You’re planning your engagement shoot? Yay! While an engagement session should be a ton of fun, and a bonding time for you and your partner, it can sometimes make you feel nervous. That’s totally fine! Most of my couples feel a bit nervous when they step in front of the camera, but I’m here to help you feel super comfortable for your engagement shoot. In fact, all of my clients end up loving their engagement shoot and having an absolute blast! Want to know my secrets to getting my couples comfortable in front of the camera? It’s all in the planning!
Make a Pinterest Board for Inspo
There’s no right or wrong way for your engagement photos to look. What’s important is that your photos reflect who you both are, and who you are as a couple. After all, you’ll probably use your engagement photos on your save-the-dates, your wedding invites, and even your social media! The best way to start finding your engagement shoot style is to head to Pinterest. Make a Pinterest board with any engagement shoots that catch your eye. Then, share the board with your photographer to see if they feel comfortable with your style. This is key, because we all have different photography styles, and we want you to love the end result! A photographer will let you know if they don’t think your styles mesh, and you can find someone that can get you your dream photos!
.png)
Bring Reference Photos
Another thing to look for on Pinterest (and Instagram and TikTok) is certain poses that you’ll want to recreate. While your photographer will have a ton of engagement photo pose ideas already and might actually have already taken the poses at your session, it will still be okay to show them the photos towards the end of the session to ensure you got a certain pose (or few). And please, please, please bring reference photos to do so! It can be really hard to describe a pose, and then how to translate that pose into my camera frame, without having reference photos! You can just screenshot any that you love, and keep them in a folder on your phone until the shoot day! A warning: Us photographers can’t recreate a whole photo. Even one we took ourselves. So much goes into a photo (lighting, weather, outfits, etc.). The reference photo is purely for a pose you may want.
Plan your outfit in advance
Oh, the age-old question of what to wear! I’ve seen couples go so many different ways with this, so again, there’s no right or wrong way to dress for your engagement shoot. There are a few things that might influence your outfit options, like the weather, the setting (outdoor or indoor), and the time of day. Try to stick to a neutral color palette, and keep both of your outfit colors similar without being too matchy-matchy. Honestly, I love Amazon Prime’s Personal Shopper feature for this sort of thing, because they’ll send you a few options and you can try everything on at home! Then, return what you don’t like and keep the rest. It removes the hassle of going to the store and spending hours scanning the racks!
Bring some props
While props make it sound like we’re going to be putting on some play, I love when couples bring additional things for their engagement sessions! Whether that means you’re bringing a blanket and picnic basket, for a cute picnic-themed engagement, or a few bottles of champagne to spray each other with, I always say the more props the better! Have a family pet? Bring them along too! Props add another level of personalization to the session, and helps your photographer get to know you both a bit better. Just do us a favor, if you’re bringing an animal, give us a heads up and maybe bring an animal handler (aka your best friend/family member) so we’re not taking photos and holding a leash at the same time!
I hope these photos of some past engagement sessions give you a great starting point for your own engagement shoot! Feel free to save any of these photos to your own Pinterest board, or screenshot them to send to your photographer!
If you’re feeling slightly overwhelmed about the wedding planning process, I got you. Click here to check out 5 things you should do right after getting engaged. Loving the photos shared throughout this blog? Feel free to keep in touch, and give me a follow on Instagram!
And if you’re looking for a wedding photographer in Southern California, I’d love to chat! Use this link to get in touch!