When booking a wedding photographer, you may be wondering… Do I need engagement photos? We often hear things like:
“My friend already took a few photos of us when we got engaged. Do we really need more?”
The answer is YES! We actually believe that having your engagement photos taken is the number one way to ensure you have a fun and stress-free wedding day!
Here are our top three reasons you need engagement photos!
1. Engagement photos will get you comfortable in front of the camera.
None of our clients are professional models. While many people have found their “good side,” very few know how to pose perfectly! Like, what do you do with your hands??
We’ll let you in on a little secret: the first few minutes of a photo session are always a teeny bit awkward. It just doesn’t feel natural to stand in a field with a photographer capturing every adorable second of your PDA!
We’ve actually have had professional photos taken of us more than ten times, and we always still get those nervous butterflies at the start!
But the good news is, about 20 minutes in, something magical happens.
You begin to forget about your hands, your hair, and even the camera. You loosen up and start having fun together!
A professional photographer is there to take care of you. We’ll tell you where to look and what to do with your hands, and we will make sure to choose poses that are flattering for you and your fiancé(e)!
We’ll teach you some basic poses that will start to feel natural the more you do them, and on your wedding day, you’ll be able to pose even more quickly and comfortably, even if we only have a short time for your portraits!
We’ll also crack jokes to get you laughing, and find ways to get you two to really connect with one another!
This is the difference between you looking stiff and stressed in your photos, wearing your tight “camera-smiles”…
And you looking relaxed and comfortable in photos filled with genuine laughter and natural smiles!
2. Engagement photos will get you comfortable with your wedding photographer.
There is one person who will be with you more than anyone else on your wedding day… And no, it’s not your partner!
It’s your photographer! Your photographer will be there with you from getting ready allllll the way until dancing at the end of the night!
They’ll be there to capture your tears and your laughter the whole way through the day…
But only if you feel comfortable enough expressing those emotions with your wedding photographer present!
Trusting your photographer like that comes from spending time with them while taking your engagement photos. This is your chance to get to know each other in a stress-free environment before the wedding day!
And it also helps your photographer get to know YOU in a way that will positively impact your wedding photos!
They’ll get to see how you interact with one another, learn what makes you two laugh, and what poses you look and feel most comfortable in!
When you’re on a time crunch on your wedding day, all of this will make a huge difference in whether you look stiff and uncomfortable or relaxed and natural in your wedding photos!
3. Your engagement photo session is a dedicated time to celebrate and connect with your fiancé(e)!
This is our favorite reason! The wedding planning process can be really stressful. Budgeting, booking vendors, choosing dates and guest lists that will please both sides of the family… And balancing all of that with your regular life!
Sometimes this means date nights get consumed by wedding talk rather than simply enjoying each others’ company!
So having a couple of hours set aside to just snuggle and laugh with your fiancé(e) can be such a breath of fresh air!
We do everything we can to make our engagement sessions feel more like a fun double date than a photoshoot, and to put the focus on getting you two to connect with each other!
In fact, we once even had a couple tell us:
“These engagement photos were like couples therapy! We were fighting in the car on the way over, but you found a way to make us have fun and feel more in love with each other!”
Bonus reasons you should do an engagement session:
- Your engagement shoot is like a trial run for your wedding photos… So it’s also the perfect time to do a trial of your hair and makeup as well!
- You can use engagement photos in SO many different ways, like for your save the dates!
- You can use your engagement photos to show off your personalities! Incorporate locations, props, or activities you love as a couple that you may not have time to include on your wedding day!
Check out our post on 7 ways to use engagement photos once you have them!
And if you’re dreaming of wedding and engagement photos that feel comfortable and show off your personalities as a couple (and maybe even go for ice cream afterwards!), we’re your people! Get in touch here to book your engagement shoot!
September 10, 2020
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