Wedding Tips

5 reasons you should book an engagement session

Five Reasons You Should Book an Engagement Session

Congratulations on your engagement! Planning for your elopement/wedding will be one of your best and busiest seasons of life. Whether you are hoping for an intimate destination elopement or a large traditional wedding, be sure to celebrate this very moment. Engagements are the stepping stone to the wedding. Literally when couples announce their engagement, people say, “When are you getting married”? Please don’t be in such a rush that you forget to embrace and celebrate this wonderful moment.

Here are five reasons you should book an engagement session.

Get comfortable in front of the camera –

An engagement session is great for creating opportunity for you to become comfortable in front of the camera before your wedding day. Chances are, you have never had professional photos taken before. Apart from the stiff and solo senior graduation photos, you have probably not had a professional photoshoot. Believe me, they are nothing like what you experienced in school. My goal is to help you feel confident and at ease. Let your guard down and be your natural authentic self.

Cameras can often bring out the awkwardness in each of us but that is why planning the engagement session is so helpful. Put aside all fears of being in the limelight and enjoy each other and the destination. Move around freely, loving each other with an embrace, dance, walk hand in hand, whatever you would normally do. Enjoy the moment and I will capture it! Feedback I receive from engagement couple sessions are that it was a great adventure, lots of fun, worthwhile preparation and easier than expected.

Quality time with your partner –

Wedding season is so busy, and it can be hard to find space for each other in the midst of all the planning. Booking an engagement session gives you intentional space to put away the phones, push away your anxious mind, and focus on why you’re actually getting married. You love this person and want to spend your life with them. Good news is that when you organize a destination engagement session you can choose a peaceful getaway location.

Quality time with your partner in a beautiful location will bring a sense of calm and automatically help you to breathe easy. Together is the essence of this blissful time in your lives, remember to take time to just be. Sharing a special moment away from the demands of life in an engagement photoshoot, I guarantee will help you. All you have to do is just casually hang out with your partner and I will be there in the background capturing your love story. Couldn’t be easier!

Get to know your photographer –

Yes, this is more important than you think, knowing your photographer and your photographer knowing you. Although it is not the be-all and end-all it can be a game changer. Getting photos taken is awkward enough but imagine having to figure out the how when you’ve JUST met your photographer. The engagement session opens up face to face conversations that help me to understand you both better.

When you see the photos, you may decide on some angles that you don’t like and want me to avoid, or certain shots you want more of. Taking this time before the wedding allows us to get know each other. I’ll get to learn your personalities and what works best in front of the camera. You’ll develop a good relationship with and confidence in me and my work. Win, Win!

Explore a beautiful location –

Engagement sessions can happen in any location you choose – so let’s go all out and have fun with it! We’ll find a destination that you find particularly beautiful or a location that has special significance to you both. We can ensure we take a couple of hours to explore it and capture beautiful images of your love in the middle of a beautiful space. Some locations have several different landscapes which means you can be photographed by the beach, on rock formations and in the meadows. For example, Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park in Oregon.

Also, choosing a beautiful location during a different season to your wedding day is an added bonus. How lovely this will be to add some nice diversity in the stunning scenery, seasonal colors, and vibe for your home. Images of your engagement session experience in the woodland forest during Fall. Portraits of a multi-day wedding experience in Yosemite National Park during springtime, with snow-capped mountains and wildflower valleys.

Professional photos of you and your love –

Now I know without a shadow of a doubt that bridal couples are planning to have a professional photographer for their elopement/wedding. Of course, you want to capture the full marriage experience and grace the walls of your home with wonderful memories. A question for you. Are these going to be the only professional portraits in your home? Because they are in many people’s homes.

It is beginning to change; couples are making time to document their special moments in more intentional ways. Selfies just don’t quite give the same finesse to a blank wall as a destination engagement portrait session do. Your best friend, the person closest to you, and the person who knows you best, that’s the love story to be seen. These sessions allow you to show off your relationship, your unique personalities, and styles, and document this season of your life on camera to remember forever. Also, you can use your engagement images in so many different ways including personalized save-the-date and wedding invites.

Engagement Session Photography Packages

If you would like to connect with me and ask any questions to help you decide on an engagement session, please click this link. Happy to chat with you!

Engagement Session Photo Inspiration

This outdoor engagement session with Josie + Nate is great inspiration for your planning including outfit inspiration, outdoor location ideas/settings and posing inspiration.