Why Consider a Destination Engagement Session?

You are engaged!! Now it is time to start planning your engagement portrait session. But where do you do these portraits? Do you take them at the beautiful park close to your town? Do you take them at a location that is special to you and your fiancé? Do you go to the beach? A theme park? Some other place your photographer suggests? The location of your wedding?

None of those are wrong answers. They are all valid locations to use for your engagement portraits. But what if there was someplace you didnt think about? What if there were some amazing locations that you didnt know about? This is where destination engagement portraits come into play.

The idea behind the engagement session isnt only to provide you with some pretty images of you and your fiancé as a couple to display at the wedding and throughout your home. It isnt only to get to know the photographer a bit more. The engagement session is more than all of that. Yes, those reasons are important and reasons to take engagement portraits, but the real reason that you do them is the experience it creates with your fiancé.

Destination sessions help create an amazing experience for you as a couple. You get to get away for a bit. You get to explore new locations. You get to enjoy each other’s company… AND you get images NONE of your friends will have. All of that creates an experience you will never forget. Let’s be real. That session at the local park, while it produces great pictures, it doesnt really have meaning attached to it. You met your photographer at the park. There really isnt much of an experience created from it, so in 20 years, you will likely forget most of the session.

But if you travel somewhere for your portraits, spend a day or two (or a week) exploring that location, getting away from the busy lives that we all live…. then that session will mean something to you later on. I have no met a couple who has not remembered every aspect of their trip with us, whether that was flying to Minnesota in February to get some portraits in the snow or flying to Ireland to explore castles.

Destination sessions offer an unique opportunity to have an amazing experience. Perhaps you should consider traveling for your engagement portrait session and getting portraits which you will cherish forever.

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.

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.

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!