Why an engagement session?

You’re engaged!! It’s a whirlwind, right?!? Whether you knew it was coming or not, the excitement once you are officially engaged is like none other! I remember my hand feeling weird for a while because it wasn’t used to wearing a ring all the time yet. And then there are all the phone calls to make and friends to meet up with to share the news! It is just magic, a core memory for sure!

How do you bottle up that core memory so you can come back to it through the years, and feel those freshly engaged feelings on repeat? You do an engagement session!

The engagement session can be such an important part of documenting your new life together. Let me explain!

1. An engagement session gives you better wedding images. Why? For your engagement session, it will be just the two of you (and me happily 3rd wheeling!) on a day where you have nothing else big planned. No other pressures. No time crunch. Your wedding day is going to be GREAT, but it will have other qualities like having everyone who is important to you being present, LOTS of big plans, and a very detailed timeline. Time will be of the essence. And if that is your first time in front of the camera as a couple by the time you settle in and get comfortable, we will just about be finished! BUT if you do an engagement session, you will already have reps in and experience having your photo taken. There won’t be nerves about that part of the day and you will have the muscle memory to fall back into being photographed easily on the wedding day in a way that is much harder to do without having had practice! More comfortable=better photos! When we look through your photos together, we also get a sense of what you like best in images of you as a couple and can keep those preferences in mind on wedding day. Again, leveling up those wedding images!

2. You get beautiful images of who you are on a “normal Tuesday”. Not to say that you won’t dress up and that you won’t look STUNNING in a way that a normal Tuesday would not require, but engagement photos are more “everyday” images of you, as opposed to wedding photos which will be literally the most fancy you will ever be in your whole life! Why does that matter? Because your relationship has been building over time in the everyday moments, and those deserve to be recognized and documented. And enjoying your engagement portraits in the years to come will bring up different memories than looking back at your wedding photos. Both super important, but different. I look back at my engagement portraits and besides giggling at how different we look now, I also talk about the proposal, how he picked out the ring, going to tell my best friends that we were engaged, and what it was like to shop for my dress. Those engagement portraits are what bring me back to those pre-wedding days!

3. Do you have pets? Sometimes pets get to come to the main event, and if they are coming to your wedding, know that I am HERE FOR IT!! But sometimes pets stay home on wedding day, and so we can include them in engagement portraits!! Pets are a part of the family, and they can add a special touch to your engagement photos. Dogs, cats, gekkos (haha! I had someone jokingly suggest that once!) –bring one, bring all!! If we have good notice, I can always bring an assistant to help keep the animal(s) happy while we do some shots just the two of you!

4. Creating family anchors. People don’t talk about this enough, but I believe it is a huge piece of the puzzle. You are getting married and the 2 of you are forming a family. You don’t need to have kids yet to be a family–the two of you are getting married and forming a family. (And if you end up having kids one day, or already do when you get married, that is great too!) To form long term collective memories that are part of your family narrative, your photos can’t only be digital. HEAR ME OUT!! 🙂 Online galleries get a lot of action in the first month or so after they are delivered, and then crickets. (For me too!) Images are backed up digitally and a few on your phone, but how often do you take a deep dive into your camera roll to enjoy your memories? (Yeah, me either) You need an anchor to those memories if you are going to remember them in 5, 10, 40 years. Something in your home, not on a screen, that you will organically look at regularly. That is your anchor. That is your timehop! This is why I include an heirloom album for your wedding photos after the wedding, and it is also why you have a studio credit for your engagement session. Whether it is wall art, an heirloom album, guest book album, or gallery boards to put around your home, we will create some anchors for you to remember this time.

5 . Make it personal. Your engagement session is a way to incorporate more of who you are as a couple into your images. Whether its doing a session at a place that is significant for you, or including an activity that you love doing together, or adventuring and exploring somewhere new–the sky is the limit with your engagement session. Let’s make some images that you will look back on and think–yes! That is just like us!!

And you know what the icing on the cake is?

We plan it together so you don’t have to do it all solo. You have enough on your plate! Are you on board, but still a touch overwhelmed at everything the session entails? I’ve got you! Once couples book with me, we decide the time frame they want to do their engagement session in and several weeks ahead of time we set up a time to plan everything out together so you don’t have to do any of it by yourself. What do we plan, you ask? We talk through locations, time, outfit option, outfit changes, general photo preferences, and how you see yourself enjoying the photos long term. You have enough going on–one phone call and we will be mostly good to go! And you can always text me outfit ideas and questions if that is helpful!

So, let’s embark on this exciting journey together! Your engagement session is more than just a photo shoot; it’s an experience that celebrates your love and sets the stage for your wedding day. I can’t wait to capture the magic of your engagement and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Think we might be a good fit? Please fill out the interest form and I would love to get to know you and your fiancé!