How to prepare for your engagement session
Your engagement session is coming up and you’re not sure what to wear, what your fiance should wear, how your hair should look, and what you should do for makeup. Well, in all honesty, you can do whatever you want because that’s the joy of an engagement session, we just want your personalities to shine through! However, if you’re racking your mind and just can’t think of what to do, we want to give some helpful ideas and also some tips and tricks that will elevate your engagement session to be the best that it can possibly be! (Woo-hoo!)
What are the goals of our engagement sessions?
- First and foremost, we want you to have fun! Now, I know you might be going into it with some nerves, (and that’s totally normal) but we work to break that barrier right away so we can get right to creating authentic moments. We want you by the end saying, “that was awesome!”
- To get to know each other, to us, you aren’t just “clients”, you’re our friends (and hopefully we are more than just your photographers). We got into this business because we are passionate about love stories! Engagement sessions are the greatest opportunity to get to see that love stories in action, and go deeper than our first meeting and emails! On top of that, you get to know US, corny jokes and all! Plus once we work together during the engagement session, your wedding photography will seem like a “piece of *wedding* cake” (cue corny joke).
- Overall we want to create beautiful images that you can look at and say, “wow, that is SO us!” Your relationship is unique, and we want you, and your special love for each other to shine through in your photos. We want you to be able to share these photos with your future children, and then their children! That’s what this is all about- love, memories, and family.
How to pick a location?
- Your engagement photos should take place at a location that is meaningful to you! You might be scratching your head, shouldn’t it just pick a beautiful spot? The truth is, it could be anywhere, and as long as it holds a place in your heart, you will love the photos even more than a pretty place you’ve never been! Maybe the location of the proposal, maybe a favorite place to go, maybe where you had your first date, or where you first met!
- It should be a place you feel at full liberty to express affection and emotion. Make sure you are comfortable enough to share a smooch or practice your first dance! We want to see LOVE baby!!!
When to schedule?
- First, choose your favorite season, are you more of a bundle up and throw snowballs, or sundresses and shades type of couple? We can schedule engagement sessions any time of year.! (yay!)
- We can do them any time of year Mondays through Thursdays during the evening. We try to schedule our shoots towards the end of the day because it allows for the best light. (give us that glowing goodness!)
- The sooner the better, make sure you let us know at least a month out so we can schedule you in and if you are planning on sending save the dates, make sure that you plan the session for 8 months to a year in advance before the wedding.
What should I bring?
- You don’t have to bring anything, but if you have a shared hobby or a favorite object, you can feel free to bring it to incorporate into your photos. Ex: Guitar, bike, comic books, candy. Anything that lets your personalities shine though is good in our book!
- If you have a fur-baby, there is NO way we are letting you miss out on letting us photograph them! (aka, we want to meet your pets!) We are HUGE animal lovers, and we know most of the time they cant come to the wedding, so this is the PRIME TIME for photos with those cuties!
Logo/patterns/colors
If possible avoid logos, patterns, and neon colors because they can distract from your faces. Also in the same idea try to avoid style trends or fads because over time you will find yourself asking why the heck you wanted to wear Genco jeans and jelly shoes. Aim to be timeless instead of “stylish”. Colors that will never do you wrong are classic neutral tones White, black, gray, tan, Browns. (A pop of color won’t hurt, just be sure its a color you love and won’t clash against your partner.)
Complementary Outfits
Which brings us to our next point. Complimenting outfits. – , make a point to work together with your outfits, say your partner is wearing plaid, then you should stick to something solid. Maybe you really want to wear that floral dress, then give your partner a heads up that stripes in a sweater wouldn’t be a good idea. It can also be nice to incorporate colors in the same shade throughout both outfits. So for instance, if there is purple in the flowers in the pattern of your shirt maybe your partner could wear a purple necklace or tie. One thing to note is matching, although fun for a costume party might not look so great for your engagement session.
Accessorize
Feel free to accessorize and layer (especially if it’s a colder season). This can give more options to add variety to your photos. A scarf, statement jewelry, fun that can give a little more variety to one outfit without having to change entirely. Working with textures like lace, fur, leather can also bring a fun element to your photos as well!
Outfit Change
Speaking of changing outfits, we always suggest one outfit change for every engagement session. One classic “everyday outfit”, as well as one formal outfit, is the go-to! We don’t want you to waste time changing when the sun is peeping through the clouds so perfectly, that why just one change is enough!
Know your Body
Everyone has insecurities, but we want these photos to make you feel the best that you possibly can. It also goes the same for things you love about yourself. So say you don’t love your arms but your legs make you feel amazing. Avoid that strapless top and maybe go for a skirt instead. We are all for owning yourself and body positivity, but we don’t want you looking back at these photos and only seeing what you hate. – it goes back to wear what you feel comfortable in because if you feel good, you will look good!
Dress for the season
This should go without saying but we let you choose your season for a reason. If you want your photos done in the summer you know what the heat will feel like, so dress accordingly, and if you have a really cute jacket you wanted to wear, it probably won’t be worth it if you start sweating your makeup off. And as far as these upstate winters go, just wear your cutest pea coat and layer layer layer! Stripping off a coat for every photo is not practical, plus non-jacketed couples in the snow outside just doesn’t make sense….right?!
Hair and Makeup
The engagement session can be the best time for a bride to go for her hair and makeup trial. Not only will this give her an idea of how they will photograph, but also hair and makeup is always a confidence boost, right ladies
When hair and makeup is done professionally it can also help it last longer, help with flyaways in hair, and help with keeping the skin looking a little softer.
Also keep in mind your hair and makeup should be on track with your natural beauty so if your makeup artist is suggesting a bold pink lip maybe try to avoid that, and go for something that you would wear every day. However, if you wanted to mix it up at the end of the shoot and throw on a red lip (those are my favorites) I would never get mad at that!
Above all Else, Be Yourself
These photos are for you! These are the photos that you will have to freeze frame your life and portray who you are, and were in the past when you look back on these photos in the future. So if you aren’t the kind of person who would wear something brighten freely or dark and edgy then don’t decide your engagement photos will be the time that you try something new style-wise. And with that in mind, it’s also important to note that you will feel the most comfortable in clothing or hair and makeup that make you feel like yourself.