Hi there, beautiful brides-to-be and welcome to another edition of Wedding Wednesday!! First of all, CONGRATS!!! SO EXCITING!!! Once you meet with your photographer and make the commitment to him/her or them, you have hopefully added something valuable to your package – the engagement session! We actually offer a complimentary engagement session in all of our packages because we feel like they are very important!! Of course, as photographers, you may think we’re just biased. However, we have been in your shoes as well, as a former bride and groom, so we have experience on both sides of the lens! We had an engagement session with our wedding photographers and we feel like it helped us in so many ways!! We know that some couples may think of foregoing the engagement session. You may not feel as though you have enough time, maybe your fiancé has no desire to be in front of the camera, or maybe you are out of town and feel it would be difficult, but we highly recommend that you try to take advantage of one since there are so many benefits!! Here are 5 reasons why an engagement session is SO helpful and necessary!
- You will be more comfortable in front of the camera and get the nerves out of the way
First of all, as we mentioned above, we ALWAYS include an engagement session in all of our wedding packages because we want to get to know you better and understand how you two interact with one another as a couple. Most people are shy in front of the camera, especially the men. It takes about 20 minutes to warm up to the camera 100%. However, after that personalities come alive!! How often do we have professional photos taken? Probably not often since selfies don’t count! It’s totally natural to have a feeling of awkwardness or uncertainty in the beginning! We always let the couple know a few things up front about what to expect in order to relax. Wedding days can be chaotic since you have a lot going on that day! You definitely do not want to have to worry about being uncomfortable in front of the camera. As mentioned, it takes about 20 minutes to warm up to a camera and on a wedding day, we don’t necessarily have 20 minutes to spare. Without the pressure of the wedding day timeline AND the nerves of your wedding, the engagement session allows everyone to just get super comfortable, know what to expect and be able to work quicker adding value to your experience in the long run. You’ll feel like models and know exactly how to rock it!! We can’t tell you how many of our brides-to-be have emailed or texted us saying that their fiancé was NOT excited at all for the engagement photos but that he had so much fun on the session!! YAY!!! If you would like to help prepare your fiancé for an engagement session, go through some of our images or engagement blog posts that are your favorites to give him an idea of what a session looks like with us. Then, since you two will already be dressed up, make it into a date and plan to do something
2. You get to dress up and go out on a fun date!!
You will be feeling good after your engagement session and look amazing, so why not turn it into a fun date night? From day 1, we always encourage our couples to spend quality time together! It should always be a priority! 🙂 With the hustle and bustle of life, sometimes that is hard, but it’s so important! Especially, since wedding planning can be overwhelming.
3. It can be a hair/makeup trial run
Most brides-to-be have a hair and makeup trial scheduled before the wedding to ensure that they have the perfect look for their day! Doing your trial with the engagement session is an awesome opportunity to see how their makeup and hairstyle will look on camera! Especially, makeup!! You will be able to see how it looks with your photographer’s style! If your makeup needs a little something, that is good to know before the makeup is done on your special day!
4. You will get to know us and we will get to know YOU!
What a perfect opportunity to spend time with your photographer! You will be around your photographer your entire wedding day! It is a win-win for both of you because not only will you receive beautiful images, your photographer will also get to know how you and your fiancé interact with one another. It’s so much better if you have met your photographer before your wedding day so that they have the benefit of knowing your story beforehand. When we know our clients, we can accurately capture their true personalities! Having a connection is a WIN!! We wouldn’t be able to produce emotional, powerful images unless we had this connection with our couples or time to get to know them! So, the engagement session is a MUST-DO!
5. Extra decor!!
Your engagement images can be great for decorating as well! They can serve as photos that will fill your home, spruce up your save-the-dates, or be on display at your ceremony and reception as well. 🙂 ANOTHER WIN!!!
We
If you enjoyed reading this post you may also LOVE these:
8 Tips to start planning your wedding
