engagement

5 tips for planning your engagement session

First of all…. CONGRATULATIONS on your engagement! Now comes all of the wedding planning fun. Part of that process includes your engagement portrait session. This session is typically used to help announce your engagement to your friends and family as well as provide you with some great images for your home.

This is also a great time to begin working with your photographer. These sessions are a “dry run” of your wedding day. You will get to see how your photographer works and get comfortable in front of the camera before your wedding day. This will help make the wedding day photos go more smoothly and allow you to be comfortable working with your photographer and being in front of the camera.

We recommend that all couples take advantage of an engagement session.

But what should you do for your session? Read below 5 tips that we put together to help you plan your engagement portrait session.

Engagement Session on the beach in Tampa, Florida

TIP ONE: CHOOSING A LOCATION

The location is an important part of your engagement portrait session. It is going to be the base foundation for your portraits and everything will work off that location choice… your outfits… the posing.. etc.

There are a few options to consider when choosing a location.

Do you want a location that is meaningful to you? Sometimes this can be where you got engaged, where you took your first date and so on. Its a location that has a special meaning to you.

Do you want a location that is different? In the Tampa area, many couples use the same locations over and over again. Do you want to do that as well or do you want somewhere different that none of your friends have?

Are you willing to travel? Sure, its easy to choose a local location to do the engagement portraits, but destination sessions offer an unique opportunity to have an amazing experience with your fiancé. These sessions typically take place in a different city, state or even country. They provide an unique experience as its not just a drive down to the local park. The destination sessions can also help you create images that are unlike anything your friend have… whether its the mountains in Colorado, desert in Arizona or beaches in Hawaii… There are amazing landscapes and views everywhere you look.

Engagement portrait taken in Ocala at Sholom Park

TIP TWO: COORDINATE OUTFITS

You want to have outfits that coordinate with your fiancé. You do not want to match necessarily, like jeans and black shirts, but keep it in the same color family or complimentary colors. This can be a black button up shirt for guys and a red dress for the ladies.

Consider having a formal look and casual look for your session. This will allow for different images throughout your session.

TIP THREE: TIME OF DAY

Generally speaking, engagement portraits are best in the evening, particularly if you like the sunset look. However, trust your photographer. If they suggest a different time option, trust their opinion. They will have a vision for your session and the time of day is part of that. Expect to spend one to two hours with your photographer for the engagement portraits.

TIP FOUR: HAVE FUN

Dont forget to have fun during your session. Yes, wedding planning can be stressful and part of that planning is the engagement portrait session… but dont forget to enjoy yourself during the process. Your photographer will guide you through the session, so there is nothing to stress about any longer. Let them guide and plan the session so you can sit back and enjoy it.

Wall Portrait Sample

TIP FIVE: ORDER PORTRAITS FOR DISPLAY

Don’t just order the digital portraits and saving them to your computer. Order something for yourselves. This can be a portrait for the wall, an album or book, or some other print product your client offers. These can also be used on display at the wedding at an entry table or throughout the reception. We have never heard of anyone regretting ordering a portrait for the wall, but we have heard from several who regretted not doing it.

These images will be complimentary to your wedding portraits, so there is room to display them both.

We hope that this helps with your planning process and getting your engagement portraits scheduled with your photographer. If there is anything we can help you with during this process, please let us know!

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Ireland - Elopement and Engagement Portraits

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We are a US based photography company that specializes in Destination Portrait Experiences. We plan portrait trips to various locations and provide our clients with AMAZING portraits in some of the most beautiful places in the world. These trips are great for engagement portraits, wedding portraits, family pictures or elopements.

This will be one of two posts about this couple. I met Josh and Amber through a photography conference that I speak at. For years, we have been talking about taking a trip together. We finally made it happen and we went to Ireland. They later joined us on a trip to Italy for more fun portrait sessions.

This post is about our Ireland adventure. We spent a week touring the country and doing photoshoots. We did engagement portraits as well as wedding/elopment type portraits. We slept in a castle and did photoshoots at different castle ruins as well as the iconic locations of the Cliffs of Moher and Giants Causeway.

One thing about Ireland is there is beauty everywhere you look. We didnt have to go far before we saw old castle ruins or beautiful green fields. Ireland is a great place for your engagement, elopement or wedding portraits. These can be before your wedding takes place (as you see here) or even after your wedding for a post wedding session.

Enjoy what we created!

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Engagement Session Tips

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First of all, congratulations on your engagement! Its an exciting, and often stressful (planning), time leading up to your wedding day. This post is meant to help you check off one thing from your planning list… The Engagement Session.

Should we do an engagement session?

Yes… Absolutely. But why?

Engagement portraits are one of the things that are most neglected when it comes to planning for the wedding. Many people have busy schedules and trying to fit an engagement session into the chaos doesnt sound too exciting. Many people feel that they have plenty of portraits together and dont really need new ones taken. Many dont even know what to do with the portraits after they are taken, so dont really have a desire to do them. Some just do them out of “obligation” to do them. If you skip the engagement session, you are doing yourself a disservice. This is a very short period of your time together, take advantage of it and make the most of it.

The engagement session gives you a chance to work with your photographer before the wedding. That is a key to getting great wedding images. This will give you a chance to see how the photographer works, how they give direction, how they do posing, etc. Its important to get all the camera awkwardness out before the wedding day. Consider this a dry run. If there are angles or things you dont like, you can let the photographer know during this session, rather than letting them photograph the wedding and then telling them you dont like something. Its too late by then.

The session also gives you images to display throughout your home that will be different than wedding portraits. Its great to have diversity of the images displayed in your home. Its also a great way to document that part of your life for years down the road. Without the engagement session and with wedding portraits only, your family wont get a complete picture of who you are. Generally engagement portraits are more personality portraits in the sense it shows off things you like. For example, if you love the beach, your engagement portraits will likely be on the beach.

If you decide not to do these portraits, you are missing out on that experience. When was the last time you had portraits taken by a professional photographer? Most people havent had them done since high school.. and even fewer have had them with their now fiance. The engagement session gives you a chance to have an experience. These sessions consist of more than just showing up, snapping a few pictures, and going about your day. Most photographer provide a complete experience that you would be missing out on.

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Picking a Photographer

The first thing you want to do is find a photographer you love. Make sure you view the images on their websites and on social media. Dont be afraid to ask them to show you full sessions so you can see how they photograph an entire session. Almost all photographers can take 1 amazing portrait during a session, which is the image you see on the website, but can they be consistent throughout the entire session? Keep in mind that the person you hire for your engagement portraits is likely the same person that you will hire for your wedding, so be sure to look at their wedding images as well. Many photographers include engagement portraits with their wedding collections.

Picking a Location

The location is perhaps the most important part of the engagement session. There are so many location options out there, it often gets overwhelming to come up with one on your own. Talk with your photographer. Many times, they can help guide you to the perfection location.

But what makes a perfect location? Is it a beach? A city? Forests? Fields?.. Start with things you and your fiance like to do. Are you beach people? If not, then doing an engagement session on the beach makes little sense. Do you enjoy the outdoors? If so, then maybe a state park would be the ideal location. Do you like the water? Maybe a location with a lake or on a boat would be perfect. Do you like to travel? Think about going to another city/state/country for your portraits. Choose a location that helps tell your story of who you are as a couple.

One suggestion!! Avoid the wedding location. Why? Because you will have plenty of portraits from there on your wedding day. Try to find a location that is different than the wedding venue as it will give you images that are diverse to display throughout your home.

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Choosing Outfits

This is where its important to talk with your photographer. Tell them the vision you have in and they can offer outfit suggestions. Are you doing a single outfit or multiple outfits? Multiple outfits will provide you with different looks throughout the session and is a great idea if you are using the images in something like a guest book. Also, be mindful of the location. Choose outfits that make sense for the location(s) you choose.

Think About What You Want to Order

Most couples have no clue what they want from their engagement session, but think about it before you determine your location and outfit. This will help give the photographer and idea on your thoughts. If you want save the date cards/magnets/etc, then there are certain images that are photographed for that… If you are wanting a guest book, there would be at least 10-20 portraits that the photographer would put in there. Those are 10-20 different poses.. in different locations.. with different lighting.. that will need to be photographed. This helps the photographer plan the session. If you want a large portrait for the wall, the photographer needs to shoot for that. Generally speaking, a close up portrait doesnt look good as a 30x40 on a wall, whereas, they look great as an 8x10. So the photographer would need to photograph for that 30x40. Thats not to say they wont do that anyway, but giving the photographer an idea on what you are wanting to get out of the session, will help them plan your session accordingly.

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In closing, the engagement session should be a priority and not something left on the back burner while you plan your wedding. Enjoy that time that you have together before your wedding because it will fly by. And who doesnt love to dress up a bit? Take advantage of that and go out to dinner afterwards :D

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Denver Engagement Session | Michelle and Todd

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A couple of months ago, I met Michelle and Todd in Denver and did an engagement session for them. Being a photographer from Florida, I get tired of the beach and other scenery that Florida offers. I have always wanted to do a session in the mountains and snow, so off to the mountains I went.

I may be the most unlucky photographer when it comes to travel sessions. Leading up to this session, the weather was in the 70s and 80s for weeks. The day that I arrive it drops to 30 and snows 5 inches. While the snow was welcomed, the cold that accompanied it, not so much. Its pretty difficult to smile and look happy when its pretty cold outside. I was perfectly warm under my jacket, but I cant say the same for Michelle and Todd when they took theirs off for the pictures. I applaud them for being troopers and pushing through when they probably didnt really want to be taking pictures... But we got some awesome images!! :)


Something that is unique about our photography services is that we have the ability to travel for sessions with our clients. This allows us to provide unique images to our clients that arent really possible when we stick to local locations. If you are planning a trip somewhere, let us know before you go and we can possibly join you for a session :)
 

Makayla and Anthony Engagement Session | Brooksville Wedding Photographer

We met Makayla and Anthony at a friend's farm in Brooksville, Florida for their engagement session. It was a beautiful day and an amazing location. Our style of wedding photography and approach to engagement portraits fit this location perfectly. As wedding photographers in Brooksville, we photography many weddings and engagement session on farms and similar locations. This place was unique and created an amazing backdrop for this engagement session.

Enjoy the pictures!! :)

Looking for a wedding photographer in Brooksville? Contact us for more information on how we can create amazing images for you.