Let’s talk ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS! This is one of my favorite things to chat about at wedding consultations because I genuinely believe in how important they are! In fact, I believe in them SO MUCH that I include a complimentary engagement session in each of my wedding collections as my gift to the couple! They’re that important!
So what kind of magic happens at these one hour sessions before your wedding day? We chat about your vision for the session–the kind of vibe you’re hoping for, the colors, the view, all the fun stuff! Then we meet at a location that speaks to you, and we make some beautiful photos of the two of you. A week after the session, you’ll get a gallery of about 30-40 photos that you’re welcome to use however you choose. In case that doesn’t sound perfect enough, I’m blogging today about my top THREE reasons that I think every couple needs an engagement session with their wedding photographer!
1) It gives you a chance to get comfortable in front of my camera! This is HUGE! On your wedding day, the very LAST thing you need to be nervous about at all is your portraits. Plenty of people are apprehensive about having their picture taken, myself included! But you know what helps? Practice! And that’s exactly what we do at an engagement session. Even if you think you don’t “need” engagement photos, I bet you could use a practice session to see what it feels like to be in front of the camera. And once you know that it’s easy as pie and relaxed, poof! Any anxiety you might have about photos goes away and you can focus on the important stuff on your wedding day. Like GETTING MARRIED!!
2) Engagement sessions give us time to figure out your most flattering poses, so you can jump right back into those during your wedding portraits. At the engagement session, I teach you EVERYTHING you need to know about how to pose effortlessly! By your wedding day, it all comes flooding back! Especially if you have a tighter timeline, this is SO helpful to make sure we can roll through your wedding portraits efficiently and smoothly with hardly any “warm up” time since that’s all happened at the engagement session!
3) MORE PICTURES! I know, this one is kind of obvious, but it’s also such a HUGE bonus! A lot of times newlyweds will be starting to decorate their new home, and I personally think that big printed portraits make the PERFECT artwork to decorate your walls! When you do an engagement session, you’ll have a ton of variety to choose from! Most of my clients use these photos in some way at the wedding, too: from Save the Dates to wedding websites, and on display at the wedding or in a signable guestbook. Chat with me if you have a specific idea about how you’d like to use your engagement photos so we can make sure to create the perfect photos for that!
You can schedule your engagement session anytime after you officially book your wedding with me. Typically, 6-12 months out is perfect, depending on the season and your planning timeline. That gives you plenty of time to use the photos on Save the Dates! And my turnaround on engagement sessions is only one week, so if you’re on a time crunch, no worries! I’ll get your photos back to you super quickly so that you can start sharing them before your wedding day!
Ready to talk more about an engagement session in Portland? Contact me and let’s start planning some magic!
