rush through your getting ready photos, but it won’t drag on either. With the engagement shoot, on the other hand, time is on our side, so we can really slow things down if necessary to give you a chance to relax.
By taking part in an engagement shoot, you’ll know what to expect from us as your wedding photographers. This also means you won’t be as surprised to see us laying down on the ground or climbing through the bushes to get the best shot and you will understand why we wear flat shoes!
#3 – Get to Know what you like
If you’ve already had an engagement photography shoot with us, you’ll know what to expect during the bridal photo session on your wedding day. You’ll know how we operate as a wedding photographer and perhaps most importantly, what looks and feels good for you.
Following the engagement photoshoot, you’ll have an opportunity to let us know which photos you really liked. Maybe there’s a pose of you both that you loved, or maybe a background element you liked, or even a style of lighting. This can make the photos on your wedding day even better since we’ll already know the style of photography that makes you look and feel your best. The engagement session allows you to see how photos of you and your partner look, and you can decide what kind of photo you’d like to have more of.
#4 – Get More photos!
The pre-wedding photoshoot is another opportunity to have awesome photos of you and your partner in a completely different setting. You’ll be in your favourite clothes (as opposed to wedding attire), able to do things you wouldn’t be able to do in a delicate dress or suit. Being in more comfortable clothes will also change the mood of the photography also. Having pre-wedding photos is a nice reminder of how you were before your wedding before you were married. Sure, it may only be a matter of weeks or months, and you may feel the same now, but nevertheless, having this contrast in photos adds to your whole family photo collection.
We always try and make sure to include something a little less focused on you and more on the landscape, or a silhouette perhaps – these make great photos to enlarge as canvases for your wall at home. It’s nice to have a set of photos that captures who you are as a couple away from the wedding day. The engagement shoot is a perfect excuse for this.
#5 – Prepare Wedding Details
The photos you receive from your engagement photography session are perfect to be used as elements in your wedding styling.
Couples in the past have used their engagement photos on save-the-date cards, welcome boards, gift boxes, thank you cards, invitations, or guest books.
Slideshows are getting more and more common for wedding speeches, so it’s often a nice touch to use photos from your engagement photoshoot in there too as a most recent example of you both as a couple.
#6 – Have Fun!
The engagement photography session is about capturing who you are as a couple, and usually, this means having a lot of fun. The photos will capture how happy you make each other.
You may also find that engagement shoots rekindle the flame in your relationship. In our busy daily lives, we often forget to slow everything down and just hold our loved ones.
