Weddingbee Blog

I did a lot of research when trying to pick out places to take engagement photos. I went back to all potential photographer websites and combed through their engagement sessions. I asked all of our friends who were married and had taken photos already. It was overwhelming. You only have a few hours with your photographer so you want to make it count! So, here’s how we planned our engagement photo session. It turned out to take a lot more preparation than I thought.

Mr. L and I first talked about what we did NOT want for our engagement photos. We did not want to wear khakis and white shirts and take pictures on the beach. Okay, so that’s really the only thing we didn’t want.

Then we talked about what we DID want.

1. We wanted interesting backgrounds. We’re not terribly photogenic people so we thought that if the backgrounds were interesting, it might take some of the attention off of us.
2. We wanted to use some of our photos at our wedding, for our guestbook (possibly) and on our website.
3. We wanted our clothes, style and location to reflect our styles. On the one hand, we’re young, casual and stylin’ and on the other, we’re refined and sophisticated.

So my suggestions are:

1. Look high and low for locations that reflect your personal style. Check with your photographer. Ours agreed to go to three locations with us because one of them was a place she’d never shot at. Unfortunately, because of traffic, we could only get to two (we ran out of sunlight!).
2. Bring at least one change of clothes so you have some variety in your photos. We chose a more relaxed outfit and a more formal one.
3. Know what you want from your hair and makeup artist. Do you want your photos to be more formal or more relaxed? Hair up or hair down? I wanted to look like myself, but I was okay with something a little different. So, I knew I wanted my hair down and curled, but when I asked the hair stylist for her ideas, she suggested that I pin my hair back. I usually hide behind my bangs, but I ended up loving her idea.
4. Bring props! We didn’t because we couldn’t think of props. Popular props in engagement photos are books, balloons, umbrellas, briefcases and dogs, but (in retrospect) I’d bring an ornamental mirror, Wellies, presents and a Christmas tree (for winter photos). If I lived where it snowed, I’d do a shovel, gear for making a snowman and a wreath!
5. Do the legwork. Make sure you know where you’re going and what traffic will be like. We tried to save a bit of time by having our photographer meet us and taking one car.

Good luck with your engagement photos!